Adam Sandler may have grown up, but his humor is still juvenile.
True, the 43 year-old co-writer and star of “Grown-Ups” knows exactly who his target audience is. If humor were a stock portfolio, Sandler would not only own options in the poop joke, slapstick, breast milk, and awful pun markets, he’d be making a killing.
Eric Lamonsoff (Kevin James) shows the kids what they used to do when they were younger on the rope swing in Columbia Pictures' GROWN UPS.
For Sandler, these sound investments consistently propel him to the top of the box office on the backs of 18 to 34 year-old straight men. I wish it didn’t have such awful implications for my age group, but I get the pandering. If guys want to pay ten bucks to see breast milk shots to the face and women in bikinis bouncing around a screen for two hours, then more power to them.
This pandering is not necessarily a bad thing – the guy makes money, and far be it from me to stop people who want to see two hours of bathroom humor from sitting through it. But for goodness’ sakes, throw us gay bears a bone once in a while: if you’re going to have a movie with Kevin James at a water park, he’d better be showing as much skin as the babes. (Spoiler alert: The only cleavage we didn’t get to see in the movie was his. Wasted opportunity.)
The movie isn’t meant to be taken seriously, but when the premise of the film is that the main characters all come together for a solemn occasion – in this case, the death of their coach and the scattering of his ashes – it’s pretty sad that none of the characters can actually keep a straight face. Sandler’s success means that people can make money with movies that forget the concept of any sort of plot or conflict.
Sandler and his co-stars Chris Rock, Kevin James, Rob Schneider, and David Spade play members of a former grade school basketball team who don’t so much travel toward a climax so much as they meander from joke to joke during a weekend on vacation.
The guys come back from the dock and see Rob Hilliard's daughter who has arrived at the Lake House. The guys can't believe the beautiful blonde is Rob's daughter. Kurt (Chris Rock), Eric (Kevin James) with a KFC bucket on his head, Rob (Rob Schneider), Marcus (David Spade), Lenny (Adam Sandler) in Columbia Pictures'
GROWN UPS.
GROWN UPS.
Photo By: Tracy Bennett
If there is any crisis in the film at all, it is only of the midlife variety. One almost hopes they would stop to think about their coach’s last words, about how they had to put their best effort out every moment of their lives before the buzzer so that they would be able to live with no regrets. But instead of learning and reflecting on life, this group of bumbling men instead finds out that not much has changed for them. They are, at heart, still the same kids they were when they were on that team, despite getting less than they wanted out of life.
Sandler and his crew manage to pass their life lessons to their children, though the teachable moments fall flat among the uncomfortable jokes. If anything, Sandler ends up teaching his kids, who are constantly plugged in and spoiled, how to be real kids. He certainly knows more about being a kid than they do. I just wish the movie did a better job of teaching them how to be adults.
Final Verdict: Don’t bother seeing this movie unless you’re a man-child or have one in tow. C
http://www.grownups-movie.com/
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