Grown Ups
Release year: 2010
My Rating: ★½ out of 5
Tagline: Boys will be boys. . . some longer than others.
Synopsis: After their high school basketball coach passes away, five good friends and former teammates reunite for a Fourth of July holiday weekend.
Reaching Grown Ups feels like achievement. I made it all the way to the point that Sandler movies are such a formula and their own genre that they made the Sandler movie to end all Sandler movies.
You've got all your Sandler staples here: Kevin James, Chris Rock, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, sigh Rob Schneider. They are all here and play their usual roles. Adam Sandler is a family man goofball, David Spade is a sleaze bag, Kevin James makes a lot of fat jokes, Chris Rock makes a lot of jokes about being black, Steve Buscemi is a weirdo, and Rob Schneider is horny. Classic!
This is another one of those "Adam Sandler takes a vacation" movies that will become more prevalent very soon. Not only is the plot that Adam Sandler takes a vacation, but it is a movie made as an excuse for Adam Sandler to take a vacation to where they are filming. The trick is very simple. Come up with a plot to employ all your friends, the studio gives you $75 million for your budget, spend it on paying your friends a whole bunch and allow yourself to take a vacation. Make hundreds of millions at the box office. Simple as that! It's not like these movies have much to spend their budget on so why not just help all your friends out. I believe I have seen an interview where Adam Sandler basically spells this out. It's kinda genius.
Do I think this is a good movie? Ha ha! No! It's Grown Ups! I know a lot of people like this movie, because it definitely speaks to a type of guy who remembers his great times with the fellas and just wants to relive that. It achieves that vibe of reliving old times and feels inherently nostalgic. That is pretty cool. Doesn't make this movie enjoyable for a lady like me. Give me Bad Moms any day instead, thank you very much!
This movie is a lounging movie, that is to say nothing really happens other than the characters just hanging out. Maybe that would be enjoyable to me if the jokes were a little bit funnier or if I didn't hate Rob Schneider so much. Alas.
All things said though Grown Ups knows exactly what it is, and that is the most Sandlery, boys-will-be-boys movie ever created. And by god if I don't salute that.
