Blended (2014)
Directed by Frank Coraci
Recently divorced mom Lauren and widowed dad Jim let their friends push them into a blind date, which goes disastrously wrong. Unsurprisingly, neither wants to see the other ever again. However, fate intervenes when both Jim and Lauren, unbeknownst to each other, purchase one-half of the same vacation package at a South African resort for families, during spring break. They and their children are forced to share the same romantic suite and participate in a slew of family activities together.
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One of the more interesting aspects of the movie is the fact that Sandler's girls are essentially tomboys, with haircuts lifted directly from Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men" and an enthusiasm for organized sports (one of them is named Espn, after the 24-hour sports channel).
The screenplay is by Ivan Menchell of “The Nanny” and Clare Sera of “The Princess Diaries.”
However, compared to movies like “Jack and Jill,” “Grown Ups 2” and “That’s My Boy,” “Blended” is like “Citizen Kane.”
At a conceptual level, Blended had as much promise to examine Sandler's diametric impulses as anything this side of Jack and Jill (giving Armond White and his instantly notorious rave review of the film the rhetorical benefit of the doubt), which literally split Sandler in two before unconvincingly proposing that both Jill the crass buffoon and Jack the kind-hearted oaf complete each other.
In his big-screen comedy career, Adam Sandler has been paired with everyone from Jennifer Aniston (2011’s Just Go With It) to an obnoxious kid (1999’s Big Daddy) to his comedian-actor buddies (the two Grown-Ups films, 2010 and 2013) to himself (2011’s Jack and Jill, possibly the most wretched of this mostly awful bunch).
The pair had previously been featured in 50 First Dates and The Wedding Singer (which was directed by Coraci) to both critical and commercial acclaim and, after a string of profitable but mostly panned projects like Jack and Jill , Grown Ups 2 , and Zookeeper , a rom-com with Barrymore may be a welcome (albeit safe) palate cleanser for moviegoers that have tired of Sandler's childish antics.
Although the comedy is hardly uproarious, and is often downright clunky, it's an improvement over Sandler's last few tone-deaf efforts, like Grown-Ups and Grown Ups 2,That's My Boy and Jack and Jill.
I'm not sure what's more offensive: a Sandler movie memorable for being terrifically, spectacularly terrible, like “Jack and Jill,” “That’s My Boy” or “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan,” or merely modestly lousy, like ”Blended.”