Hall Pass (2011)
Directed by Bobby Farrelly
When best buds Rick and Fred begin to show signs of restlessness at home, their wives take a bold approach to revitalize their marriages, they grant the guys a 'hall pass'—one week of freedom to do whatever they want. At first, it seems like a dream come true, but they quickly discover that their expectations of the single life—and themselves—are completely and hilariously out of sync with reality.
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The awkward combination of gross-out gags and an almost sugary tone is no surprise, coming from writing/directing team Bobby and Peter Farrelly (There’s Something About Mary), and the crude humour and raunchy dialogue will delight fans of Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen (admirers of The 40-Year-Old Virgin will not be disappointed).
This latest bit of naughty cinema never matches the heights of Judd Apatow’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin or the Farrellys’ own There’s Something About Mary, although it comes close in a few scenes.
Three years after fellow '90s scatalogical auteur Kevin Smith tried to mine the gentler Apatovian landscape of bro-medy with "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," the brothers do likewise here, losing most of their trademark grotesqueries and casting Owen Wilson in the lead as Rick, a badly dressed, rather relatable father of three.
But their quest escalates when they hook up with player extraordinaire Coakley – an eye-popping performance by the always dependable Richard Jenkins (Let Me In, Step Brothers) as a kind of sleazy wizard (imagine Obi-Wan Kenobi in a T-shirt wielding a vengeful boner instead of a lightsaber).