Ed's Review Dot Com

Warner Brothers, Gulfstream Pictures, Happy Madison Productions,

Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Joel McHale, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Kevin Nealon, Bella Thorne, Terry Crews

Jim (Adam Sandler) is a widower, raising three daughters on his own and still dealing with the loss of his wife and struggling with trying let his little girls grow up. Lauren (Drew Barrymore) is a divorced mother of two boys who miss their never present Dad. They are matched up on a disastrous date where Jim took her to Hooters and they really failed to click. But after a couple more random encounters that didn’t work out too well, they find they really hate each other. But due to a random coincidence they end up on a “blended family” vacation on the savannah in Africa together, where they must pretend to be together in order to take advantage of the trip.

Now to digress. I must admit Adam Sandler has had some problems lately. Several of my favorite Sandler films were with Drew though, as “The Wedding Singer” was classic as was “50 First Dates”. And of course the early stuff such as “Happy Gilmore” was epic funny. But lately he’s had some serious bombs. Let’s face it, “Jack and Jill” and “That’s My Boy” were just awful. So I really think it’s a “thing” now to bash Adam Sandler. I really don’t like it when the critics all jump on the film before it’s even released. As a result of all the press, with headlines like “New Sadler Film Set to Bomb at the Box Office”, I think the negative attitude against him is going to hurt this movie. I think it already has, opening in third place on it’s first weekend. The megaplex where we saw it had it on only one screen, showing a half dozen times. As a result, the theater was packed, and we missed a lot of the gags because the whole audience was howling. Truthfully, I haven’t laughed at a movie as much as this one in a long time. Some comedians have the ability to completely crack you up and then break your heart. I feel the audience, me included, felt the whole range of emotions in this film. Yes, it’s a bit formula driven, but just the same, it’s packed with surprise moments, and some really, really funny gags. This is a gag movie, like some of the best, for example, Hangover, where you go from one hilarious moment to another. One of the things that Walt Disney was known for is paying employees for “gags” to put in the movie. Things like Dopey swallowing the soap and blowing bubbles were thrown in to the film that weren’t critical to the plot, but added a lot to make these films so memorable. This movie has the same feel. It seems like from time to time they came up with a gag here or there, and that’s part of the delight of this movie.

My hope is that it will catch on due to the word of mouth, and redeem Drew and Adam a bit. I found it hysterically funny, and I really enjoyed it all the way through. My crew really enjoyed it, and it seemed the audience did too. Every player in this film had their own quirkiness and everyone was just perfect in their particular role. There were no weak parts, and it was just a really fun way to spend an evening. I highly recommend this one if you’re in the mood for a real simple funny movie. The scenery in Africa was stunning. It’s filled with lots of safari animals, and it’s a little bit naughty for the little ones, but fits the PG-13 crowd pretty well. Good job Adam, you found a good story this time!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog