Review of The House (2017) by Patrick L — 20 Oct 2017

"All bets are definitely off. This "House" stinks!".

Movie Review: The House.

Date Viewed: June 30 2017.

Directed By Andrew Jay Cohen.

Written By Brendan O'Brien and Andrew Jay Cohen.

Starring: Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Jason Mantzoukas, Nick Kroll, Ryan Simpkins, Allison Tolman, Michaela Watkins, Cedric Yarbrough, Andy Buckley, Rob Huebel, Lennon Parham, Andrea Savage and Jeremy Renner.

"The House" could've been a good movie if it were a whole other movie. This picture gambles all the way with a story about a mild-mannered married couple who can't afford to pay their daughter's college tuition so they set up an illegal casino in the hope that it pays off. If "The House" had been a movie about parents protesting the right to make college more affordable to our youth then maybe something could've come out of it but as is it's just a by-the-numbers, raunchy comedy with zero laughs. This run-of-the-mill comedy has several funny people in it including Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Nick Kroll, Allison Tolman, Michaela Watkins and Rob Huebel. I'm excluding Jason Mantzoukas from the group because he's never funny in anything and let's not forget he played a crazy drug dealer in last year's "Dirty Grandpa".

Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler can be very funny when given the right material but "The House" generates no laughs whatsoever. The film was directed by Andrew Jay Cohen who with his writing partner Brendan O'Brien wrote "Neighbors" which was funny and "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates" which was dreadfully unfunny. I wouldn't place any bets on this picture because it really stinks.

Ferrell and Poehler play Scott and Kate Johansen, a middle-aged suburban couple who are excited that their daughter is going to the best college around but here's just one problem, for some reason they don't have the money to pay for her college tuition. Scott and Kate live in a small, leafy town named Fox Meadow and they are friends to Frank Theodorakis (Mantzoukas), a gambling and porn addict and he plans on taking them to Las Vegas for a good night out. After their night at the casino doesn't end well, Scott, Kate and Frank hatch up a scheme to set up an illegal casino and gambling ring in Frank's own basement. The three schemers even invite their friends and neighbors to go along for the ride and you know for two suburbanite parents who are against the system at City Hall, they sure do know how to become the system real fast.

They directly profit from and take advantage of their friends and neighbors by basically becoming Robert De Niro from "Casino". Meanwhile, a corrupt, A-hole city councilman named Bob Schaeffer (Nick Kroll) becomes suspicious of Scott and Kate's activities after he notices that few people are showing up to his city council meetings. Bob Schaeffer is the real system Scott and Kate are up against because he's using city money to pay for his huge and luxurious pool.

I mentioned that Scott and Kate take advantage of their friends and neighbors, not only that they also beat the s$&@ out of them for failing to pay their dues because Hey! They are the system and behaving like De Niro in "Casino". This one-joke premise might've gone somewhere if it were a movie about America's troubled social and economic class but it only comes off as a wasted opportunity for everybody involved.

Ferrell and Poehler mostly zombie-walk through their roles, Mantzoukas as usual is never funny, Nick Kroll is just being Nick Kroll and Oscar-nominee Jeremy Renner makes a pointless cameo appearance as a local mob boss.

The screenplay hits it's craps directly but at all the wrong places. There's also a really grisly sequence where Will Ferrell accidentally axes off a guy's finger and blood squirts all over him. A comedy like this can have a grisly sequence or two but this one is so extreme even "Casino" director Martin Scorsese will label it as vile and gross. I heard a ton of laughs during my screening but what's there to laugh at? "The House" is a comedy that's so beyond repair not even a carpenter let alone a better screenwriter wouldn't be able to fix it.

With sub-par or terrible work such as "Get Hard", "Daddy's Home", "Zoolander 2" and this film, I really think Will Ferrell is starting to break faith with his audience. Think about that, he's too good of a writer himself "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" and "Talladega Nights" not to know that this script really blew the dice. Nobody is winning any comedy gold here because "The House" doesn't know how to take any chances.