Why Him? Review

R: Strong Language and Sexual Material Throughout

20th Century Fox, 21 Laps Entertainment, Red Hour Productions, TSG Entertainment

1 Hr and 51 Minutes

Cast: James Franco, Bryan Cranston, Zoey Deutch, Megan Mullally, Griffin Gluck, Keegan-Michael Key, Kaley Cuoco, Adam Devine, Cedric the Entertainer

REVIEW: I try to go to every movie with low expectations and an opened mind. Even if the trailer looks really bad, I try to give every film a chance. Back in November, I saw this movie and immediately I attempted to wipe it out of my memory. I was too lazy to write a review to save until December, I asked myself would I watch this again for the sake of a review? At that moment my memory of the entire film was restored reminding myself I will do no such thing. Why did I give Office Christmas Party a positive review? Because it was no Why Him?

While visiting their eldest daughter Stephanie (Zoey Deutch), Ned Fleming (Bryan Cranston) and his wife Barb (Megan Mullally), along with their 15-year old son Scott (Griffin Gluck), are introduced to Stephanie's wealthy and famous boyfriend, Laird Mayhew (James Franco). Laird's vulgar, gregarious, and blunt personality is slightly overwhelming for Barb and Scott but causes Ned to downright despise him. However, Stephanie insists that he's a nice person and that he makes her happy. But when Laird reveals he plans to propose to Stephanie in only five days, the race to prove himself worthy of her love so Ned can give them his blessing begins. Laird goes out of his way to winning over Barb and Scott, while Ned schemes to make sure Laird goes down in flames.

THE GOOD: I’m am not going to deny, but there are some humorous scenes in the film. The majority of laughs that I got wasn’t verbally but visually. One of my favorite forms of comedy is visual gags which I appreciate this film for having. With visual gags, you tend to see them usually in animated movies, but here it works and it’s funny where it gets its fair share of laughs. 

Two cast members really made this film work for me. One being Keegan-Michael Key who you can see improvising a ton of his lines. But since he’s an actual comedian with decades of improvised comedy under his belt, every time he’s on screen he’s able to make you laugh out loud hysterically. He’s doing some sort of European accent that I can’t decipher, but you see him do this a numerous amount of times in other films yet he’s charismatic enough to make it work. He’s not loud and over the top where he’s annoying (you got Franco for that), but he’s actually pulled back and one of the few characters that aren't cursing a mile a minute and when he does curse it’s earned and it’s hilarious. If the script had him do something that was genuinely funny, I would’ve appreciated it more, but you see him try his best through and through. 

The other person is not physically in the film but is an actual voice. The film has a ton of celebrity cameos by famous entrepreneurs and celebrities and it’s incredibly lame. You even see Adam Devine again but thankfully he has a 3 minute screen time. Kaley Cuoco, however, is the voice of Justine who is the voice of the house of James Franco’s Laird. She’s like Scarlett Johansson in Her, but she knows she is the voice of Kaley Cuoco and will curse anyone out when someone gives anyone attitude. When you have one of the highest paid sitcom actresses in your movie you know every Penny counts.

THE BAD: In the spirit of Fox releasing R-rated comedies, Why Him? follows the series of thinly written screenplays that probably has 45 pages of a concept for a film that was decided to just be improvised to stretch out its own length. At best when they do this, the film is either pretty short and is done before you pull a gun to your head or it’s made by Paul Feig who knows how to actually write movies and not just any movies, but movies that tackle different genres yet still being in the realms of comedy. He did two Fox films and one of them are my personal favorite comedies (Spy).

This is 2016. We should be done with this juvenile humor played for shock value. There have been so many films this year alone that have done this and it’s exhausting. From Mike & Dave to Office Christmas Party to Fifty Shades of Black to even Dirty Grandpa which also starred Deutch. This has been a really poor year for comedies and this is icing on the cake. Where 20th Century Fox released Deadpool which was a smartly written and clever R-rated comedy that wasn’t played for shock value, Why Him? is the exact total opposite. Seriously Fox please have some balance! With all the R-rated Christmas comedies I’ve seen this year, this one is the worst. No, I didn’t watch Bad Santa 2 and don’t plan to, but between this and Office Christmas Party, Office Christmas Party is Citizen Kane compared to this. Office Christmas Party has few juvenile humor, but it’s not annoyingly giving you a migraine every minute with an F-bomb.  As we move into 2017, can we leave juvenile humor back in 2016?

This may be the most heartbreaking comedies I’ve ever seen this year. The reason I say heartbreaking is because for seeing all these respectable actors enduring the most embarrassing gags ever seen on film since Movie 43. Bryan Cranston has been in so many films where he was amazing. This Emmy, Tony, and Golden Globe Award winner Bryan Cranston is reduced to bottom of the barrel humor and setups. Bryan Cranston has to endure nothing but James Franco rapid cursing for nearly two hours on film. James Franco may be a great actor, but his character is written with no filter that he’s off the leash with no Seth Rogen to hold him down. If James Franco isn’t cursing, he’s just being obscene Cranston has many comedic cues and we know how funny he is for we grew up watching him as Hal in the Fox sitcom Malcolm in the Middle way before Walter White was even a creation. A role like this is something that is undoubtedly up his alley right? Then why do I feel so bad? Oh yeah. He was just nominated for an Oscar last year for Trumbo and is getting accolades for his role as Lyndon B. Jackson in the HBO film, All the Way. If Cranston should do a fun comedy like this, Fox I suggest you bring back Malcolm in the Middle and adapt that into a feature film. You have the rights, Just do it. 

We just saw Griffin Gluck in Middle School several months back and personally, I liked it a lot with him carrying this role through and through elevating it to be more dimensional than any given Diary of a Wimpy Kid film. What does he do in Why Him? He moderately curses, he drinks, and as you see in the second trailer (which is actually a climactic part of the film) he is drowned in urine and is under a dead moose with its scrotum on his face. It is nearly as offensive as Movie 43’s Hugh Jackman segment where he has balls on his chin. It was that unfunny to a point I even glanced at the exit door wanting to escape.

As I said, I wanted to give this film another chance. I really did. I mean for God’s sake I went to a panel at AOL Build recently and got to ask cast members Zoey Deutch and Megan Mullally a question about their favorite improvised moment in the film because they revealed that surprise surprise a lot of the film was improvised that you can watch here  (26:08-27:05). I don’t mind improvised comedy because it always depends on the director. Jon Hamburg, writer/director of I Love You,Man and one of many writers of the Fockers and Zoolander films, has done this premise to death with the Focker films (oh yeah this film is produced by Stiller (guessing this is a form of vengeance for everyone not seeing Zoolander 2) and was written by Hamburg, some other guy Jonah “I just got another Golden Globe nomination” Hill) but this time reverse the roles and shoot it for an R rating. The movie does have a smart ending but for everything else you see the cliché coming from a mile away because you’ve seen this premise before that dates back to Meet the Parents with the rivalry turned to the bond between Laird and Ned. The only difference is that you see Stiller trying to impress DeNiro, each comedic moment is earned. Here Laird tries so hard and uses the power of money to have Ned give in like a fool where you as an audience member, don’t buy it. And if you are a millennial that does buy this, then I got nothing else to tell you.

But what really angers me is that not only is this constantly annoying and lazy with its premise but is what I always despise in films of this genre, the near two-hour running time. NO COMEDY NEEDS TO BE 2 HOURS OR EVER APPROACHING THAT RUNNING TIME! UNLESS YOUR NAME IS PAUL FEIG AND HAVE AN ACTUAL EPIC STORY TO TELL, DON’T MAKE ME FEEL LIKE I’M HELD AGAINST MY WILL WITH NOTHING BUT YOUR IMPROVISED COMEDY! I’m sorry for the Alt-Caps but this genuinely made me angry. Not nearly as angry as Fifty Shades of Black where I was offended from beginning to end, but it was angering to a point I received a headache. 

LAST STATEMENT: Annoyingly lazy and trite with nothing but improvised lines and juvenile humor stretched to nearly two hours, Why Him? is a Christmas comedy that needs nothing but coal in its stocking and soap in its mouth. It also needs an apology to Cranston, Mullally, Deutch, Michael Key, Gluck and the people who watch this.

Rating: 1/5 | 25%

Super Scene: Barb wants Ned to get kinky with her as she is high off her rockers.