HALL PASS

If you look beyond the graphic humor, you find that there is actually a kind of squishy, sweet center to the whole thing.

After their smash hit, There's Something About Mary, which seems a million years ago, the Farrelly Brothers have struggled to keep their gross-out comedy fresh and funny. The truth is, since this type of comedy has become a trend, simply put, others have done it better since then (see Superbad, for instance). But with Hall Pass, if you look beyond the graphic humor, you find that there is actually a kind of squishy, sweet center to the whole thing.

Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis play Rick and Fred, two best buddies who have solid marriages with great wives, Maggie and Grace (Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate). In fact, their women are close to being saints in the world of guy-dom: They are both hot, funny, and supportive. So can you really blame the women when they get fed up that their guys keep oggling every piece of young female ass that walks past them? Maggie and Grace, out of frustration and annoyance, agree to give their men a "hall pass" for a week, aka a week off from marriage. Go out and chase some tail, they insist, get it out of your system and get over it! To the men, this is a gift handed to them from the gods.

Hall Pass unfolds over their week of freedom. The women go on a vacation of their own, not wanting to see what sort of havoc their guys wreak. Unsurprisingly, and refreshingly, the men prove inept at their wooing techniques. They are surprised, for instance, that 20-something hot chicks aren't particularly interested in an out-of-shape, desperate-looking 40-year-old suburban dad. Rick and Fred's buddies aren't much help either. Though they encourage the guys so they can live vicariously through their exploits (they do not have hall passes, to their dismay), sometimes the action only goes so far as overeating at Applebee's. But they have only a few days to get busy, so drastic measures must be taken.

As this is a Farrelly Brothers comedy, you will see, for instance, a masturbation scene, a very large penis near Owen Wilson's face, some breasts, graphic verbal jokes, and exploding poo. But I found it surprising that none of it shocked me or particularly appalled me. I wasn't sure if the Farrellys were getting softer in their crudeness, or maybe the dozen or so years since Mary have hardened me against gross humor. But I thought Hall Pass was kind of sweet. Heck, I even watched the "Enlarged" extended edition (6 minutes longer than the theatrical version, both on the Blu-Ray), and there was nothing that appalled me so much that I threw my shoe at the screen. Hall Pass is actually an ode to happy monogamy and true partnership, with both the men and women learning their own lessons during their week off. Count me surprised!

BLU-RAY AND DVD NOTES

The extras are sparse here. Of most interest are a couple deleted scenes with Richard Jenkins' hilariously unexpected God-like womanizer Coakley, with a character introduction (that was kind of weak), and a scene of him being pulled over driving, which was pretty funny and wrong. Plus there are some uninteresting bloopers. That's it!

[Hall Pass is available as Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD and Digital Download on June 14, 2011.]