Grown Ups 2

Release year: 2013
My Rating: ★½ out of 5

Tagline: Just because they’re a little older doesn’t mean they’ve grown up.

Synopsis: Lenny has relocated his family back to the small town where he and his friends grew up. This time around, the grown ups are the ones learning lessons from their kids on a day notoriously full of surprises—the last day of school.

Wow only 3 years later and we already have our next movie in the Grown Ups franchise. This is kinda the same dumb fun as the original, but definitely less effort was put into this one. And yet I like it more than the first.

It's hard to state just how much of a phenomenon Grown Ups was when it first came out. I didn't really get it, but this movie was so popular when I was a kid. Maybe it wasn't as much the case on the coasts, but back home in rural Missouri, this was one of the biggest movies of the year. And I guess that translated to them making Grown Ups 2 fairly quickly.

What you expect from a Grown Ups movie you get here. Adam Sandler talks in his Sandler voice. Kevin James increases our vocabulary with his "burpsnart" (Burp+sneeze+fart). David Spade pukes. Steve Buscemi is weird. But one small change from the first makes me appreciate this movie so much more. Rob Schneider, he's gone!!! And they don't even acknowledge he's gone. That makes me happy.

I think the main difference between Grown Ups 2 and the first movie is that this really feels direct to DVD other than the fact that most of the cast is here. There is absolutely no plot. And when I say that, I mean it. There is not a plot to this movie; it is just fella shenanigans. Also there is a weird lack of a soundtrack for most of this movie. I remember when the first background music came on it caught us all off guard. There's like a solid 10 minutes, which is like 15% of the movie, that takes place in a Kmart everyone messing around with random products. And despite this movie being so incredibly lazy, it still had a budget of $80 million. Where is it going to? Must only be the cast.

You might be thinking, wow another "Adam Sandler takes a vacation" movie. Except no, for some reason they all live in the same town. I thought the point of the first movie was that they all vacationed to their hometown after moving away. But now they all just live there I suppose. It doesn't really make sense, but I don't think they cared about having this movie make any sense. They just wanted to put a whole bunch of dumb gags together and call it a day.

Does it make it a better movie than the first? Not at all. But, I think this movie is significantly funnier than the first. I had multiple laugh out loud moments, and overall, I had a somewhat good time. It kinda is diminished by how nothing this movie is, but eh I'd rather watch this than Grown Ups 1.

You would think after this that there would be a Grown Ups 3 shortly after, but 13 years later we never got it. That is until it was confirmed in the past month that they are filming the 3rd installment. I was somewhat excited. But then I saw the cast list.

"Ooh Julie Bowen, I love her! Okay, so the whole main cast is here. Oh no, Rob Schneider is back?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! And where's Steve Buscemi? I need him!" 

Welp. I don't love Rob Schneider is back after the whole antivax, anti-trans, CPAC turn he's gone down in the last 10 years. Unsurprising, really. At least his character is not in brownface, so I'll take any win I can get.