Never been gambling at a casino yet. A part of me thinks I will be terrible at it and will lose all of my money in the span of three minutes. Much so like the newest comedy The House, it lost anything that was remotely funny in about 10 minutes.
After finding out that they can’t pay for their daughter’s college tuition, Scott (Will Ferrell) and Kate Johansen open up an underground casino in their friend’s house to send her to school.
That premise doesn’t necessarily sound too bad. This comes from first time director Andrew J. Cohen, who wrote both Neighbors films and Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, which should be something that could be a laugh riot, especially with a funny cast of talented comedians. Though none of the trailers didn’t make me convinced, maybe this could surprise. However, this was one of the most tasteless comedies to come out this year.
Was story anything to get worked up about? Was there a story to begin with? Everybody from the neighborhood comes to the casino where they can gamble, bet on fights against friends, you can name it. Those shenanigans just get ridiculous. That scene from the trailers where they rip-off Casino as the guys interrogates someone for counting cards. That bit went on for so long and it wasn’t really funny, to begin with.
As much as I love both Ferrell and Poehler, they were kind of unbelievable as this couple. The relationship between them and their daughter is fine enough, but it’s usually awkward with certain scenes. The performances from Ferrell and Poehler were a little meh.
Jason Mantzoukas was easily the best part of the whole thing. He’s the one who came up with the idea of making his house a secret casino. Ironically, he’s a gambling addict who doesn’t gamble with this scheme. He was really annoying in Dirty Grandpa, but he’s at least trying to deliver some funny lines, even though nothing made me chuckle.
How many times did I chuckle? Probably at least twice. I mean, this wasn’t funny at all. All of the jokes are very dull and pathetic. This script by Cohen and Brendan O’Brien just wasted both of the some of the funniest SNL alums that feels like they didn’t want to be in this. And half the time, it felt like a lot of improvising that shouldn’t have been included. Like, the running gag with Ferrell being really bad at math felt useless.
This just ends up being a forgettable comedy that totally doesn’t land at any moment. Just proves that nobody cared about The House coming out, and it shows why. I guess the house doesn’t always win (cue Won’t Get Fooled Again). Also, if you have a bad comedy on your hands, just show outtakes at the end just so people will have something to laugh at.
The House is left empty-handed as it contains dry humor that came with no story which has its comical leads nothing to work with.
Grade: D+
DC's Take 