Movie Review - 'Grown Ups'

Grown Ups Starring Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, and Kevin James Directed by Denis Dugan Rated PG-13

Grown Ups is the last Adam Sandler comedy I'll ever see. What's the point? Even when he was funny - a period that didn't last very long anyway - the films were only passable at best. But over the last few years, as Sandler has become increasingly vain on screen, there's not even any joy that this streetwise kid is flipping Hollywood the bird by making tons of money grinding out cheap, stupid projects that are in tune with teenagers and college kids. Where have you gone, Happy Gilmore? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you. The reason this is my last go-round with Sandler is simple: Every end result is the same. The stories might be different, but ultimately, they come out of the oven deflated and dry. They're not as funny as they used to be, and the downward trend has been steady for five years or more now. The gags designed to make audiences laugh don't. And in Grown Ups that swing-and-miss is illustrated by the rather surreal experience of watching the characters on screen laugh at jokes the audience doesn't find funny. That's what we call a disconnect. The story, of course, is beyond simplistic. Five friends, now separated by hundreds or thousands of miles come back to the spot of their greatest collective success, a 1978 youth league basketball championship. Their coach has passed away and this is not only a chance to pay final respects but a chance to uncork some bottled up nostalgia. The five are Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, and David Spade. James is a more traditional family man, earning his paycheck and supporting for his wife (Maria Bello) and their kids. One of them, at four years old, still breastfeeds. It's referenced about a dozen times. Rock is not traditional. His wife (Maya Rudolph) is the bread winner and Rock is a househusband. Schneider plays a kind of vegan-shaman guy who's on his third marriage, this time to a woman at least twice his age. Spade plays himself. Sandler, of course, is the most financially and personally successful. What happened to this guy? He went from a goofy prankster to playing movie romances with Kate Beckinsale, Paz Vega, Jessica Biel, and now Salma Hayek. If you go into Grown Ups with a sense that Sandler now sees himself differently, the movie has an almost pathological obsession with building the guy up. His opening line of dialogue: "I'm the biggest agent in Hollywood..." He takes the game-winning shots. In fact, he never misses the bank shot from the right side of the basket. The other friends clearly envy his wealth and accomplishments and always refer to how Sandler's character talked them into the craziest stunts when they were younger. And then there's the Salma Hayek thing. It's disheartening, actually, to see Sandler - who co-wrote this film - become so insistent that he's some kind of lady-killing alpha male. Put down your press clippings.

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A Little New Footage in the Latest 'Grown Ups' Trailer

Earlier today, we showed you a trailer for Knight and Day that looked really similar to the stuff we'd already seen. Now it's time for the other June 25th movie, Grown Ups, with Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade, and the miserable Rob Schneider. This also looks familiar, until the last 30 seconds or so.

Salma Hayek's getting some play in the latest version, playing the wife Adam Sandler could never get in real life if he weren't famous. Which is less believable, Hayek or Beckinsale? Probably Beckinsale, and I hope casting Eva Mendes as Will Ferrell's wife in The Other Guys is a good-natured dig at this sort of thing. So if you've seen these trailers before, I'm sorry only 30 seconds of it is new in any way, but the last snippet is probably going to get a few people to buy tickets. You know, because jokes about urine and feces never, ever get old.

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Movie Review - 'Death at a Funeral'

Death At A Funeral Starring Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, and James Marsden Directed by Neil LaBute Rated R

Let's suppose you were going to make a farce, excuse me -- remake a farce. There are certainly directors who can do this sort of thing well, but instead, you hire Neil LaBute, best known for a couple caustic social dramas about a decade ago (In the Company of Men, Your Friends and Neighbors), but a director who has remake experience. Unfortunately, that remake is The Wicker Man. The good news, if there is any, is that LaBute has experience in the theatre, so he should have a knack for keeping the farce on its very specific case. He should have. But he doesn't. It's hard to blame LaBute for Death at a Funeral, but his presence here is a microcosm of what's gone wrong with this nearly identical remake of a blisteringly funny 2007 British film. The original was extraordinarily specific on the page and on the screen. It was well-cast and never, not once, slowed down. The English just do farcical comedy better than the rest of the world. In the remake, LaBute has the original writer, Dean Craig, and sets about to essentially recreate the first film with a different cast. Well, mostly different. What's the point of doing what seems like a shot-by-shot remake so soon after the original, which is better, anyway? It really doesn't matter outside of the small audience that saw Frank Oz' Funeral, and maybe that is the point: What better film to remake as closely as possible than a movie nobody saw the first time? On its own merits, the new Death at a Funeral tries, and then tries to hard. Because a British comedy will necessarily have different laughs at different times than an American remake, some things here are too broad for what surrounds them, and that's saying something. Is it funny? Sure, quite funny at times. But more than that, it's just messy.

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WTF? Chris Rock Writing Kurosawa Remake?

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo! As lenient as I am with remakes - and I'd say I give more passes than just about anyone else - why in the hell is Chris Rock attached to Akira Kurosawa's High and Low?

I'm not sure which is worse, the thought that Rock might act in a remake of one of Kurosawa's great underrated dramas (which at this point, he isn't) or the reality that he's writing it. Mike Nichols is directing, Martin Scorsese is producing...and filling in for David Mamet, noted dramatist Chris Rock.

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Embarrasing Photos Surface in 'Grown Ups' Poster

The trailer for Adam Sandler's buddy comedy, Grown Ups, was not terribly funny. Actually, amusing might be a stretch. But they referenced the photos in this poster and this is probably the best possible sales tool for the movie. I don't think it's going to generate a lot of conversions, at least by Sandler's usual standards, but it's in a wide open slot for a comedy next summer, so it could be bigger than we think.
Click to Enlarge I'm not so sure giving Spade and Schneider lots of screen time is a good idea; it never has been before. But on top of the usual Sandler crowd, which is dwindling a bit, this should sucker some Tommy Boy fans in and, you know, probably Schneider's family or something. I don't love the poster, but it's a smart play. Let's see if it pays off next June.