Houseguest

Directed by Randall Miller, Houseguest follows Sinbad’s Kevin Franklin as he worms his way into Gary Young’s (Phil Hartman) life by pretending to be an old school friend. It’s an appealingly over-the-top premise that’s employed to watchable yet thoroughly erratic effect by Miller, as the filmmaker, armed with a script by Michael J. Di Gaetano and Lawrence Gay, delivers a hit-and-miss comedy that benefits from the engaging, larger-than-life efforts of its leads – with, especially, Hartman’s funny and magnetic efforts as the straight-laced Gary certainly remaining a highlight from start to finish. And while Miller has peppered the proceedings with amusing interludes and sequences (eg Kevin attempts to sing along with Gary as he warbles their school’s anthem), Houseguest, saddled with a 113 minute running time, suffers from an exceedingly uneven midsection that’s brimming with episodes of varying quality – with, for example, a lengthy digression involving Kevin’s attempts at passing himself off as an expert dentist only exacerbating the padded-out feel. By the time the predictably frenetic finale rolls around, Houseguest has cemented its place as a decent-enough (albeit wildly overlong) comedy that’d hardly be worth mentioning were it not for the efforts of its stars.

**1/2 out of ****