by Diana Vaccarelli
—SPOILER ALERT—SPOILER ALERT—SPOILER ALERT—SPOILER ALERT–
Last weekend, The House, starring Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler, opened in theaters all around the U.S. This film follows Ferrell and Poehler as Scott and Kate Johansen, who find out that their daughter Alex has lost the town scholarship that has made it possible for her to pay for her college tuition.
Since Will and Amy can’t afford said tuition, they get to work raising the money. Hijinks ensue as they decide to open an underground casino.
THE GOOD:
- The concept is relevant to today. The struggle to pay a college tuition and the hardship it can bring into a family’s life are are part of our current middleclass crisis. Millions of Americans can and, unfortunately do, relate to it.
THE BAD:
- Writer/Director Andrew Jay Cohen script can’t seem to pull off the laughs that we are used to from his previously work on Neighbors and Neighbors 2. As I entered the multiplex I was expecting to find myself rolling on the floor laughing when the film bagan. However, as you can tell reading this review – and from the fact that you probably haven’t found many other reviews of this, um, well, a disaster is what The House is – I never fell down laughing. Not once. In fact, I didn’t laugh at all.
- Probably the worst part of the whole thing was when Ferrell character Scott transforms into a butcher and cuts someone’s finger off… and then promptly chops off the arm of another character. The blood shoots everywhere, and while I would like to believe that was an attempt to establish that this is comedy and therefore fake and acceptable, you know what? It wasn’t, and isn’t acceptable. Not one bit.
- I’ll spare you more details because I don’t want The House to ruin your day as much as it ruined mine.
THE REST:
If you want to enjoy a new film, The House is not for you. In fact, it isn’t for anybody, for any reason whatsoever. To put in the simplest of terms, this film is a redefinition of the word “awful.” I definitely do not recommend it.
Diana Vaccarelli is TVWriter™’s Critic-at-Large and a student in the TVWriter™ Online Workshop. Find out more about her HERE