Written by: Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel
Directed by: Robert Smigel
Starring: Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Steve Buscemi, Rachel Dratch, Allison Strong
Rated: TV-14
Watch the trailer
Plot
When two very different fathers come together for their children’s wedding, everything that could go wrong, does. Hilarious hi-jinks ensure as the two try to keep everything afloat, while dealing with their families...and each other.
Verdict
This looked like a odd couple crazy wedding movie, and it is to a degree but there's no story. The soon to be married couple are just set pieces as the movie focuses on attempted comedy which makes the heart to heart conversations thrown in at the end jarring. Adam Sandler stammers for two hours, and sometimes the screen is filled with people because this movie is a void. Frequently an attempt at a joke happens. I don't think anyone wanted to be in this movie. After the one hour mark, which I thought and hoped was near the end, my disdain for this movie grew with every second.
Skip it.
Review
This is the fourth of Adam Sandler's original four movie deal with Netflix from October 2014 with a new deal announced in March 2017 for four additional movies. The first three Sandler movies were The Ridiculous 6, The Do-Over, and Sandy Wexler.
We're introduced to Chris Rock as the rock star doctor, Kirby, first. He gets a call from Sandler's character Kenny during surgery, but I don't think a doctor should or would answer the phone during heart surgery. That seems like a major distraction and a breach of procedure. That and he's touching his phone with bloody gloves. That's the problem with the movie, jokes like that don't go far enough. Is this serious or comedic? This isn't far from Sandler's heyday humor, slapstick, silly stuff. That worked when it was an absurd situation like a hockey player playing putt putt, or an adult going to first grade but it's a mismatch in this movie.
The pervading issue in the movie is money. Kenny is prideful and wants to pay for his daughter's wedding though either he can't afford it or is just very frugal. We get no indication he can't afford it, but Kirby is a doctor and apparently obscenely rich. At one point he's in a fancy hotel room with a piano wooing a date. He wants to help pay, but Kenny refuses. The two dads clash over money with Kenny sure he can make it work while cutting every single corner possible. No normal person would accept what Kenny is planning. He's having a wedding and reception at a Motel 6 that is in serious need of repair. Everyone is far too accepting. There is no way his daughter should be okay with this. As cheap as Kenny is, the magician seems like quite the indulgence.
Would anyone act like Kirby and Kenny in the car with no air conditioning? It's just so odd. Kenny doesn't want to cut on the AC to conserve gas, says he will to appease Kirby, then doesn't. Wouldn't Kirby say something. It's for comedic affect and it fails. The whole movie is a farce, people don't act like this. The bigger problem is that it's just not that funny. This is trying to be both dramatic and touching while introducing absurd characters that operate outside of reality. The movie never finds the line. It doesn't attempt to be touching until the last ten minutes, and it never built any foundation for the characters to be emotional or even develop.
Everything that goes wrong is Kenny's fault. If you love your daughter, why wouldn't you want the best for her. Kenny is comically cheap, but that's the point. This movie abandons reality for jokes that are as shoddy as the hotel depicted in the movie.
This could have Sandler's action as his refusal to let go of his daughter, but the movie doesn't attempt that. There's a throwaway line about Chris Rock wanting to be a better dad towards the end, but there is no setup for that. This movie could have focused on the bridge and groom starting their own lives apart from their families. None of that happens.
The three go to jokes are the sheer number of people staying in Kenny's house uninvited, cousin Noah just out of rehab, and Uncle Seymour who has no legs. Seymour is played by Jim Barone who really did lose his legs to diabetes in 2012. He's only six years older than Sandler.
Where is this moving going? The answer is nowhere. This cycles through the same jokes. This is typical with the Netflix-Sandler movies I've seen. One of the better jokes and it's not really even that funny, everyone has new glasses and contacts every few scenes because of an optometrist cousin that gets roped into selling his product at cost as a family discount, which is quite subtle and never directly addressed. I don't know when they had the time to get glasses, but this movie cares little for reality. "Just roll with it." might be the most apt quote of the movie.
Why is this 2 hours long? I thought for sure i was close to the end during the funeral, but I was only half way in. Why does this movie have a funeral? This is atrocious. I want to say this is worse than I thought, but I've seen the other Netflix Sandler movies. I should have known what I was getting into.
So much could be cut out of this movie and not affect anything. This should be ninety minutes long at a maximum. I could edit it down to twenty five and not lose anything.
The funeral, the bats which are just absurd, Adam Sandler pulling a Tyler Perry, and Chris Rocks out of nowhere change of heart, this movie throws so much at you that is unnecessary or has no foundation.
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| "No." That too is my response to this movie. |
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