SYNOPSIS: While still in his teens, Donny (Adam Sandler) fathered a son, Todd (Andy Samberg), and raised him as a single parent up until Todd’s 18th birthday. Now, after not seeing each other for years, Todd’s world comes crashing down on the eve of his wedding when an uninvited Donny suddenly shows up. Trying desperately to reconnect with his son, Donny is now forced to deal with the repercussions of his bad parenting skills. 

REVIEW: Adam Sandler is at it again, and it is not providing much of a departure from what he has come to be known for…corny, slapstick humor. If you have seen even one of the many Adam Sandler movies in the past decade, such as The Wedding Singer (1998), Big Daddy (1999), Anger Management (2003), Eight Crazy Nights (2002), Punch Drunk Love (2002), or Happy Gilmore (1996), then you have pretty much covered every type of joke in this flick. This attempt at comedy turns out to be pretty much more of the same with Sandler. I struggled to find the humor in many of his Juvenile antics, though I had the occasion to laugh out loud (lol). However, certainly not enough to call this flick a successful hit. 

Sandler’s extremely flawed character, Donny, turns out to be more annoying to watch, than he is funny. It is very reminiscent of the voice, and at times, the look of his Little Nicky (2000) character. Some notable surprise appearances worth mentioning would be James Caan as father McNally, Susan Sarandon as Mary McGarricle, Ian Ziering as the TV version of young Donny, and Vanilla Ice and Todd Bridges as themselves. I wasn’t particularly moved with Caan’s or Sarandon’s roles, but despite Vanilla Ice’s low budget style acting, his and Bridges’ characters did infuse a significant amount of humor to this faltering flick. Additionally, one small ray of light for this film was the eye-candy better known as Leighton Meester playing the glamorous Jamie character deceptively marrying Todd, Donny Berger’s ill-conceived son of a school teacher.

If an eighty-two year old grandma, getting funky in bed with Sandler’s character or an extremely obese pole dancer popping out tennis balls, from questionable areas of the body floats your boat, then this might just be the next absolutely undesirable Adam Sandler movie for you. Moreover, this flick makes Happy Gilmore look like it was destined for Oscar buzz. It is certainly not the best work Sandler has produced and begs the question as to whether or not Sandler needs to consider reinventing himself, at this juncture in his comedic career.

This movie is certainly a “wait for DVD” flick and would possibly be more enjoyable as a movie-night rental with a group of like-minded friends. I would give it three stars at best for its eclectic collection of characters.

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