There is a good comedy film somewhere in The House, a movie about two loving parents Scott and Kate Johansen, played by comic greats Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler, who resort to operating an underground casino in their friend's (Jason Mantzoukas) home in order to pay off their only child Alex (Ryan Simpkins) college tuition fund.
There are some little funny moments in the film especially when Ferrell and Poehler are on the screen as parents. You can tell that some scenes are improvised and it works well. Another comic genius, Nick Kroll is in the film playing a corrupt local politician. He provides some spark in this film.
The problem though with The House is that for a film with a short running time (88 minutes to be exact), it felt dreary. The scenes, especially in the underground casino just felt too long and there's a lot of unnecessary violence that's just too gross and repetitive. Not an even a glorified cameo by two time Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner, channeling his character in 2010's The Town can save the film. There should have more scenes with him.
Writer Andrew John Cohen, making his directorial debut, penned the excellent Seth Rogen and Zac Efron's Neighbors (2014). Unfortunately, he also did wrote it's poorly written sequel last year as well as the dreadful Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates also starring Efron. The House falls into the second category. Cohen has promise but hopefully on his next film project, he can do better than this. The same goes for Ferrell and Poehler.
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