MovieChat Forums > Why Him? (2016) Discussion > God I hated Franco's character

God I hated Franco's character


Il admit there is some personal bias in this one. While I definitely have conservative sensibilities, I'm no prude. I enjoy a good raunchy comedy every now and then if its all in good fun. But there is something about seeing some guy show zero respect for his perspective fiancé's parents or the clearly conservative morals that they hold (their teenage son isn't even allowed to swear or watch rated R movies) and tried to pass along to their daughter that just hit a nerve for me.

It would have been fine if they had poked more fun at the millennial BS of it all. And if maybe there was a watershed moment for Franco's character where he realizes he has some serious maturing to do. But instead most of the comedy comes from her father raising legitimate concerns over this man's alarmingly amoral behavior and the effect it is having on his daughter (and subsequently the rest of his family), and for it he is portrayed as over the top and controlling; with the boyfriend never once corrected on his character. But all of his past actions become irrelevant in the end because he demonstrates some very basic human decency that for some reason negates the fact that he is a man that thinks its acceptable to display cartoon pornography in every room of the house.

It wasn't even all that funny.

Imagine "Meet the Parents", only with Ben Stiller purposely doing all of the things that accidentally happened around him. Suddenly Robert Deniro isn't so unreasonable.

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He plays the obnoxious drug addict alcoholic stoner asss hole in every movie. that seems to be his character in real life, with his bromance with the fat slob that shows up in most of his movies, Seth Rogen?

This guy is a great example of why the USA is going down the tubes. too bad he has not gotten stopped for a DUI and busted for heroin, cocaine, etc., and maybe gotten a night stick up his ass, and his jaw cracked by some good cops.

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Eh I wouldn't go that far. But I do think that the movie would have been significantly better if maybe the daughter acknowledged that he was a bit of a fixer upper, and Franco had a moment in the end where he realized he has a lot of growing up to do before he is ready to be a husband. Things like ditching some of the more "eclectic" decorations, stopping the hardcore partying and drug use, respecting his future in-laws' values.

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She constantly does. That is the reason she didn't want to tell her parents that she have been seeing him for 8 months.
Also the reason they had the fight at the end before Cranston's character realizes that deep down he is actually a good guy and give him his blessing.

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Agreed.

Given how much deliberately awkward fun Meet The Parents was, I was very disappointed with this film.

Personally, if Laird wasn't rich, I don't think Stephanie or her family would have given him or his manic - minded antics the time of day.

The casting of Cranston, Mullally and Franco should have made this film a winner. They were all let down by a very lazy script and direction. Apparently, there was about 240 hours of improv shot, edited down to 90 minutes. Yikes!

One recent film about the generation gap I really liked was While We're Young. I must watch it again some time.

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Personally, if Laird wasn't rich, I don't think Stephanie or her family would have given him or his manic - minded antics the time of day.


This was addressed in the movie, when he first met her he was pretending to be a low level Uber programmer to avoid gold diggers.

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That was a pretty piss poor explanation of how they met and started dating. Only thing worse than dating a rich a$$hole is dating and screwing a guy that is an as$hole and barely getting by. What's her deal woth a$$holes?

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Yes, I agree with the above comments. I just saw this move today, and while I thought it was somewhat funny, I did think Franco's character was over the top. I also kept expecting the dad to say in the movie that he was going back to the hotel, that he had had enough. The fact that the dad still stayed camped out in the daughter's boyfriends house even after the Christmas party was a little unbelieveable.

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I actually kind of liked the no filter high energy persona he played in this movie. Probably the only funny thing about it.

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You guys must be fun at parties

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I loved Franco's character. Even without considering his net worth, I thought I wld've love it if my sister had met someone like this. A kind, enterprising, generous dreamer. You mentioned he wasn't respectful to the parents, yet he was. He wasn't even going to propose without her father's approval and wanted to get to know the family. He was honest almost to a fault.I found the character to be quite charming.

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100% agreement. This was one of the most cringeworthy flicks I've seen in a while, and what a waste, this could have been a new Christmas Classic. Alas, this thing sucked moose cock.

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It is acceptable to display cartoon pornography in every room of the house!

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