The problem with this movie, is that after seeing it, you might be tempted to create your own illegal underground casino. Recreating what was done in the film is not entirely possible, and that in itself pushes your suspension of disbelief for the movie. Believability aside, I thought the premise is actually quite entertaining, and I found it very fun seeing how the lead characters builds up the casino in outrageous ways. I would say that most everything that worked in this movie involved the casino, while everything else around it didn't work quite as well.
Needless to say, everything that happens in this movie are played for laughs. Whether you laugh or not is one thing, but I would broadly say that I thought at least half of the jokes worked on me. It also felt like they opted to write the comedy by choosing whatever random joke worked for them at a given moment during filming, which resulted in that hit or miss ratio. That haphazard method of comedy writing also seemed to apply to the story telling, as it all seems to come together very loosely, and it didn't help that they tried to add more plot elements than is necessary.
Doing outrageous and broad comedy is something you expect from Will Ferrell, and this is no exception. I thought he was enjoyable to watch either way. Amy Poehler was also quite entertaining, and her chemistry with Ferrell helped carry how much you would care for the couple. Arguably the MVP of the cast is Jason Mantzoukas, who adds a different but awesome kind of witty humor to compliment Ferrell and Poehler.
Despite several things about "The House" that I didn't like; which is most everything not involving the casino, along with the lead cast, there were a lot of comedy bits that saved the movie for me. Without revealing spoilers... town hall meeting, slow-mo sequences, fight night, the Butcher, someone on fire, slippery floor, and several more. Between stupidity that made me do a face palm, to stupidity that made me laugh out loud, this movie wasn't great but also wasn't completely terrible.
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