Day 37- Movie 35. Grown Ups (2010)

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.

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. I'm being generous here, but I'd give this film a 6.5/10.

So here's the big question- best Adam Sandler movie? I really liked Happy Gilmore and Anger Management, but I have to say my all time favorite is The Wedding Singer. That is just such a terrific movie.