A Sandler Carol; some laughs, but way too much 'message' to recommend

Rating: 4/10 (23 June 2006)

Now here's something rather paradoxical. I saw the trailer for the new Adam Sandler vehicle, Click, and it was by and large pretty funny, while obvious, and giving the impression that it would be a straight-out comedy. The set-up to the film isn't bad at all, and is sort of promising. But there's something troubling about what is even more obvious as the film goes along. It may be a matter of minutes depending on how soon it might click, no pun intended, what is going on with Sandler's character Michael. And Christopher Walken's ominous, crazy character as the kind of guide for him also brings ahead some clues. It's typical, of course, but it might have been able to bring some more creativity than ended up happening. As it is, I found myself feeling uneasy throughout the third act as Sandler's character has his remote fast-forward through many years and events leaving him in a perpetual sadness until you-know-what with a formula like this finally kicks in. That a lot of this is really overly sentimental and very movie-message like is disappointing, as the filmmakers try to turn around a usual Sandler comedy on its side for the 'Carol' side of it. That it's all wrapped up in this schematic of the film's structure really brings the film down in a way I haven't seen since Sandler's worst film 8 Crazy Nights.
Luckily, when the film IS funny and Sandler and his hit or miss screenwriters get some jokes that work, they do almost as well as those of his (compared to this) classic 90s movie work. True, there are only so many times one can watch a dog have his way with a cushion, but the gag works once or twice. And there are some unexpected bits in a kind of unspoken way in Sandler's films that do spark up some laughs from the practical one-gimmick. Sometimes, too, I even found myself having big laughs when no one else in the theater had them, which I took as a good sign. Plus, the cast is, albeit a little 'uh-huh', not too bad at all for what they're required for (which includes, yes, Sean Astin in a speedo). In fact, if the entire film was just from the first turning point of figuring out the remote to when it 'turns' on him, so to speak, it would be a very good (though short) movie, with at least one or two memorable bits. But in its total running time, my patience wore thin far too many a time, leaving me at the end remembering too much what didn't work than what did. In short, it's one of Sandler and company's lesser works.