Interesting premise, but completely Sandler-ized

Rating: 5/10 (1 August 2005)

OK, let's get the obvious comments out of the way: "Groundhog Day" bladibladi "Memento" blablabla "The Misadventures of Death And Phug" blabla. Yes, this movie is about a person with no memory, repeating the same day over and over again. This has been done before, but it's not a clichÃ© - and anyway, the angle of this movie is a lot different than those three, so let's just give all that a rest.
In actual fact, I found the concept of this movie interesting - a real twist on the old love story fare. Man With Fear Of Commitment Finds Woman With No Memory - it's a fun little jigsaw. And, for all intents and purposes, the skeleton of this movie works fine.
But. BUT! This is where I get annoyed. This movie is crammed full of pointless and annoying cheap gags. I don't know if it's just me, but I am not particularly appreciative of super-intelligent cutesy animals who understand everything said to them in plain English and respond with a suitable adorable sound/flipper gesture. Animals don't act like this. They never have, they never will. It p***es me off. Also, the movie just HAD to tack on some meaningless gross-out moments via the horny and androgynous Slavic assistant and (hold on to your hats and glasses) somebody getting showered from head to foot in walrus puke. Ah, the subtlety. And will somebody shut the old Hawaiian guy up, who has no function in the movie other than saying "hilarious" cuss words?
I think the writer of the original screenplay is pretty horrified at how his movie was represented. I would have been.