Yawn

Rating: 4/10 (25 April 2006)

Another predictable piece of fluff from Adam Sandler. As long as there are 15 year-old boys, Sandler will have an audience for his movies. Yell a lot, make jokes about bodily functions, toss in a bit of mindless class envy and a "girl" (never a strong woman) for Sandler's character to sweep off her feet, and you have the basic formula for everything the guy has been in since he left Saturday Night Live. I'm not blaming him or the people that line up to pay good money to watch this stuff -- he makes lots of cash and the people lining up get mindless entertainment. For the most part his attempts at humor are as harmless as they are limited, and a little mindless fun never hurt anybody.Sandler is a one-trick pony, though, and if he doesn't learn some new tricks pretty soon, he'll become the Jerry Lewis of his generation -- a guy who exhausted his one-trick repertoire early on and spent the rest of his career as a caricature of himself. Jim Carrey seems to understand that phenomenon and while he's no Henry Fonda, he has at least expanded from the ham-handed humor that marked his early films into a few roles of some depth. Maybe Sandler doesn't care to expand --he certainly has no obligation to do anything differently and he's making money hand over fist, so it's a fair question to ask why he would want to change. Makes no difference to me, but it might to him when the notion of what's funny changes (as it will) and he hasn't adapted. Then we can all look forward to the Adam Sandler Labor Day Telethon.