“Hall Pass,” filmed in Atlanta, a dreadful mess
See the Whynatte on the table? Nice product placement, bad film. Photo credit: imdb.com
“Hall Pass,” which was filmed in Atlanta and stars Owen Wilson, Jenna Fischer, Christina Applegate and Jason Sudeikis, is out this Friday. If Gov. Nathan Deal sees it he’s going to rush through an executive order rescinding filmmaker tax breaks in Georgia.
It’s that bad.
Wilson and Sudeikis play two married dudes whose eyes bug out of their heads every time a pretty young female crosses their paths. (Never mind their wives are the lovely Fischer and Applegate).
Fed up with with their husbands’ antics the girls give them a week off from their obligations as married men, thanks to the advice of their sage counselor neighbor played Joy Behar - who sticks around long enough for one scene and wisely exits.
(Alyssa Milano also makes a brief appearance. Actually, her massively enhanced chest does. We can’t remember if she even has any lines.)
Left to their own devices the guys defile a golf course, cruise for chicks at Applebee’s and end up realizing they love their families.
That’s not a spoiler – the movie is utterly predictable, and anyway, if you have any sense you’ll skip this Farrelly brothers heap that the New York Observer correctly calls “garbage waiting for the dump truck.” Thin plot, poor character development, toilet humor, cultural insensitivity, general raunchiness? Check, check, check, check, check.
While the movie is set in Rhode Island (mercifully) it was filmed here last year, so if you look closely you’ll spot some local landmarks. Let us be clear: this is a dreadful film and we recommend staring at the sun rather than spending money to go see it. However if you are kidnapped and forced to watch it at gunpoint, here are some local spots to look for. A club scene was shot at the Gold Room on Piedmont Avenue. During another scene the guys are chugging cans of Whynatte, the locally based coffee drink. Gwinnett Medical Center was the site for a hospital scene although it is changed to “Falmouth Hospital” for the film (Foul Mouth, get it? Clever).
And good old Johnny’s Hideway, that venerable lounge, gets huge love from the film. Unlike other places the filmmakers didn’t bother changing the name so Johnny’s sign is prominently featured a number of times.
We were told that after the scenes filmed there last year, the cast came back to Johnny’s just for fun. We’re guessing they needed a drink.
- Jennifer Brett/The Buzz/jbrett@ajc.com
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78 comments Add your comment
amy
February 23rd, 2011
10:32 am
i’m not a movie critic, nor do i play one on teevee, but i can tell just from the trailers that this movie is seriously awful, and i like moronic comedies…old adam sandler & chris farley movies, and the hangover was BRILLIANT. this one just looks really really painful and pathetically sad.
seabeau
February 23rd, 2011
10:36 am
Typical Hollywood Trash.
Hey wait a minute...
February 23rd, 2011
10:37 am
YOUR HUSBAND NEEDS A “HALL PASS” FROM YOUR BEOTCHING.
Brian D
February 23rd, 2011
10:45 am
The park scene was filmed at Peachtree Hills Park. I watched them film it. I am going to see if only to see the park. However, saying that, Film critics usually bash good movies that the general public likes. Did anyone see the Grammies? Critics picked a no name vs. some serious big names for best new artist. Why? B/c they are CRITICS! no thanks, I don’t buy/see movies based on what YOU think. I have an opinion let me make it up myself. Btw, thanks for ramming Tyler Perry’s crap movies down my throat too.
Nice job Jennifer, but swaying people from seeing this movie, probably just increased the studio’s revenue
Astrid G.
February 23rd, 2011
10:59 am
Critics don’t “pick Grammies”, Briand D. And again, Ms. Brett is a society writer, not a fim critic.
Brian D
February 23rd, 2011
11:03 am
and she is terrible
Patrick Romano WAR DAMN EAGLE
February 23rd, 2011
11:06 am
Enter your comments here LOST me at Joy Behar, What a dousche bag…Not getting of my hard earned $$$
HENRY
February 23rd, 2011
11:08 am
JENNIFER BRETT NEEDS TO GET A GRIP (AND MAYBE A MAN)………..ALL MEN ARE PIGS AND THIS FILM IS FOR US………..WE WILL LOVE IT………..ESPECIALLY WITH THE “ENHANCEMENTS”….GET IT JENNY? NOW, GO BACK TO WRITING YOUR STUPID LITTLE COLUMN AND FORGET ABOUT THE MEN………WE ARE JUST FINE WITH IT…………I’LL HAVE THE LARGE POPCORN AND TOP OFF THE MOVIE WITH A TRIP TO JOHNNYS……..I SPENT MANY PAY CHECKS THERE IN THE 70′S.
funnydude
February 23rd, 2011
11:17 am
Mrs Brett,There is a scene where someone relieves himself”explosively” on camara(lol)!?” Now that was a funny line. How wonder how the scene was written originally(lol)!
Grant Parker
February 23rd, 2011
11:17 am
I suspect Jennifer Brett speaks/thinks for a lot of us when she pans this movie (the word “film” is too hifalutin’ for this one). A critic she is not, and that is worth something to me.
funnydude
February 23rd, 2011
11:18 am
I wonder how the scene was written in script form?
Clay
February 23rd, 2011
11:28 am
I will see it one day jsut to check out the scenes shot at the Gwinnett Medical/Joan Glancy Campus in Duluth…
Snarky404
February 23rd, 2011
11:39 am
The people that defend movies like this are the same morons who have made hacks like Judd Apatow and Tyler Perry gazillionaires, and talentless slobs like Seth Rogan household names. Only in America.
RE SNARKY
February 23rd, 2011
11:42 am
What do you consider a good movie? Im intrested in knowing.
YOurs Truly
A guy who knows good movies.
RE HENRY
February 23rd, 2011
11:47 am
We should start our own chapter of “National Organization of Men Against Amazonian Masterhood”
NOMAAM!
Long live Al Bundy!
Mother Teresa
February 23rd, 2011
12:31 pm
I could barely make it through the trailer. What a pile of rubbish.
joe in tucker
February 23rd, 2011
12:53 pm
“See the Whynatte on the table?” – How? You think we have Electron Microscope type eyes?
Yuck....Yuck .... Yuck... I'm a vicdum of soicumstance !
February 23rd, 2011
1:06 pm
Sounds like the perfect film for fraternities and Howard Stern fans.
Ted Striker
February 23rd, 2011
1:18 pm
I take it you didn’t like the movie.
Kc
February 23rd, 2011
1:35 pm
Owen is funny – we will prob go see it and laugh a lot – : )
Jennifer Brett
February 23rd, 2011
2:14 pm
Dear Hey wait a minute… ,
Your comment made my husband (of 14 years) laugh out loud.
Jennifer
hokie4life
February 23rd, 2011
2:28 pm
WOW…so tell us how you REALLY feel!
MIke
February 23rd, 2011
2:57 pm
Wait. Let me see if I understand this. A woman….see’s a film about a group of guys running around town pretending they aren’t married for a week…..all the while talking and acting like guys….and this woman doesn’t like it.
I’m stunned.
Kyle
February 23rd, 2011
3:20 pm
Anytime a movie is up for an award it is something I would never bother to see so this might end up being good. At first a lot of these fools put down Raising Arizona and that was a classic movie with Jr. and H I.
Rule .303
February 23rd, 2011
3:51 pm
UGH, as a native Rhode Islander I want to root for the Farrelly brothers, but they haven’t come out with anything watchable since “Something About Mary,” which, admittedly, is one of my favorite comedies.
That said, an Applebee’s scene seems just about right; despite an excellent dining scene in RI that, to me, is far and away superior to Atlanta’s mainly because of a large Italian population and the presence of Johnson and Wales, Rhode Islanders are notorious for loving their chain restaurants.
Jen, are you related to a Boston Globe writer who has the same last name?
Mike
February 23rd, 2011
3:53 pm
The only reason I would see this movie is because “Rush Hour 3″ was on TV last night and I need to get that mess out of my head.
(My sincere apologies to Atlanta’s own Dana Ivey, who managed to keep a straight face in an awful scene as a French-speaking nun.)
2nd Cup
February 23rd, 2011
4:20 pm
Rotten Tomatoes has “Hall Pass” rated at 25% (for those who don’t follow, it’s the precentage of surveyed movie critics who give a movie a positive review, not what RT editors think of it). Lowbrow comedy can be good, but not if it’s going for Borscht Belt lowest-common-denominator antics. That’s not what I spend $10.50 on.
And Justin Beaver, nobody cares about you.
Tom
February 23rd, 2011
4:20 pm
First time I heard of Joy Behar having good taste. The last time I saw her she performed at a local strip clubs Christmas party back in 1992-1994 ish…