House, The (Blu-ray) (2017) |
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House, The (Blu-ray) (2017) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Comedy |
Featurette-Behind The Scenes-The House: Playing with a Loaded Deck Featurette-Behind The Scenes-If You Build the House, They Will Come Deleted Scenes Additional Footage-Extended/Alternate Scenes Outtakes Additional Footage-Line-O-Ramas |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2017 | ||
| Running Time | 88:09 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | Dual Layered | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | Directed By | Andrew Jay Cohen |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Roadshow Home Entertainment |
Starring |
Will Ferrell Amy Poehler Jason Mantzoukas Ryan Simpkins Nick Kroll Allison Tolman Rob Huebel Christina Offley Jessie Ennis Rory Scovel |
| Case | Standard Blu-ray | ||
| RPI | $29.95 | Music |
Andrew Feltenstein John Nau |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 French Dolby Digital 5.1 German Dolby Digital 5.1 |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.40:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 1080p | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.40:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English for the Hearing Impaired French German for the Hearing Impaired Dutch Danish Finnish Icelandic Norwegian Swedish |
Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes | ||
On the surface, 2017’s The House ostensibly had all the right ingredients to become an instant dark comedy classic. But despite the presence of Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler, plus a colourful supporting cast of recognisable names and a promising comedic plot, The House falls flat for the most part - it comes up dangerously short in terms of laughs, and feels much longer than its comparatively scant 88-minute running time. Making his directorial debut, Andrew Jay Cohen (who also co-wrote the script) is unable to achieve an agreeable rhythm as the movie meanders from one undisciplined scene to the next, never quite coming together in the end. Even the ordinarily reliable actors are powerless here, struggling to come up with any witty, well-timed jokes. It’s certainly telling that even though these types of comedies are usually critic-proof, The House tanked at the box office without a trace, grossing a pathetic $34 million worldwide against its modest $40 million budget.
With Alex (Ryan Simpkins) graduating high school and looking to attend a prestigious college, her parents Scott (Ferrell) and Kate (Poehler) count on the local council’s scholarship to pay for her tuition. However, even though Alex is chosen as the recipient for the scholarship, crooked city councillor Bob Schaeffer (Nick Kroll) axes the program to use the funds elsewhere. With no way to pay for Alex’s tuition by themselves, Scott and Kate turn to their depressed pal Frank (Jason Mantzoukas), who has a crippling gambling problem. After suffering bad luck in Las Vegas, the trio choose to open their own illegal underground casino in Frank’s house to raise the required funds to put Alex through college. But of course it doesn’t go as smoothly as expected - Scott and Kate bear witness to some insane behaviour, and strange goings-on around town pique the curiosity of local police officer Chandler (Rob Huebel).
Despite a screenplay credited to Brendan O’Brien and Cohen (who scripted Bad Neighbours), it’s apparent that the actors were relied upon to deliver all of the laughs through improvisation, as not much wit is on display here. Unfortunately, The House also falls victim to a common fault in contemporary comedy: it’s over-plotted. The prospect of starting an illegal underground casino should have been sufficient to see the movie through, but the narrative is further complicated by a corrupt councilman embezzling funds and having an affair with the town treasurer (Allison Tolman), while Officer Chandler is unsure where his loyalties should lie. And, honestly, the whole thing puts a damper on the sense of fun. Another conflict is introduced involving gangsters (led by Jeremy Renner) that has comedic potential, but it’s dealt with in a few short scenes, after which the focus returns to Bob’s corruption. Meanwhile, the movie skips over the actual construction of the casino and doesn’t explore how the casino manages to attract such a large clientele so quickly. There is even a half-hearted attempt at emotion at the very end that just comes across as forced and unearned.
It may be understandable that Cohen relied so heavily on the talented actors to create all of the laughs, given that Ferrell and Poehler are joined by the likes of Kroll, Mantzoukas and Renner among a number of others, but it’s too transparently improvisational and the material is way too hit-and-miss. Indeed, you can actually see the actors trying their hardest to come up with something funny at every turn, which takes you out of the movie and spoils the comedic timing. You can certainly sense Cohen’s directorial inexperience throughout The House. It doesn’t help that the movie’s cinematographic style is so excessively basic and vanilla, in need of more style and personality. Put simply, it doesn’t look overly cinematic, though the original score by Andrew Feltenstein and John Nau (Anchorman 2) is admittedly agreeable and effective. Young Simpkins is about the only performer on-screen who isn’t actually in on the joke, serving as the straight man to the insanity unfolding around her. Gags may land here and there (though that’s subjective, of course), but nothing is overly memorable and there are no meaty belly-laughs. You’ll be hard-pressed to recall any funny moments - or anything about the movie at all - mere minutes after viewing it.
The House was actually shot in late 2015/early 2016 before going through almost 18 months of post-production, which is frankly mindboggling for a simple comedy like this. Evidently, the filmmakers had a tough time finding the movie in the edit, and the final result speaks for itself. Even the bloopers during the end credits fail to provide much in the way of laughs. Still, for all of its shortcomings and flaws, at least The House isn’t obnoxiously terrible or offensive. To be sure, it’s not funny enough and pacing should be tauter, but it still has its entertaining moments and highlights, intermittent though they may be, and at least it’s not a pointlessly neutered PG-13 comedy. The actors all appear to be giving it their all, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that The House should be a hell of a lot better considering the talent involved.
The House arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Roadshow Entertainment with a better-than-average AVC-encoded, 1080p high definition presentation, framed at its original aspect ratio of 2.40:1. There were rumblings of a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray when the movie was in theatres, but its poor box office returns clearly killed those prospects. Thankfully, the flick is placed on a dual-layered BD-50 and carries a perfectly reasonable bitrate frequently approaching the 30 Mbps mark. (Oddly, it seems that the Roadshow/Warner Bros. titles which don't receive 4K releases are mastered at a higher bitrate, while those with a 4K alternative are given a lower bitrate. Maybe a push to maximise 4K sales?) In a rarity for Roadshow/Warner Bros., almost the entire 50GB disc is used, since there is over two hours of special features. Good form!
Technical specifications are hard to come by, but it appears that The House was shot digitally (Arri Alexa cameras are visible in the behind-the-scenes footage), and the resulting transfer is pleasingly pristine. Textures are abundant, clarity is superb, and the presentation looks razor-sharp from start to finish, regardless of lighting conditions or setting. When Scott and Kate wander through their street at night after drinking heavily, object delineation remains strong and there are no issues with clarity or black crush. The transfer reveals ample fine detail on faces, clothing and sets, while highlights look terrific and there's a subtle layer of source-related noise that's finely-resolved rather than blocky or distracting. Colours are acceptable, but the movie looked more saturated in the cinema, and High Dynamic Range could have undeniably given the palette more pop.
The only shortcoming of the transfer is that it often looks too smooth and some scenes carry a flat appearance, which is fairly standard for digitally-shot productions. In addition, the encode is unable to resolve a definitive layer of fine detail that a 4K release could have rectified. Nevertheless, the transfer isn't smeary at least, as it remains stable throughout. Therefore, I don't believe that any digital noise reduction was applied - this is just the limitations of 1080p popping up again. I also detected the slightest bit of banding, but the presentation is otherwise free of bothersome encoding issues like macroblocking or aliasing. All things considered, The House scrubs up very well on Blu-ray. While not flawless or demo material by any means, this is a pleasing, faithful replication of the movie's theatrical presentation which won't leave anybody disappointed.
Numerous subtitle options are available. The English track is thankfully free of formatting issues.
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The House comes to Blu-ray with a perfectly fine lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix that's true to the movie's theatrical origins. Indeed, it was never mixed in Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, and such tracks would frankly be unnecessary overkill given the comedic origins and the overall quality of the movie itself. The House is predominantly dialogue, most of which comes from the front channels with precision. Levels are nicely balanced and the dialogue is well-prioritised - you won't find yourselves toggling the volume consistently. I detected a slight bit of peaking when dialogue is noticeably loud (which could be source-related), but the track is otherwise free of encoding anomalies - there are no sync issues, nor are there any drop-outs.
There is some noticeable separation through, with the rear channels being put to good use whenever the occasion calls for it. During scenes set in the casino there is ambience (such as chips being placed down on tables and people chatting) coming from all around, creating something oddly immersive, especially with the lossless encoding that ensures everything is crystal clear. Of course, too, music engages all of the channels, and comes through clearly. Not much panning is evident, but the subwoofer is engaged from time to time to accentuate specific sound effects. Much like the video presentation, this lossless 5.1 mix is not reference-quality, but it is faithful and free of bothersome issues. You could not expect much better unless an expensive remix was commissioned.
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An astonishingly extensive array of supplemental material, which is better than the movie actually deserves. For those interested, The House continues Roadshow's odd new tendency to exclude digital copies, so the case doesn't contain an Ultraviolet code. Why the sudden change is anybody's guess.
Here we have a slickly-assembled behind-the-scenes featurette in which most of the key cast and crew members are interviewed. The casting of the movie is covered, as well as the improvisational talents of the primary actors. It's all intercut with fun on-set footage that's more amusing than the finished movie. Everybody clearly had a fun time making the picture, which just makes the final product even more disappointing.
Whereas the previous featurette honed in on the cast, this next behind-the-scenes segment focuses on other aspects of the production. The design of the casino in its different iterations is touched upon (including "Club Ooze" in Frank's backyard), with footage of the set construction and input from the crew. In addition, more complex things are covered, such as the filming of the "fight night" sequence and the use of prosthetics when one character loses a finger. This is worth watching.
Eleven deleted scenes, including some short asides, which were clearly excised for timing reasons (how surprising that there's no extended cut of the movie, like most contemporary comedies). I actually prefer the alternate opening here - it's more cinematic and it better sets the scene than the jarringly abrupt opening in the finished movie. Some of these are worthwhile if only for story enhancement, but others are dead weight. Though the scenes are separated by title cards and there are chapter stops, you cannot select any individual scenes - these play as one big chunk. Here's what we have:
As if we needed more evidence that most of the movie was improvised, here we essentially have an alternative cut of the movie - nearly 80 minutes of extended and alternate scenes, all of which look heavily compressed (and, understandably, some of the digital compositing and CG flames look unfinished). It appears that at least some of the alternate scenes are actually just different takes filmed with multiple cameras and cut together. Alexandra Daddario even makes a cameo appearance in a few of the scenes. The only segment that actually made me laugh out loud was Laundry Sex, which should probably have been kept in the final movie. There are other little guffaw-worthy moments scattered throughout, but none of it is gold. It's tragic that there are still so few laughs to unearth within so much footage, really. As with the deleted scenes, these scenes play as one big chunk and cannot be selected individually, though title cards and chapter stops do separate them. Here's what's included:
The obligatory gag reel in which the actors wildly improvise and crack each other up. These outtakes are actually quite funny at times, once again underscoring that the actors had a great time on-set.
More or less an extension of the gag reel (sans the actors cracking up), this extra just features the actors coming up with alternative jokes for several scenes and moments. There are three sections here, with title cards and chapter stops to separate them: Line-O-Rama, Fight Night Commentary and Gorilla with a Baseball Hat. There is actually some mildly funny stuff, but it's expectedly hit-and-miss.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
Aside from differing language options, the local disc is identical to the U.S. release. It's a draw.
The House is a studious waste of potential. The trailers were funny, but the movie itself is mostly hit-and-miss. Even die-hard Will Ferrell fans will likely walk away disappointed.
Roadshow's Blu-ray should please anybody who actually liked the movie. Video and audio are top-notch considering the source, faithfully replicating how the movie looked at the cinema, while the selection of special features is certainly more extensive than expected. This one is a rental at best, but buy with confidence if you're a fan.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | LG UP970 4K UHD HDR Blu-ray Player, using HDMI output |
| Display | LG OLED65E6T. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 2160p. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. This audio decoder/receiver has not been calibrated. |
| Amplification | Samsung Series 7 HT-J7750W |
| Speakers | Samsung Tall Boy speakers, 7.1 set-up |