A comedy, which at times wanted to be a drama but didn't work out to be the perfect dramedy

Rating: 5/10 (20 February 2004)

Well its February of 2004 and there was only one film that opened this weekend. So I can't say I had much of a choice this weekend except to see 50 First Dates starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. I don't know what to think of Adam Sandler anymore. His career started out good with many funny guilty pleasure films like Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, and The Wedding singer. Then he went to the Waterboy, which was one of the worst films I have ever seen, and then went on to do some so/so films like Big Daddy & Little Nicky. Then every film after Little Nicky as been worst than the next, first with Mr. Deeds, then the awful Punch Drunk Love, then the animated disaster Eight Crazy Nights, and finally the incredibility stupid Anger Management. So needless to say I was very hesitant to see his new film 50 First Dates. The trailer to me didn't look like something I wanted to see but I figured he was teaming up with Drew Barrymore again and I liked the Wedding Singer so I figured what the hell I will give it a shot. I am sure it can't be that bad. So continue on reading to read my thoughts on 50 First Dates
So I walked into the local AMC Theater tonight (Great Product Placement huh) to see 50 First Dates at the 5:20pm showing. The film started and the basic story is this, Adam Sandler plays Henry Roth who is a playboy that sleeps around with all these different women and maybe a guy or two since that's what the film was stating in the beginning. Henry does this because he is scared of commitment so he figures sleeping around would be the best way to never have to commit. Well one day he sees Lucy (Drew Barrymore) at the dinner where he normally goes to eat his meals. He immediately falls in love with her and is no longer afraid of commitment. He only finds out later that Lucy suffers from Short Term Memory Loss and this is were the fun is supposed to start. To me the film seemed more like a Farrelly Brothers comedy than anything else.
Well Adam Sandler is back at it again, same role as always, playing the immature guy who then all of a sudden grows up because he finds true love. Don't believe me watch Mr. Deeds, Anger Management; even films I liked of his like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore all have that love story. Well Adam Sandler does the best he can and by now if you like Adam Sandler you see him do the same thing over and over again and still go home happy. Drew Barrymore was pretty good in the film, although I liked her better in the Wedding Singer. She has a very likable character in the film and the way they write her character you feel very compassionate for her. I also think that Sandler and Barrymore both have great on screen chemistry. The supporting cast in this film is what really drove me nuts and which caused me to not like the film as much I probably would if they haven't been in it. I normally like Rob Schneider (yes he is my guilty pleasure for comedy) but in this film he was intolerable. I wanted him to go away. He annoyed me. His role was so dumb. He played this guy name Ula who was an always-high adventurer. Then we have Steve Astin who played Doug, Lucy's Brother in the film. I didn't get the joke in his character. He had a lisp and took steroids.. To me the character was very annoying. Well then they had this transsexual character, which seems to be the new latest joke in the Sandler films, again another badly written character that I would have been more than happy to do without.
Newcomer George Wing wrote 50 First Dates and I have to assume that he sat down with Adam Sandler and revised the script a bit because there were some very Sandler moments in the film, which we all know he had to put in himself. The film itself seems like something the Farrelly brothers would have done. They usually take a serious disease or syndrome and turn it into a joke. I didn't think a lot of the jokes in the film worked. It was like they were first making fun of the syndrome and the character with the syndrome and then all of a sudden they want us to feel bad for the character. Granted it worked for some people but it didn't really work for me. Jen thought the film was sad and I thought of it more as a sappy way to get you to feel bad for the character. Either way is fine but I didn't care for them trying to mix my emotions. I didn't want to laugh at the character and then feel bad about it, which is basically what the film aimed to do. The Henry Roth character was decently scripted and so was Lucy's character. All the rest of the characters should have been thrown away. It was a so/so script some of it worked, some of it didn't. This film is like a version of Memento if it was turned into a romantic comedy.
The film was directed by Peter Segal, who directed a total of six feature films, 50 first dates being the 6th. The first three films he directed I really enjoyed those being Naked Gun 33 1/3, Tommy Boy, and My Fellow Americans. Then he went on to direct the awful Nutty Professor 2 and Anger Management. So with a director who's first half of films I really enjoyed and the second half of films I didn't really like at all its hard to judge him. Mr. Segal did a great job of capturing the emotions of Lucy in the film. I also think he did a really good job with filming on location in Hawaii. He really caught the beautiful landscapes. I can't really blame the director for the things I didn't like about the film. Well I guess I can because in the end, he probably could have reviewed the film and taken some of the pointless and unfunny characters out.
So in conclusion, I wasn't thrilled with 50 First Dates but it was all right. I must admit it's a hard film to hate. You really start to feel for the Lucy character in the film. The movie was passable at best in my opinion. Jen, on the other hand, was happy with the film and stated that she will be purchasing the DVD for our collection. I can't say anything more than it was a so/so movie. A few jokes worked, many didn't. I actually laughed 2 or 3 times throughout the film and I smiled a few times. I guess that's the best way to judge what I thought of it. So my final thoughts if you like Sandler give this movie a shot I am sure you will enjoy it. If your not a huge Sandler fan or aren't a fan of his at all there are better films to see. The highlight of the film for me was seeing the Johnny Depp Secret Window trailer again. This film would be best at a rental level at the local video store when it hit shelves sometime in the future. My final rating for 50 First Dates is a 5/10.