At the Movies with Fatwayne

Two middle age married men are granted their dream of receiving a “hall pass” from their wives. It seems that this pass gives them a week free from the responsibilities of marriage (and I mean all responsibilities). In their juvenile minds they picture their macho past through much rosier glasses then what actually occurred. So they see themselves scoring with beautiful young women and boozing all night. Man, what a week this is going to be!

How did we get to this point? Our two guys, Rick (Owen Wilson) and Fred (Jason Sudeikis) both in their 40′s and after years of marriage are still acting like hormonal teenagers. They ogle every girl who passes by and talk among themselves just as they might have as freshmen in high school. For Fred’s part, he asks every one of his male pals “did you get any action last night?” Not to be outdone, Rick is riding in his car and can’t help but check out a sexy woman he passes giving her the double take and causing his wife to respond, “Driving in a car with you is like riding with a horny bobblehead!”.

As the guys continue to behave rudely (and crudely), their wives are becoming both annoyed and embarrassed. Maggie (Jenna Fischer) plays Rick’s wife and Grace (Christina Applegate) is married to Fred. Their friend and therapist Dr. Lucy (Joy Behar) suggest that they issue the husbands hall passes. The thinking is that if they really had the freedom to chase women and hang out all night with their buddies they would discover that this is not what they really want and thus their juvenile fantasies would fade away.

The girls decide to go out of town to Maggie’s  childhood home leaving the guys to fend for themselves. This is where the fun begins. They team up with their poker buddies so that there will be witnesses to their manly exploits. The first night they eat and drink themsleves into a stupor and wind up crashing around 9:15. They reason that this is only the first night and they have a whole week.

Most to their attempts to “get laid” are very funny and really quite lame. Even when things look sort of promising for them they are plagued by nagging feelings of guilt despite their free pass. They meet some really weird characters during their special week and the audience is treated to numerous laughs and gross out scenes. This you would expect from a Farrelley brothers movie.

I did think that the final part of the movie was too over the top even for the Farrelleys. Gun fights and police chases just seemed out of place for this sex comedy romp. But, hey, that’s just my opinion.

Rated  – R -

Fatwayne’s Rating

 -  -