Happy Madison Productions, Relativity Media

Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph, Joyce van Patten, Ebony Jo-Ann, Di Quon, Steve Buscimi, Colin Quinn, Tim Meadows, Madison Riley

These 5 guys made up the championship team of their youth.  They’ve all grown up and gone on, but they all remember Coach Buzzer.  But when he suddenly dies, they all have to come back home to pay their last respects.  They attend the funeral and then spend the July 4th weekend away a cabin by the lake.  Each of the guys have changed, but inside they’re still the same.  They have to bring their dysfunctional home lives with them, and all the baggage while the play and hang around like teens again.

Marcus (Spade) is single, and always hitting on the ladies, but he drinks too much and is all alone.  Rob, (Schneider) has 3 grown daughters that he’d do anything to protect, but in not close to them at all, and is married to his new flame, and old lady who creeps everyone out as she has no inhibitions at all.  Eric (James) is fat and is out of work.  Kurt (Rock) is a house husband who is put down and constantly picked on by his wife and mother in law.  Lenny (Sandler) is a successful Hollywood agent with a wife (Selma Hayek) who is a fashion designer.  He’s embarrassed of the nickname Hollywood, and his kids take all the technology in their lives for granted and also their affluence.

All of them thrown together for the weekend and they have a blast.  This film feels like a bunch of real old friends packed together, just putting each other down.   The cut ups and put downs are hysterical and non-stop.  Also, the adventures (or more applicable MIS-adventures) they get into are also very funny.  “Let’s go to the water park!” turns into one funny bit after another.   The only complaint I have with this film is the last 15-20 minutes.  There is an on-going story about a championship basketball game where the boys won on a last minute controversial shot.  The guys from the other team are still together and still very angry about the supposed “win” and demand a rematch.  The other team is manned by Dickie Bailey (Colin Quin) and a guy named Wiley (Steve Buscimi) who is an absolute nut case.   There is the inevitable rematch, but I thought it was a downer for the movie.  It seems like it was added in late just to fill in the time and was way underdeveloped.  There were some funny bits, but all in all as the climax of the film, I thought it was a little bit of a letdown.  I wish this had been better.

But still, it is very funny with all kinds of gags, but the clear thing is that these guys (who must be friends in real life) are just hysterical together, and they must have had the best time making this movie.  I can see it being a lot of turning on the camera and letting it run to see what these guys think up.  The special features and blooper reel seem to show this.  They can’t stop cracking each other up.  The relationship and pecking order between these guys is really funny.  I  did not expect to be nearly as funny as it turned out to be.  Good job.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Rating: 4.0/5 (1 vote cast)
Movie Review - Grownups (2010) {PG-13}, 4.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating

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