Cary Grant? Rock Hudson? William Powell? Hell no - ADAM SANDLER!

Rating: 8/10 (20 June 2004)

That Adam Sandler will become known as the 21st Century's king of romantic comedy by subsequent generations of filmgoers is not, I submit, cause for mass lemming-like stampedes of film buffs off the nearest palisades. Like him or not, the guy can really do this stuff in his sleep, and, if anything, "Punch-Drunk Love" and this picture showed that he might actually enjoy doing it enough to start messing around in interesting ways with the genre's ground rules. One major hurdle remains: Sandler must be able to appeal to women in a more direct, salacious (but not offensively so; Grant is the paradigm here) manner than he's presently capable of (or comfortable with). Sandler's still putting himself forward as the cute little boy who eventually evolves into a more adult partner, and his appeal needs to be a little more, well, grown-up. But only a little.... 1998's "The Wedding Singer" (which first teamed Sandler with Drew Barrymore), "Punch-Drunk Love" and this film show how confident Sandler's become as the heir to Cary. And Sandler's already got his core audience locked up and on his side. Now all he needs to do is win over a few more egghead cineastes and he'll join the immortals, whether we like it or not....