The House is a Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler comedy about a couple who start a casino with their friend, so that they can pay for their daughter's college tuition.
You know that small plot summary I gave you, that's almost all the film makers give us aswell. The first 15 minutes or so are setting up that premise, then it's mainly jokes, set pieces and improve scenes for the next hour. Then, for the last 15 minutes, there is some very rushed story wrapping up for lazily set up plot lines. Maybe halfway through the film is the funniest part of the film (which is apparently in the red band trailer), during which there is a reference to "the mob". After this it's not brought up again until a forced cameo about 15 minutes from the end. There is also a storyline to do with local council corruption and infidelity that is so infrequently seen, every time the film goes back to it (which isn't very often) I would think "Oh yeah, Nick Kroll is in this. And they're wasting Alison Tollman" who was great in season 1 of Fargo.
But I didn't care about most of that stuff because it made be laugh enough times. Though if the finger scene is in the trailer, you have seen the best part and there are no other jokes as good. It won't go down as a comedy classic but the second half was funny enough. The first half, however, had way too many jokes without punchlines. There's set up, but nothing else. It's almost as if the writers had not reached the lesson on punchlines in their course on writing jokes.
Oh, and Jason Mantzoukas is easily the best part.
In short: The House would probably be best viewed on a streaming site.
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