‘Grown Ups’ offers up plenty of juvenile humor
”
Grown Ups
”
is a movie that only Adam Sandler could have made. He co-wrote
it with Fred Wolf and it was produced by Sandler’s Happy Madison
Productions, which brought such movies into existence as
”
Paul Blart: Mall Cop,
”
”
The House Bunny,
”
”
You Don’t Mess with the Zohan
”
and
”
Grandma’s Boy.
”
With a cast of comedic actors who mainly got their start in
stand up or on Saturday Night Live’s sketch comedy show, the movie
had the potential to be really, really funny or as with many of
Happy Madison’s past productions, of being really, really bad. In
the end,
”
Grown Ups
”
is a bit of a mixed bag. It is a movie that is unsure if it is a
family film, a raunchy buddy comedy or a heartfelt reunion
story.
‘Grown Ups’ offers up plenty of juvenile humor
“Grown Ups” is a movie that only Adam Sandler could have made. He co-wrote it with Fred Wolf and it was produced by Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, which brought such movies into existence as “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” “The House Bunny,” “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan” and “Grandma’s Boy.”
With a cast of comedic actors who mainly got their start in stand up or on Saturday Night Live’s sketch comedy show, the movie had the potential to be really, really funny or as with many of Happy Madison’s past productions, of being really, really bad. In the end, “Grown Ups” is a bit of a mixed bag. It is a movie that is unsure if it is a family film, a raunchy buddy comedy or a heartfelt reunion story.
In it, Lenny Feder and his four best friends played basketball together when they were kids – and they won the championship game for their alma mater. Their coach, Bobby ‘Buzzer’ Ferdinando (Blake Clark) inspired them all to do their best in not just the game, but in life. As he liked to say, when the buzzer of life goes off, will they have any regrets?
The men are all living different lives now. Lenny (Sandler) is a high-powered Hollywood agent whose kids are spoiled rotten. Eric (Kevin James) is married with two kids, living in suburbia. Kurt is also married with two kids, but he’s a stay-at-home dad. Marcus (David Spade) is a single ladies’ man who likes to drink and party. Rob (Rob Schneider) is married to a much older woman who shares his passion for veganism and holistic healing.
On the surface, the men and their families have little in common, but they are brought together for a weekend when they each get a call that their former basketball coach has died.
Though the movie is an ensemble cast, Lenny is the central character. He is embarrassed by his privileged life and his spoiled kids when he gets around his old friends. He doesn’t want them to know his family has a nanny or that his kids only wear designer clothes. He tells his friends the nanny is actually a foreign exchange student who is staying with the family.
Lenny decides to rent a lake house where he and his friends stayed as children for the weekend. Lenny’s own family has to fly out to Milan the morning after the funeral since his wife Roxanne (Salma Hayek Pinault) is a fashion designer who has to be in Italy for Fashion Week.
Once they are out at the lake house, the men spend some time bonding and reminiscing – which mostly includes cracking jokes at each others’ expense and a lot of potty humor. They also drag their kids out of doors for some bonding time that includes a rope swing into the lake. That offers up one of many physical gags involving Kevin James as he tumbles down a hillside.
The downfall of the movie is that many of the jokes go on for too long or are repeated too often – and some of them aren’t that funny to begin with. Rob (Schneider) is the butt of most of these jokes. His friends razz him for his much older wife and for being overly sensitive. Then they razz him about his attempts to reunite with his daughters. Eric is made fun of for his weight and because his wife hasn’t stopped breast-feeding their 4-year-old son. Kurt gets picked on for being a house husband and Marcus is picked on for being the sole single guy. They get on Lenny for being Mr. Hollywood.
Interspersed in all of the physical gags and raunchy humor are some heartfelt moments. Lenny really wants to connect more with his kids and to share some of his favorite childhood activities with them. His wife also has a moment of clarity when she realizes she has been putting her job before her children. But the moments are few and far between, and the movie starts to lag partway through.
The big tension in the movie comes from Dickie Bailey (Colin Quinn), a player for the team that lost the big championship game all those years ago. Dickie keeps challenging Lenny and the guys to a rematch because he says they didn’t legitimately win the game. Lenny keeps turning down the challenge, but Dickie is persistent. The rematch offers a chance for Lenny to prove to himself – and his family – what kind of man he wants to be.
Melissa Flores can be reached at [email protected]. She writes a blog at http://melissa-movielines.blogspot.com.
