The House - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The House

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
You really should know what you’re getting into when you watch a modern Will Ferrell movie. The man hasn’t changed much since his peak, and he continues to pump out the same regurgitated films year after year. He’s a tall 6 foot plus man child who makes stupid statements while running around and making an idiot of himself. In many cases this actually works, as the man make a career off of that (Old School is still one of my favorite comedies of his, and his work on Celebrity Jeopardy for SNL is something I’ll watch and rewatch time and time again), but the shtick has grown a bit old over the years, and not much new is interjected into his comedy style. Amy Poehler is an incredibly talented comedian, and has made a wonderful career for her deadpan style of comedy, which is actually what attracted me to The House. Unfortunately it turns out that The House is just another run of the mill comedy from Will and Amy, with a small amount of laughs that are all spoiled in the trailer (except for a few), and a fairly throwaway rental quality to it.

Scott (Will Ferrell) and Kate (Amy Poehler) Johansen are at that age where their only daughter, Alex (Ryan Simpkins) is about to head off to college. The only thing is that their town’s annual scholarship for a college freshman program has just been canceled by the sleazy head of the town board, Bob (Nick Kroll). This leaves the poor couple unable to expend the enormous expense that is college tuition for their daughter. Refusing to give up the good fight, Scott and Kate team up with their emotionally stunted friend and neighbor, Frank (Jason Mantzoukas), to create an illegal gambling ring to raise the money in a short month.

Like all of these get rich schemes, nothing goes as planned. What seems like some easy money turns into being a really tough job. The makeshift Casino is run entirely by Frank, who maniacally “spends money to make money”, and no one expected the introduction of cheats, gangsters and crooked city councilmen to boot. Soon Frank, Kate and Scott are getting deeper and deeper into the thick of their criminal personas, with Scott becoming the local enforcer, and Kate smoking more weed than a hipster at Burning Man. To make matters worse, Alex is getting suspicious of her parents working late hours and the couple can barely keep a lid on their own shenanigans, let alone take care of their daughter and alleviate her suspicions.

Well, there’s not really much to say here. The House is a straight forward comedy with Will and Amy taking the leads in this stupid little comedy. While I love stupid comedies (I cut my teeth on them), this one just feels like a throwaway film. The extraordinary scheme that Scott and Kate cook up with Frank is so ridiculous and full of holes that I honestly couldn’t even begin to count them all by the halfway point in the film. The script writing is just plain awful, with Will and Amy ad libbing what appears like most of their lines, and the whole experience feeling like a tacked on improv special. Jason is his normal over the top self, but the real laughs actually come from the side characters, especially one that involves a cameo by Jeremy Renner.

Sadly there’s not a whole lot of laughs in the film either. I can stand stupid if its funny, but most of the laughs occur in the trailer (except for a cookie monster joke halfway through the film), and the rest of the time is so nonsensical. Don’t get me wrong, I chuckled a good amount of the time, but only because I purposefully left my brain at the door and had about 3 shots of high class bourbon as I started the film. If I had to say anything, it is that Amy and Will just went on auto pilot, saying outrageous things in hopes that the audience would laugh. This is nowhere near as bad as your typical Adam Sandler movie, but I really would have liked to have seen more effort from a talented cast of comedians.




Rating:

Rated R for language throughout, sexual references, drug use, some violence and brief nudity.



Video:

The House is another in a long line of digital films that was finished an unknown resolution master (at least IMDB and my sources can’t seem to find any concrete information), but I’m relatively certain this is a modern day digital shoot. The 2.39:1 AVC encoded Blu-ray is fantastic to the eyes, and is about as crystal clear and sharp as you’re going to see in a new comedy film. The movie hasn’t been wildly color graded and looks neutral to my eyes. The movie has a lot of reds, golds and dark blues to it, but all colors presented on screen are sharp and clean, with emphasis on bright red blood coming from a fist fight (a little over exaggerated, but lovely to look at) and fine detail is exemplary throughout. Intimate details such as clothing and the blue flame of a hand held torch show up incredibly well, and even Will Ferrell’s face is finally starting to show some decent age marks. Black levels are deep and inky, and I could find no major artifacting to be of any concern. Basically, an all around great looking transfer.





Audio:

Warner brothers never fails to impress, and the 5.1 DTS-HD MA track present on The House is a very rambunctious and invigorating audio experience. The film can be rather front heavy at times, but don’t dismiss it, for when the couple of schemers actually get into the casino game the audio track kicks it up a few notches. A girl on girl knockout fight rocks the surrounds and LFE, while some heaving hitting action scenes (including a hatchet cutting off someone’s finger) allow for a very spacious sounding environment. The score itself is chock full of bass and flows evenly through all 6 main speakers with relative ease. It switches seamlessly from a dialog centric discussion (which is picture perfect by the way) to a full on casino with people yelling in the background and music blaring all around at the drop of a hat, all within the space of a few seconds.




Extras:

• The House: Playing with a Loaded Deck - Pranks, practical jokes and unpredictability. Watch Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Jason Mantzoukas and a full house of all-star comedians go all in during this hilarious and highly inappropriate look backstage that you won’t be able to unsee.
• If You Build The House They Will Come - Discover how the cast and crew transformed an ordinary quiet suburban house to a full-blown underground Vegas-style casino complete with high-roller tables, a pool party and Fight Night, and how the cast went to poker school, learning to place their bets from the pros.
• Deleted Scenes
• Extended/Alternate Scenes
• Gag Reel
• Line-O-Ramas

Final Score: ​

The House is not a great movie. In fact, it’s not even a GOOD movie. Will Ferrell does what Will Ferrell has done for the last 10 years, and that is just run around acting like an unfunny man child. Amy Poehler sadly doesn’t deliver like she usually does, and the script is simply abysmal. However, from a completely primal and lazy point of view, there was enough laughs to keep me engaged for the whole movie. It’s not going to become a classic, or even be THAT funny, but I chuckled along at the stupidity and didn’t feel like yanking my hair out, so I would probably say it’s worth a decent rental if you like stupid comedies. The audio and video being top notch don’t hurt either.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Amy Poehler, Will Ferrell, Ryan Simpkins
Directed by: Andrew Jay Cohen
Written by: Andrew J. Cohen, Brendan O'Brien
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish, Portuguese, English DVS Dolby Digital 5.1
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 88 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: Own The House on Blu-ray and DVD on October 10, or Own It Now on Digital HD!

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Weak Rental

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I will skip this one.. I can only talk so much of Will Ferrell. lol.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Oh Will Farrell!!! What has happened to you????