So, was having a tough time deciding on what to watch today. It's like I'm hitting "The Wall." Everything is staring to blur together into one long undefinable genre that is sometimes good, most of the time bad, and ultimately neverending. If you want the REAL neverending story, try watching a movie a day for a year. Anyway, I went with
Grown Ups. This movie is like an old folks home for comedians who were big in the 90's, or even a comedic attempt at
The Big Chill. The story of five guys who grew up together, the group is reunited at the funeral of their CYO basketball coach. Having now been married, children, careers, and other accoutrement of being adults, they decide to gather the whole gang, dysfunctional families and all, at the lake where they spent their youth. The problems of their lives intrude, and the plot goes from there. I was not impressed by this at all. It seemed, to me, to be an excuse for these guys to get together and have their own SNL reunion movie.
Starring the ensemble of Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade, and Rob Schneider (
who was never funny), they just really seem to be dialing in their performances. I found their camaraderie to be too scripted, and wondered if the outtakes would have been funnier because they probably wouldn't have been trying to act at that point. Salma Hayek, Maya Rudolph, and Maria Bello (wow, was her role creepy here) play the embattled wives of these man-boys.
This movie, I am sorry to say, also falls under the "Sitcom Syndrome" I have described in an earlier post (Day 110:
Hall Pass). It is not as horrifically over the top in its use of sitcom tactics, but it's still there, pissing me off. I guess if you really liked these guys in their own movies, you'll probably like them here, but as for me....meh. I'm beginning to think I'm really hard on comedies... 5.25/10
See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!
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