links

Sunday, November 14, 2010

REVIEW: Grown Ups



If Hollywood were (metaphorically) a fast food restaurant that served cheap-but-tasty-yet-fattening films, 'Grown Ups' would surely be on the value menu. While there was already little promise to a film that consisted of five of some of the most annoying comedian-actors, there was room for actual comedy. However, nothing felt like anything new. It's the same burger we've been eating for years, except it's got a little some of this and that, which isn't much, and if anything it's bad for your health.


The film is about these "grown ups", played by Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider and Kevin James, who are childhood pals obligated to return home for the funeral of their old coach. They basically spend the whole time reminiscing on the "good ol days" and having a "good ol time" while never shedding a light on what the film is trying to say, which isn't much of anything we haven't already heard.


I was hoping that Adam Sandler would've carried the movie, but he seemed to be the most boring of the "big five" in this bro-fest. Really, they just sat around and laughed for half of the movie, and the things they laughed at were only family-oriented crude clichés of jokes we've seen and heard so so so many times. Maybe the point of the film was that these well-known actors were, in a sense, looking back at the things that made their previous successes so funny. To me, though, that just sounds like a sales gimmick, but people are prone to buy "Greatest Hits" albums even when they already own all of the songs on the album.