"Getty, Getty, no wanty": Hall Pass - Official Trailer [HD]

My horrible use of Jamaican vernacular aside (the first half of that title line is a Jamaican saying that goes "Wanty, wanty, cyaan getty"), the Farrellys have pretty much played their formula out with this movie: body function and crude sexual reference mixed with sitcom-type resolutions and morality plays.

Their attention this time turns to sexual politics among married whites (the token Black guy here isn't of much use and the "cool" guy who's actually supposed to save the day is........Richard Jenkins - WTF?)

Anyway, Rick (Owen Wilson) and Fred (Jason Sudeikis) are married, approaching 40, living the 21st Century version of the American Dream. Their loving wives (Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate respectively), haven't been too "loving" for some time, and the guys  - naturally resort to much of the behaviours typical of the sex-starved: ogling other women openly (or with some degree of subterfuge) and trading jokes about their neighbours' partners.

As this precipitates a crisis, the spouses, one by one, heeding the "advice" of a noted TV relationship counsellor (breezily played by The View co-host Joy Behar) give their husbands the Hall pass of the title: one week to behave as if they were not married, and therefore free to do as they like.

So, what do these randy "newly-free" men decide to do with their marital shore leave?: eat fast food (lots); go golfing, sleep and eat more fast food. The eventually hit a singles bar, with disastrous results. The two ladies, meanwhile, having decamped a suitable distance, are themselves receiving unintended attention from a baseball player and his coach.

On its own, there's hardly anything in "Hall Pass' to make the even mildly serious viewer say "Who Cares?" and the sight of a man defecating in a sand trap, or a woman receiving fake oral sex ("fake chow" as Fred describes it) is not enough t move us anymore. Credit mostly to the two male leads for swinging hard with their respective roles: like the salesmen they portray in the film, they are slick and affable with out being either offensive or bland - no easy feat in a comedic set up such as this one.

Hall Pass is kind of like a fart joke or body sound effect played once too often: yeh, we got it, okay. Please stop now, and move on, other wise just shut up.