Grown Ups (2010)
Directed by Dennis Dugan
After their high school basketball coach passes away, five good friends and former teammates reunite for a Fourth of July holiday weekend.
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29 films that influenced Grown Ups
What critics say influenced Grown Ups
This is their The Big Chill.
Co-written by Sandler with Fred Wolf (“Joe Dirt”), “Grown Ups” is a cliched variation on “The Big Chill” with a quintent of friends from childhood reuniting after the death of the coach who long ago guided them to a basketball championship.
Whether it’s the drama of “That Championship Season” or the sardonic humor of “The Big Chill,” this is a pretty sturdy plot.
If you’ve ever wondered what “The Big Chill’’ would be like with old “Saturday Night Live’’ castmates — well, why would you ever have done that?
Imagine if " The Big Chill " were made today.
Reminiscent of "The Big Chill" and "The Great Outdoors," only less wise than the former, less clever than the latter, and more juvenile than both combined, the picture goes about its laid-back way without working up a sweat.
Despite being a retread of the old John Candy formula ( The Great Outdoors and Summer Rental come to mind), Grown Ups does have its moments, mostly thanks to the cast's undeniable chemistry.
Despite being a retread of the old John Candy formula ( The Great Outdoors and Summer Rental come to mind), Grown Ups does have its moments, mostly thanks to the cast's undeniable chemistry.
Stealing one or two broad strokes, but none of the substance, from Jason Miller's "That Championship Season," "Grown Ups" has no plot at all.
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Critics, myself included, continue to gush nostalgically about Adam Sandler in Punch-Drunk Love--just like we did with Jerry Lewis in The King of Comedy.
And as interminable his work was in Blue Streak, Lawrence actually fares even worse here - as his character's motor-mouth tendencies are exacerbated by an ugly emphasis on racist jokes and asides.
I'll take a little bit of the blame for Grown Ups, as someone who was juvenile enough at the time to not just laugh uproariously at Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, but take Rob Schneider and David Spade seriously as comedic actors and revere that era of SNL.
Sandler returns to the brand of comedy that made him a powerhouse on the big screen in the late '90s/early 2000s, and while Grown Ups doesn't live up to Waterboy, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer or even Billy Madison, it generates enough laughs to entertain kids looking for an alternative to animated family fare.
Over a decade and a half, the emotionally-broken man-child of Dugan’s “Happy Gilmore” has tried to turn his unhinged impulses into something redeeming.
He may be 43 and a father, but Sandler remains entrenched in the ribald humor that made him a star in the late '90s with such films as Happy Gilmore , Billy Madison and The Waterboy.
On the grand scale of Adam Sandler movies -- and oh, how grand that scale is! -- Grown Ups registers as a middle-of-the-pack comedy, not the instant classic of a Happy Gilmore or The Wedding Singer but not the heinous affront of Little Nicky.
And Di Quon (2006's " Pulse ") is a comic standout as the put-upon Rita.
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There's also a flatulent big grandma with an infected toe, spoiled kids, a couple of hot babes to ogle and some shots to the crotch to be dispensed, all under the uninspired direction of Dennis Dugan ("You Don't Mess with the Zohan," "The Benchwarmers").
Adam Sandler (2009's " Funny People "), Kevin James (2009's " Paul Blart: Mall Cop "), Chris Rock (2010's " Death at a Funeral "), David Spade (2006's " The Benchwarmers "), and Rob Schneider (2005's " Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo ") share an easy-going chemistry, and no wonder; they're all real-life friends.
"Grown Ups" has fewer laughs than "The Benchwarmers," "Little Nicky" or "Lost & Found."
Adam Sandler (2009's " Funny People "), Kevin James (2009's " Paul Blart: Mall Cop "), Chris Rock (2010's " Death at a Funeral "), David Spade (2006's " The Benchwarmers "), and Rob Schneider (2005's " Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo ") share an easy-going chemistry, and no wonder; they're all real-life friends.