GROWN UPS

Starring:
Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph, Steve Buscemi and Salma Hayek

Director:
Dennis Dugan

Running Time:
102 mins

Out to buy on Blu-Ray/DVD 17/01/11

"I bet you 5 bucks he gets on one knee."

In 1978 Lenny (Sandler), Eric (James), Kurt (Rock), Marcus (Spade) and Rob (Schneider) became basketball champions and the five have remained friends ever since but they don’t get to see each as often as they’d want. When their coach passes away, the five return to New England with their families to pay their respects on the 4th July weekend. While the friends may have gone their separate ways, they soon remember what their childhood friendships meant to them and they want their families to feel the same way.

In Hollywood Adam Sandler has got to the point where he can actually make what he like and when he gathered together all of his big screen friends for ‘Grown Ups’ can be produce some comedic magic?

A bastion of American Comedy, SNL (Saturday Night Live) has given the world some of the great big screen comedians. Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Mike Myers and Will Farrell to name but a few have all started their carries on the classic show and gone on to be huge Hollywood stars and this happened to Adam Sandler. Since leaving in 1995, Sandler has enjoyed a string of hit movies with the wacky ‘Happy Gilmore’, ‘The Waterboy’, ‘Little Nicky’, ‘Big Daddy’, ‘Click’, ‘I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry’ and ‘You Don’t Mess With The Zohan’, the romantic comedy hits ‘The Wedding Singer’ and ’50 First Dates’ and has even tried his hand at more dramatic roles in ‘Punch-Drunk Love’, ‘Reign Over Me’ and ‘Funny People’. The New Yorker has become a comedic superstar in the US but for most comedy fans you are either in one camp or the other, love him or hate him and ‘Grown Ups’ is going to divide opinion again.

When Adam Sandler turned his hand to the romantic comedy and he starred along side Drew Barrymore, he produced two films that really endeared him to a large target audience. For his more wacky comedies where he gathers together many of his friends like Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider, these are very hit and miss with comedy audiences as, especially when he mixes very American comedy with gutter level toilet humour, they become a required taste and ‘Grown Ups’ is no different.

The storyline is simple. When their Junior High Basketball coach passes away, Lenny and the rest of the team come together to pay their respects. Even though they have kept in contact over the years, they have drifted apart and not really spent as much time together as they wished they could have. With families of their and their careers at differing levels of success, the group come together of the funeral and then decide to spend time together over the 4th July weekend. Of course this leads to some high jinx, some over the top shenanigans and a little, tiny bit of drama that makes them realise the important things in life but the problem is the level of humour really plays to the lowest common denominator. Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider just join in the fun, feeling like they are just there to have a laugh and even the presence of Salma Hayek, Maria Bello and Steve Buscemi can’t push this out of the average level.

Filled with fat jokes, mickey taking, sex gags and gutter level toilet humour, ‘Grown Ups’ is a film for Adam Sandler fans only. This is about a group of friends finding a basic premise and using it as an excuse to have a laugh on a film set but that does not create anything more than average comedy.

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