Sandler needs to grow up!

Grade: C

Grown Ups

Indian Release Date: 13/08/10
CBFC Classification: A
Running Length: 1 Hour 42 Minutes

Cast: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Salma Hayek Pinault, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph, Joyce Van Patten, Ebony Jo-Ann, Di Quon, Steve Buscemi
Director: Dennis Dugan
Screenplay: Adam Sandler & Fred Wolf
Cinematography: Theo van de Sande
Music: Rupert Gregson-Williams

After having watched ‘Grown Ups’, the movie that popped up in my head, was not it’s obvious thematic cousin ‘The Big Chill’ (1983) but rather funnily ‘Ocean’s Twelve’ (2004). The strongest and most obvious parallel I could draw between the two is that of intent. Both have wafer-thin plots that the movies make up as they go along & the intention is draw let a huge star-cast do what they are usually good at and play off against one another. So you get to see the cast basically take a vacation and see how they interact when a script isn’t given to them. The material is full of inside-jokes, subtle (& not-so-subtle) jabs and some sort of camaraderie. None of the material is taken seriously and the audience is expected to do the same in order to have a breezy, light-hearted time watching it. Unfortunately unlike the stars the audience isn’t paid to play around but rather pays to watch this kind of movie especially with such a high-profile star-cast, so an effort on the part of the makers to make it worthy would be much appreciated rather than make it one large fleecing attempt.

Five childhood friends reunite after thirty years to attend the funeral of their former school basketball coach & also spend the 4th of July weekend together in the town they grew up in. The most prominent of the five is Lenny (Adam Sandler), who’s a big-time Hollywood agent now and is married to an equally high-profile fashion designer, Roxanne (Salma Hayek), with three utterly spoilt kids. Eric (Kevin James) is the token “fat-guy” of the bunch & is married to Sally (Maria Bello), who still breast-feeds their four year old son. Kurt (Chris Rock) is a hen-pecked, house-husband to Deanne (Maya Rudolph) and is the constant target for ridicule from his kids and mother-in-law (Ebony Jo-Ann).The overtly sentimental Rob (Rob Schneider), has always had a thing for older women and he’s currently dating Gloria (Joyce Van Patten) who might be in her early 70s. Marcus (David Spade) on the other hand, still likes to play the fool and doesn’t want any responsibility so he remains pretty much the “ladies man” going after anything in a skirt. The five friends and their families bond over the weekend, while the audience gets to watch it like a professionally produced family vacation video.

I’m sure the script of this movie was written on the back of a tissue paper as plot or character development as utterly non-existent. I mean Sandler’s other comedies do not have great stories but compared to this vacuum they seem to be precisely plotted works of literature. Other than the mostly bawdy banter between the leads the humor is either slapstick or simply the gross-out kind about bodily fluids discharge. Don’t even get me started on the parts where the movie tries to get sentimental (all those messages about the importance of family, friendship, blah blah blah); it’s all so hokey that it makes a crooked politician seem more sincere in comparison. However thanks to the causal tone of the film and some genuinely funny one-liners, the lack of a plot doesn’t push the movie into the absolutely unwatchable zone. The constant ribbing & gags keep things moving along even if all the material doesn’t click.

The cast sleepwalks through the entire ordeal, which isn’t much different from what I’ve seen them do in their other movies; except actresses like Maya Rudolph & Maria Bello have been seen in far better work elsewhere. For the written material they are given, they seem to be improvising a lot which helps in expressing a sense of genuine friendship. Though all of the male leads seem like they operate on the E.Q. and I.Q.  level of ‘Dennis the Menace’; which in all likelihood was the intention of the director (no wonder the movie’s called ‘Grown Ups’).

The movie acts as a means to reminiscence about you and your pals then maybe it has worked for you; else other than a few jokes it has almost nothing going for it and you’d be better off looking at your own family vacation pictures or videos and laughing about the good times you had.

Final Verdict: A languidly paced movie with a few moments of humor. Catch it when it arrives on DVD or television.

Grade: C

 

- Movie Reviewed by Danish Bagdadi

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