Grown Ups

Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph, Joyce Van Patten, Steve Buscemi, Colin Quinn, Tim Meadows
Directed by: Dennis Dugan
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy
2010

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: After their childhood coach dies, five friends (Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider) reunite with their families to reconnect and take stock of their lives.

Review:

Tim: Movies like this make me wonder if I'm a sucker. The film just looked so stupid to me, and I grew so sick of the commercials, which seemed to air constantly for six months. I wanted to slap that little girl every time she said "I want to get chocolate wasted!" I watched this movie fully intending to hate it. And, as often happens with Adam Sandler movies, my head says I should hate the movie, but I just can't do it.

I'm not suggesting that Grown Ups is a good movie. On the contrary, it's oftentimes stupid, unfunny, and poorly, poorly acted. And yet, in between those bad moments are some legitimately funny ones as well. Even though I knew I shouldn't like the film, I found myself enjoying it.

So much of that enjoyment comes from the cast. Even though their acting is pretty bad, there's something truly fun about watching Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider together on screen. While most of their banter felt forced and unfunny, there were moments when you could tell these guys all really do like each other, and were having fun being on screen together. Those small moments were the most enjoyable of the film. Like most of Sandler's movies, this one is ultimately harmless. Whether you like his humor or not, he's made a career of being just funny enough, while never really trying to push the envelope. This PG-13 movie follows that trend, playing it safe by having a few raunchy moments, but nothing that would really offend people too much. Sometimes I get sick of watching the same thing over and over, but there's also something reassuring about knowing exactly what you'll get out of a Sandler film.

I do want to talk a bit about the cast. Adam Sandler is mostly good here, as the "father" figure to these other comedies. He's always been comfortable in the position of being the center of attention while other supporting players hover around him. Kevin James makes a good second player to Sandler. He is funny himself, but is also a different kind of funny, and so works well in the 2nd slot. I thought he gave a stronger performance than many of his previous films. Chris Rock is probably the funniest comedian of the entire bunch. He didn't have many opportunities to showcase that humor, but he does utter my favorite line of the film. David Spade has always seemed like he's impervious to the haters all around him, and that's on display here. He goes forward doing his thing, oblivious or not caring about all the people that don't like him. Rob Schneider had the strangest role of the whole cast, and I can't say I loved him here. At this point, he doesn't need any more criticism, so I'll just say he kind of sucks.

The supporting cast was interesting. I liked seeing Salma Hayek, although I never bought she was actually married to Sandler. I liked Maria Bello, and I thought he gave a brave, hilarious performance. Again, couldn't see her being married to Kevin James, though. I don't generally like Maya Rudolph, although she had perhaps the best chemistry of the film with Rock. She was fine, and I have no complaints about her performance. I liked seeing Steve Buscemi, Colin Quinn, and Tim Meadows in smaller roles.

Now that I've said why this movie was better than I expected, I should also say why this movie isn't very good. I've mentioned the poor acting. There are so many moments in this film that tried to be funny, but just failed. The actors are all smiling and laughing like something funny just happened, but the audience knows the truth. This is a film that pretended to be far funnier than it actually was. I was also surprised at how little Chris Rock was actually in the film. It felt like the other actors all had bigger roles, and he got pushed out. He's arguably the funniest member of the cast, and I wish he had a bigger part. Many of the jokes are lame and have been done before. We actually have someone fall face-first into a big pile of crap, and then (prepare yourselves)- he gets pushed face-first into it again! HILARIOUS! And then later, another person falls face-first, but this time into a pie! Oh my God, I almost can't stand the insanity! It's these lazy moments that really hurt the movie.

So, all I can say is that while Grown Ups is not a good movie, Sandler and company once again do just enough so that I don't hate the movie. I thought it was a decent comedy, but this is a very, very uneven movie. There were parts I loved ("It's drizzling twos" made me laugh out loud), but there were many parts that I hated. It's a very uneven movie.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Waterboy, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Little Nicky, The Longest Yard