contrast

Rating: Null/10 (2 January 2009)

Another simple and highly used formula for Hollywood comedy: a simple, supposedly deep, honest sincere, moral issue: you have to seize the journey, living is the most important thing, don't choose work and success over your family.
Than you add a device that allows you to move further and explain the morals, in this case a remote which controls time development, and which allows you to move forward and back in time, and eventually making you loose control (he uses preferences).
Than, Sandler, who is supposed to make it work. Well, i don't give much for his comedy skills, with few exceptions. But even for those who enjoy his best performances, i think this may stay a couple meters below what he can deliver.
Comedy and Drama can be a very powerful mixture in the right hands. Chaplin may have invented the notion, and is probably the absolute master of the genre to these days. It's something that is based in high contrasts, therefore enhancing the drama bits. If it is well driven, it can tear you a part: the filmmaker makes you laugh out loud, enjoy yourself with the "frivolities" of life, and than, suddenly, or gradually, you're pushed into a narrow abyss of sadness, which is enhanced by your previous state of joy. Contrast. Well, these guys didn't do it, they weren't close to it.
My opinion: 1/5
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