‘Grown Ups’ isnt really my usual rodeo. I dont dislike Adam Sandler, but I find as a creative, he dances a VERY very fine line between being ‘sincerely watchable’ and being absolutely and totally unbearable in any capacity. So when I went to visit family this weekend and they put ‘Grown Ups’ on…I was ready to basically spend 100 or so minutes on my phone waiting for it to finish. But what I actually watched astounded me.
Obviously; Red Letter Media have discussed at length how they have a ‘conspiracy theory’ that Sandler makes films that basically do the double whammy of being a tax break, while allowing him and his friends to go do some crazy fun weird stuff that normal people just dont go and do. While passing it off as them making an actual movie. They used ‘Jack & Jill’ as their example. But ‘Grown Ups’ is MUCH more glaring of that in action…
…Because, if you didnt know any better, you’d assume that Adam Sandler basically asked a dozen or so of his friends if they fancied 2 months of hanging around in serine log cabin/woodland locations, getting free food and entertainment most nights and free passes to water parks for most of the summer season. Because thats basically all this film is. Sandler and his friends hanging out and doing crazy stuff on a studios budget for 112 minutes with a SUPER thin veil of ‘plotting’ going on about it.
So; the whole plot of the movie is that a group of friends find out that their childhood basketball coach has died, and this prompts them to all reconnect at his funeral, and in turn, agree to dispose of his ashes in a place he wants it being disposed of. Which means they all head out to the wilderness to reconnect with their inner childs, whilst ALSO trying to break their ACTUAL children OUT of being addicted to social media, ‘posh’ water and games consoles.
Cue a runtime that mainly consists of fart jokes, slapstick, innuendos, gratuitous perving and gentle snarking. But its mainly a vacation video.
The best way I can describe how this entire movie feels is to say that it feels VERY much like the scene in ‘Planes Trains and Automobiles’ where Del and Neil are sat in a motel room driking the mini bar dry and talking rubbish, only, while ‘Grown ups’ manages (at times) to capture a degree of sincerity. Its missing almost ALL the weight and emotional development needed to make me actively care about these people and this situation…That, and dragging something that was a 5 minute ‘bit’ in ‘Planes Trains’ into a 112 minute slog here doesnt really help anyone.
My biggest issue with the script is its really just way too ‘soft touch’. The point of a movie (generally speaking) is to introduce some characters, give them a problem to solve, make the problem *seem* like it has the upper hand, and then let our characters resolve it AND ideally grow from the experience, ending the film with them being better people for it.
This film has NON of that! its a modern miracle in that sense. All the characters start off a little run down from their jobs, they drag the whole family out to the woods to ‘reconnect’ and all that happens is they goof about a bit, and then feel a bit brighter at the end. That *isnt* how thats supposed to work!
The film is INCREDIBLY avoident of ANY kind of conflict or issue that last more than one scene. Im not kidding when I say the entire movie is literally just our characters encountering a problem, and then IMMEDIATELY resolving it. OR! Our characters encountering a problem, it getting put on the back burner for a scene while they set something else up, and THEN them solving it almost immediately with no effort.
Probably the best example of this is with Chris Rocks character, who, probably has the ‘rockiest’ (no pun intended) relationship with his spouse. in the 2nd act they show a scene where his wife sees him talking to Adam Sandlers Nanny, and they basically try on EVERY level to establish that, because Chris Rock is talking to another woman, he MUST be being unfaithful. Fast forward not TWO scenes later, and the wife confronts him about what she saw, only for Chris Rocks character to basically say ‘Talking is talking, your my wife’ and then that plot line is just…resolved. gone…and I should point out, theres no maturing that issue, its not like in the scenes in between his wife goes to speak to the other wives about the issue, or that we get to SEE that Chris Rocks character isnt really chatting up ther Nanny…its just created, and then solved as soon as its made. And thats like…90% of the tension in this film. Made to fill time, and solved as quickly as its created.
The tones a bit all over the place, its really trying to create that quasi nostalgic feeling of old friends reconnecting and ‘remembering the good times’. But they dont even really do THAT particularly…they just sort of, talk about stuff that happened after the friendships drifted apart. and they dont really even focus on HOW that happened in the first place. While its doing that, its also trying to be a comedy, but the humours SO all over the place and has SUCH a strong emphasis on gross out (Breastfeeding gags, ugly feet and dry heaving) and slapstick (people in full body casts getting pushed around, people smashing into trees) that it really kind of mutes out the comedy that ACTUALLY HAD heart and feeling behind it. the more subtle moments just get lost to conversations about ‘botch toe.’
Add to that that the pacing seems all out of whack to, to the point that it seems like the film gets more and more improvised as it goes on. We have a very tightly scripted first act, but then the second feels a lot like they just left cameras rolling inbetween takes and told folks to stay in character. The film fully trails off by the third act, and by that point I really was sitting there wondering what the hell the films message actually even was? I mean they loosely try to put a point in there about how the parents realise that spending time with their family has to come above any work or travel commitment. and at the very VERY end theres an incredibly half hearted attempt at trying to sell the idea that ‘everyone deserves a win sometimes’…But its so undercooked that it just comes across as sloppy and thought up in the moment.
The direction and cine are both studio grade for the time. I have next to nothing to say about them honestly, the film looks fine for what it is. The fact it isnt intensely into CGI for the time it came out was a nice addition. It looks fine. It isnt pushing any boundaries, but I wasnt expecting it to, they use colour relatively well, but nothing standout. The cast direction largely seems improvised, but these are (largely) comedians, so the ‘off the cuff’ stuff is a little hit and miss (but for my money) *is* more hit than miss.
The edit is solid enough, I do wonder why they broke 90 minutes for this, it could have easily been 80-90 and probably a little better than what there actually is.
Performance wise, everyones pretty much fine. I feel Sandler and Kevin James have some good chemestry and most of the scenes where they’re together feel the most sincere and humerous. Chris Rock I feel gets downplayed here really, he has a few good moments to shine, but I feel giving him a bit of a ‘down’ personality because of his home life, kind of undercuts the potential he had to really get on top of this casting. Because, when he does shine here, he delivers some of the best moments of the film.
David Spade and Rob Schnider?…ugh. But! a Steve Buschemi cameo WAS very nicely recieved.
On the whole, everyone on screen in this thing seems to have a good personal relationship with each other, and it felt more like watching old friends catch up and LARP a scenario where they all grew up together, than them actually turning in a performance. It means that while I believe these people were having a nice time, I dont believe the characters, I dont believe the scenario. and thats a bit of a problem.
And, the soundtrack was so good, I literally cant remember anything about it (womp womp)
Grown ups is a bit of a rare thing these days, a family oriented movie about a group of adults reconnecting with not only each other, but with their own childhoods and the warmth that can come from remembering where you came from. It evokes series like ‘The Wonder Years’ and most of John Hughes filmography…And yet it really fails to fully understand WHY we so fondly remember those tv shows and films…it ISNT just because the cast talk about what they got up to as kids, its because the cast WERE ultimately well fleshed out, complex characters who the audience got to spend a lot of time with, and the nostalgia factor was a brief window into their souls at some point in the movie/series, rather than the whole point of the movie/series.
Because we dont really KNOW anything about these characters beyond a bullet pointed ‘what they do now’ and a couple of flashbacks to the late 70s, we dont feel the same kind of connection, and that makes a lot of this film feel a bit hollow ultimately. I dont really regret catching this one, as it does have moments. But all I can say is, I hope I get to be friends with Adam Sandler and go on vacation on the studios money some time sooner, rather than later.
TYTD Reviews 