Film Review: The House

"You Wanna Make Money Like Vegas? You Gotta Look Like Vegas..."

Written and directed by Andrew J. Cohen. a filmmaker best known for his writing credits on both the Seth Rogen starring Bad Neighbours and its' 2016 sequel, The House brings with it that sanctimonious air of contemporary American comedy which to myself and perhaps many others, just doesn't tend to work whatsoever, with the formula tending to utilise a wide range of immature and cringe-worthy traits instead of a well calculated and set up comedic routine. On the other hand, these expectations sometimes result in slices of humble pie being handed out, with films such as Bad Moms proving that not every American comedy can be classed as complete and total trash, and whilst The House features Will Ferrell in a leading role, an actor who tends to be present in more bad films than good, I'm ready to be cautiously optimistic. Unfortunately for The House, the riveting sense of optimism was swiftly squandered approximately around the five minute mark when the film offered itself in its' true form, with Cohen's movie lacking not only an effective script or set pieces which feature within the realm of normality, but The House is most crucially a comedy which just isn't funny. At. All.

Whilst the film wants you to believe that it does indeed have a narrative at its' very core, slipping in a plot regarding tuition fees and a underground casino ran by Ferrell and Poehler's idiotic parents, The House is obviously much more interested in attempting to reenact scenes from classic movies such as Scorsese's Goodfellas and Casino, The Godfather and The Sopranos, all of which are turned up to eleven in terms of vulgarity and stupidity, whilst the tone and overall awfulness of the film really does not deserve to have the financial reasoning to jackhammer in a soundtrack which features tracks which are iconic in their usage within classic movies which are leagues above The House in terms of execution and longevity. As stated previously, the complete absence of comedy ultimately results in not only an eerie sense of silence from the film's audience but scenes which tend to become cringe-worthy instead of the hoot the filmmakers really believed they would appear to the suckers who have paid to watch such a mess of a film. The House isn't exactly the worst film of the year, just probably the worst comedy, proving that it really isn't just me that needs to wise up to American comedy, it's just plain awful.

Overall Score: 3/10