The apologists out there need to get real–GROWN UPS is an embarrassment for everyone involved. That said there are moments of laughter to be had but no story to hold them together and more wince-inducing dialogue than the much maligned VALENTINE’S DAY.
The concept could have worked. Take some of the best comedians of the last decade and push them together into an irreverent comedy feature. Unfortunately, the execution strikes an odd balance between adult and family humor leaving the talented cast appearing to make it up as they go along.
Lenny Feder (Adam Sandler) and his childhood pals are reunited after 30 or so years. When the coach that led them to their childhood basketball triumph dies, the boys, now men, come together for the funeral and a weekend at home again. The only connection to the past in the town appears in the form of their former basketball competitors headed by a funny Colin Quinn. Much of the action takes place at a spacious cabin by a lake, which attempts to evoke a vacation feel.
GROWN UPS should have been a road picture with these 5 comedians going on some kind of journey. As it is, the movie gets stale quick, and the ever-expanding cast of characters with their crazy often ridiculous peculiarities does little to improve things. For example, Rob Schneider plays a guy also named Rob who has a weird fascination with much older women, a joke that gets old fast (sorry for the pun). Other characters have unpleasant traits that initially seem funny. Like actress Maria Bello plays a breast-feeding mom whose child is now 4 years old. After the first laugh, this joke gets milked to the point of being in bad taste. My puns are probably as funny as anything in the film, and that’s no joke.
By the time Steve Buscemi shows up in a full-body cast, the movie has just gone completely off the rails. Other actors with great comic timing make appearances like Tim Meadows who has an inspired (for this film) exchange with Chris Rock. One wonders how Rock, who gave us a thought-provoking and entertaining personal documentary called GOOD HAIR last year, could allow himself to be exploited in something as trashy as this. And that’s the main problem. There’s nothing wrong with a stupid over-the-top comedy with a ridiculous story and cartoonish characters with crude dialogue and situations. But GROWN UPS expects to be family-friendly at the same time as crude and edgy. Such a thing is tough to pull off and often, like here falls, utterly flat.
Adam Sandler fans hungry for something wild and weird out of him don’t get it in GROWN UPS. As Lenny Feder, Sandler plays a rich Hollywood super-agent married to Salma Hayek. He’s always in control and emotionally sure of himself. Therefore, the character is without much conflict in his life to be addressed over the film’s narrative. This boring turn is an unwelcomed one.
Missing the mark on almost every level, GROWN UPS is an unfunny combination of often funny people.
