The House, with Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Jason Mantzoukas. Directed by Andrew Jay Cohen.
2.5/5
IF The House is any indication, Will Ferrell has run out of laughs with his man-child shtick.
And this comes from someone who enjoyed much of Ferrell’s comedy career, from his early days at Saturday Night Live (SNL) to movies like Old School, Anchorman, Wedding Crashers, Blades of Glory, excellent voice work for the animated movie Megamind, and even a more serious role in Everything Must Go.
Most of his comedy has been over-the-top ridiculousness that defies reality, but it was really funny, sometimes inducing bust-a-gut laughter.
Watching him in The House the humour feels old and dull – we’ve seen it all before. No matter how gross-out and ridiculous they try to be, it falls flat.
Ferrell and fellow SNL alumnus Amy Poehler play Scott and Kate Johansen, parents of a bright young daughter Alex (Ryan Simpkins), who has just finished high school and is keen to attend university.
The Johansens are counting on their daughter being awarded an annual scholarship by their town, but are shocked at a town hall meeting to find out the scholarship has been done away with as money is being spent on an elaborate waterpark – an idea pushed by the town council director Bob Schaeffer (Nick Kroll).
[pullquote]Lots of slapstick, lots of gross humour, but not very funny[/pullquote]
Looking for alternate means of funding Alex’s college ambitions turns up dead ends.
Persuaded by their depressed gambling addict friend Frank Theodorakis (Jason Mantzoukas) to accompany him on a trip to Las Vegas, the Johansens first win big but then Scott breaks their lucky streak.
However, they hit upon the idea of starting their own illegal casino as “the house always wins”. Drawing a few friends and neighbours proves fairly easy, and they devise an elaborate way of getting to the gambling den so as not to draw the attention of the authorities.
Starting out low-key and rustic, Frank gradually turns his home-casino into a more high-end and glitzy joint by reinvesting the winnings into the décor and equipment.
When it starts to attract outsiders, like a card-counter with ties to a crime syndicate, Frank and the Johansens run into problems.
Low attendance at the next town hall meeting arouses the suspicions of councilman Schaeffer, and police officer Chandler (Rob Huebel) sniffs out something fishy about the number of cars that park at the supermarket.
It all comes to a head when mobster Tommy (Jeremy Renner) crashes the party.
Lots of slapstick, lots of gross humour, but not very funny.
