Hall Pass

The Synopsis
Rick (Owen Wilson) and Fred (Jason Sudeikis) are two married men who can't help but look at other women. This becomes such an issue that their wives Maggie (Jenna Fischer) and Grace (Christina Applegate) give them Hall Passes from their marriage for one week, allowing them to do whatever they want as if they weren't married to get it out of their system.

The Review
When I first restarted this film review blog I was concerned that all I ever seemed to be doing was giving good reviews to films. I began to question how my integrity would look if I just continued dishing out the four and five faces. However, over the past couple of weeks I've been reassured as I've realised that it wasn't necessarily bad reviewing on my part but rather they had just been a little slow in bringing out the bad films for 2011. They are arriving now.

Now you don't need to be a brain surgeon to work out how this film is going to pan out. It's pretty much obvious from the beginning. So why oh why did they insist on dragging the whole process out for so long? Little tip to 'Hall Pass' people, if the film has me and Film-Buddy-Kezia sinking to the bottom of our seats about three quarters in exclaiming we're bored, then you've done something wrong at some point. I mean the fact that the film had lasted for about an hour before the hall pass had even began just showed that these are people who like to rinse something within an inch of it's life.

It's really annoying because all of the actors in this film I like. I have seen them all in other things that have made me wet my pants. Maybe that's the reason why I was so disappointed, I had gone in with too high expectations.

There were some mildly funny points, and even two very funny points (two imagination sequences of what could happen should the particular character make a certain decision). But the rest just seemed like they were trying too hard. Steven Merchant, who had a minor part and was the largest reason why I had wanted to see this film in the first place did have some good moments but he was in it for a total of five minutes which again, I fear, was bad judgement on their part.

Film-Buddy-Kezia summed it up at the end of the movie by saying 'If they had ended that half an hour earlier, it may have been an okay film.' Was quite shocked however when I noticed we had only been in the cinema for an hour and a half rather than the three hours it had felt like. I guess they would also have had to make it good as well.

Apologies for the ruthlessness of this review. It was kinda harsh. Alas no surprises I'm sure though when I say, one face from me.