Hall Pass: now on DVD

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my rating: 2 out of 5
Thinking of a hall pass in middle school / high school is not a good memory. It always makes me think of the dirty, smoke-filled public school bathrooms and the strict, overbearing teachers who were afraid to let anyone leave the classroom for five minutes.
In the movie Hall Pass, a "hall pass" is supposed to be a good thing. Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis (SNL) are growing restless in their marriages. Their wives, Christina Applegate and Jenna Fischer (The Office) are convinced by a psychologist that giving their husbands a week off from marriage to pursue any girls they want (aka - a hall pass) will be good for their marriages. So, the hilarious ensues? Not really. Take a rated R sitcom and mix it with a terrible Saturday Night Live Sketch, and...wah-LA! Hall Pass.
Hall Pass tried desperately to make the characters interesting. But, it resorts to cheap laughs and dirty poo-poo pee-pee jokes to carry it along. None of the characters behave respectably or have any moral aptitude that is admirable. But, in the end, of course, they "realize how important everything is" and make up.
After a few bumbling and failed attempts to pick up women, the boys (Owen and Jason) employ the help of their "expert lady lover" friend, Coakley (played wonderfully by Richard Jenkins???) to help them get back into the game. This has mixed results, and both men get caught up in a nasty mess of trouble.
I don't know who the target audience is for Hall Pass. While I can relate to young married men in this movie in some ways (I'm younger than the main characters in the movie, though), I mostly don't understand why two wives would allow their husbands to run wild for a week. I guess if you're at that point, a divorce is a better idea.
Of course, the "humor" is totally filthy throughout. I suppose it is assumed by the makers of this movie that an audience will not laugh unless the jokes are filthy. And, cheap laughs always go for shock value rather than real humor. Skip this movie. I didn't even include the trailer on this review because it was too dirty. Yuck. Do yourself a favor, and give yourself a "hall pass" from Hall Pass. (That was funny, right?)

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