The House(2017)

Plot Summary

• Scott and Kate Johansen take their daughter Alex to enroll into Bucknell University. They warn their daughter of the dangers of being in college. Alex acknowledges her parents' warnings and expresses her interest in attending the same university her parents went to. Alex gets accepted to the university, which the Johansens expect to be funded by their community's scholarship program. Alex loves her parents and plans to spend the summer with them, before going to college, rather than with her friends, who want to spend their time getting ready for college by learning about drugs, make-up and other things. Alex finds her parent's to be cool. Frank is Scott and Kate's friend. Frank is going through divorce with his wife Raina (Michaela Watkins).The Fox Meadows council traditionally sent 1 outstanding student to college each year. Unfortunately, during a community town hall meeting, city councilor Bob Schaeffer (Nick Kroll) announces that they will not be doing the scholarship program, in favor of building a community pool, to which everyone agrees except the Johansens. Bob is corrupt and takes away the federal grant money that would have helped Alex's tuition funds. Frank has been fined $1500 by the council for the height of his hedges, which he finds ridiculous. Officer Chandler (Rob Huebel) is the town sheriff who is honest and a little disgusted with the corruption in the council office and Bob's affair with married treasurer Dawn Mayweather (Allison Tolman).Scott and Kate promise Alex that she is going to Bucknell. The couple tries to find funding through asking for a loan, a salary raise for Scott, and getting Kate's job back, but everything is denied.Frank had planned a trip to Vegas with Scott & Kate months ago. Despite their issues Scott & Kate accompany Frank as he is very depressed. In Vegas Frank is on a winning streak and convinces Scott & Kate to play, until his last roll, which Scott jinxes (by telling Frank not to roll a seven) and Scott and Kate end up losing all their money. Scott has the bright idea after losing the money that to make quick cash you have to play the house as the "house always wins". Frank does the numbers and figures that they can make 4 years' worth of tuition in one month of running a casino. Frank also needs money as his house has been foreclosed by the bank. The risk is that they could go to jail for 20 years for running an illegal casino. Kate is not convinced, but Scott says that they tried playing by the rules and didn't get anywhere.After losing their daughter's college scholarship in a night of gambling in Vegas, husband and wife Scott (Will Ferrell) and Kate (Amy Poehler) team up with their neighbor Frank Theodorakis (Jason Mantzoukas) to start an illegal casino in Frank's home to raise money for their daughter's Alex's (Ryan Simpkins) tuition. They set up the casino in Frank's house as his hedges are crazy high and give a lot of privacy. They start mouth adverts in the local community to reel in potential high rollers. This includes Martha (Lennon Parham), who was abandoned by her husband and has a lot of pent up rage. Joe (Rory Scovel), Dawn's husband, who retired at 30 and now takes care of his mother. Reggie (Cedric Yarbrough), who just made partner at his firm and has cash to burn and needs to blow off steam. As the operations grow, new customers join such as Garby (Kyle Kinane), Craig (Andy Buckley). They even device a system so that people park at the nearby grocery store and not at Frank's house to avoid suspicion. Scott realizes that he has to pay $50,000 for Alex's first year tuition. They hide the casino from Alex and tell her that they are working late nights on a top-secret project. Their target is to raise $500,000 from their casino ($250 K for Frank and $ 250 K for Alex).Frank's wife, Raina (Michaela Watkins), divorces him due to his gambling problem. The casino operation proves to be running smoothly. Frank would bet on anything. When 2 patrons start to have a fight, Frank converts that into fight night and invites betting on it. This leads to more fights being settled this way and casino making more money. Frank keeps investing all of the winnings in upgrades, such as a pool in his backyard, oxygen bar, nail salon, a comedian act, massages, and even hand jobs which attracts even more customers.In another community town-hall meeting, Bob becomes suspicious at the low attendance and suspends the meeting to launch an investigation. Scott and Kate discover that one of the gamblers Carl (Steve Zissis) caught cheating in poker game. The Johansens and Frank confront him, and Carl is sure that they are not going to do anything as they are the family types. Frank wants to send a message, but Kate says that they cannot kill a man as Scott picks up an ax. In the ensuing chaos, Scott accidentally chops off the man's middle finger. This earns him the nickname "The Butcher" and makes the whole city afraid of his family, which inadvertently increases their profits.Several thousand dollars away from gaining $500,000, they are caught by a city councilor Bob Schaeffer and police officer Chandler who confiscate their money and order them to close down the casino. Nonetheless, they continue their business in the neighbor's house which burns down after being invaded by a mobster Tommy Papouli (Jeremy Renner) who is the boss of Carl whose finger had been chopped off.Having admitted their plot to Alex, they team up with Chandler, who had let them loose, to steal the money back from Bob. Chandler convinces Bob that the three continued the casino even after he had ordered them to stop, and shows a video of the people mocking him.Bob asks Chandler to go with him to arrest the Johansens at the casino, which gives the Johansens the chance to steal their money back from the council safe. Dawn Mayweather, the town treasurer, alerts Bob that the Johansens are in the town hall, which convinces Bob to go back. Bob tries to make Chandler drive faster, but causes an accident himself. Bob runs back to the town hall on foot to find the Johansens with the money.After chasing the Johansens, Bob reveals his personal interest with the casino money as well as his plot to steal money from the city budget for himself and Dawn, who leaves him and returns to her husband Joe. Bob is arrested, while Scott and Kate use the money they took back from him to pay for their daughter's college tuition.

Storyline

• Scott and Kate Johansson are elated to discover their daughter Alex has been accepted into bucknell university. However, the town college scholarship program refuses to fund any more tuitions. Out of options, the couple makes an executive decision to open an underground illegal casino in their friend Frank's basement. Unfortunately, the authorities soon become suspicious. Now what?! — Emperor Jake During their visit to Bucknell University, husband and wife Scott and Kate Johansen warn their daughter of the dangers of being in college. Alex acknowledges her parents' warnings and expresses her interest in attending the same university her parents went to. Alex gets accepted to the university, which the Johansens expect to be funded by their community's scholarship program. Unfortunately, during a community town hall meeting, city councilor Bob Schaeffer announces that they will not be doing the scholarship program, in favor of building a community pool, to which everyone agrees except the Johansens. The couple tries to find funding through asking for a loan, a salary raise for Scott, and getting Kate's job back, but everything is denied..