MyRating: YY1/2Director: Dennis Dugan
Cast: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph, Joyce Van Patten, Madison Riley, Jamie Chung, Steve Buscemi
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for crude material including suggestive references, language and some male rear nudity
When their junior high school basketball coach died, five buddies meet again after 30 years. However, they all live a very different life now. Lenny Feder (Sandler) is a successful Hollywood talent agent, who is married to a beautiful and driven fashion designer, Roxanne (Hayek). Eric Lamonsoff (James) is a co-owner of a lawn furniture company, married to Sally (Bello), who still breastfeeds her four-year-old son. Kurt McKenzie (Rock) is a jobless husband and father, married to Deanne (Rudolph), a working wife who supports the family. Marcus Higgins (Spade) is still single, but a womanizer. And Rob Hilliard (Schneider) is a three times divorced pacifist, married to Gloria (Van Patten), a woman who is 30 years older than him. After the funeral, they all stay together with their families at a lake house over the 4th of July weekend. There, they discover again their long lost friendship and embark into all kinds of craziness, as they used to be in the past. The only thing is this time they are not as children anymore, but as grown ups.
This is a typical Adam Sandler's movie, with his style of comedy. His jokes are usually atrocious, filled with adult (many times childish) humors, (sometimes) shallow, and gross, but at the same time, funny. Some people may like his movies, but some others may not. I am not a big fan of Sandler, but I like him. I liked some of his movies, but some I hated. I didn't like this movie at the beginning, as I think there was almost no plot at all and the dialogs were pointless. It's like putting five best friends into one movie and let them talk, joke and do what they want, without any script. It was annoying, not funny.
However, after around halfway thru the movie, the jokes somehow started to work for me. The scene that made me started to (really) laugh was the scene when Gloria opens the radiator of a break-down car and the hot wind from the radiator blows to her face and body, with Rob Schneider standing besides her, enjoying the scene with desire in his face. Combined with a perfect song in the background, it made this scene hilarious. And from there on, I started to be able to laugh and enjoy the movie. There are many other scenes that were funny, including the scenes in the water park. This movie also has the 'heart', when showing how friends should help and support each other. And also, 'winning is not everything, sometimes you have to lose in order to win a friend'. You will know what I mean if you've watched this movie. And I like the 'heart' part of this movie, even though it was only shown in a light way.
Speaking of the cast, it was a great ensemble cast of comedians. Despite the weak script, they performed quite well to be funny. In my opinion, from the five actors, the ones that shine in this movie were Adam Sandler, Kevin James and Rob Schneider. While Chris Rock and David Spade were slighty underperformed. The supporting actresses were also interesting to watch, as it has the beautiful Salma Hayek, and the very sexy Madison Riley and Jamie Chung, as Schneider's daughters. Actually, it was a fun cast, and they might be having a lot of fun and laughs while shooting this movie.
From disliking the movie at the beginning, this movie made it turn for me and made me like it enough not to hate it at the end. Definitely not the best comedy, as it has its weaknesses, but not bad in overall. And it's fun to see five buddy comedians having and making fun of each others in one funny comedy. (MJ)
