“Grown Ups” One Big Letdown
Jul 7th
One Big Letdown
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
GROWN UPS isn’t just bad, it is embarrassingly bad.
This movie is so lame that it gives lame a bad name.
To modify a line from Robert Benchley, this is one of those movies in which all the actors unfortunately enunciated very clearly.
This movie reminded me of sex, or in other words the most fun you can have without laughing, except for the part about fun.
I’m not in the habit of forgetting movies, but in this case I will make an exception.
But I digress.
Adam Sandler is responsible for this sorry excuse of a movie, and you get the notion that he just called four or five of his buddies and said in the best Mickey Rooney tradition, “Hey, I’ve got an idea. Let’s make a movie!”
The premise is that in 1978 five kids won a championship basketball game on the last shot at the buzzer, it was the only championship team the coach ever had, and Coach “Buzzer” was very special to those boys.
Well, 30 years later, the coach has died, and the kid who made the winning shot, Adam Sandler, arranges for the other four team members to all show up for the coach’s funeral in New England with their families.
The other team members have grown up to be Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider, and they all show up with their wives, children, and other assorted baggage.
They all stay together in a cabin by a lake, and there are lots of jokes about the kids texting instead of just talking, lots of jokes about rude and obnoxious kids, lots of breast-feeding jokes, lots of fart jokes, urinating jokes, more fart jokes, old-age jokes, and jokes about city kids learning how to play outside without video games.
Finally, you just wait for the movie to be over, and you ask yourself what is Salma Hayek doing in this movie, what is Maria Bello doing in this movie, and even what is Steve Buscemi doing in this movie?
And, of course, at the end there is too much talking as all the couples become honest with each other, but even worse than that, there is a Big Game rematch with the grown-up kids from the other team.
GROWN UPS is just equal-opportunity put-downs and one big letdown.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Grown Ups – Movie Trailer
Jul 6th
Thirty years after graduating from high school, five former basketball teammates gather at the lake house where they celebrated their biggest victory to mourn the passing of their late coach. Over the course of the Fourth of July weekend, the five friends realize that just because they’ve all grown up and started families doesn’t mean that they’ve lost that old spark. Adulthood is what you make of it, and no one at the lake house is eager to be the grown-up of the gang. Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade, and Rob Schneider star in a film written by Sandler and Fred Wolf, and directed by Dennis Dugan (I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan). Maria Bello, Salma Hayek, and Maya Rudolph co-star.
“Solitary Man” Scoundrel of a Man
Jul 1st
Scoundrel of a Man
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
SOLITARY MAN shows audiences that Michael Douglas just keeps getting better with age.
Douglas plays Ben Kalmen, successful owner of numerous car dealerships all over Long Island and New Jersey, and the movie begins with a title that says “About 6-1/2 Years Ago.” Ben is in his doctor’s office, where he has just taken his yearly physical, and the doctor comes in and says, “I don’t love your EKG.”
Then we cut suddenly to today, and Ben’s fortunes have changed. He doesn’t want his daughter to call him “Dad” in public, and he doesn’t want his grandson to call him “Grandpa.”
Ben is divorced, he is almost 60, and he is dating a woman for what we are told is to establish a connection with her father.
You see, Ben did something illegal that caused embarrassment to the auto industry, he paid a fine in order to keep from going to prison, and he lost all his dealerships.
Meanwhile, his girlfriend’s daughter, Allyson, is trying to get accepted at Ben’s alma mater in Boston, and when her mother comes down with the flu, she asks Ben to accompany Allyson on her college interview.
Ben not only knows the dean personally, but he has also been a large donor to the college, and his name is on the library.
However, while they are on campus, Ben gets into a fight with a student over a frisbee, and he has a run-in with the campus police.
Allyson is assigned a student, Daniel Cheston, to show her around, and Ben takes it upon himself to give Daniel advice on dating, which he also does with Allyson, but his advice to Allyson takes a surprising turn.
Ben also looks up an old college friend named Jimmy, whom he hasn’t seen in 30 years and who is played by Danny DeVito. Ben had said that he would never come back to the town, and Jimmy had said that he would never leave.
Ben had met his ex-wife, played by Susan Sarandan, on a park bench that is still there, which he remembers fondly.
However, Ben’s actions just keep getting him into more and more trouble, and eventually we learn what caused him to change and bring it all upon himself.
SOLITARY MAN is a terrific study of a scoundrel of a man.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
