Product: 50 First Dates (Widescreen Special Edition) (2004)
Rating: 3.0
Neither here nor there
This could have been a really good movie had the filmmakers been able to settle on what they wanted it to be, and run with it. When it's sweet, it's very sweet, like when Drew Barrymore sings "Wouldn't It Be Nice" at the top of her lungs while painting her father's garage because she's so smitten with Adam Sandler, or when she says "there's nothing like a first kiss" after they kiss for what she thinks is the first time--in three successive scenes that take place on three successive days. When it's bittersweet, or just plain sad, it actually manages to pull that off as well, though I won't give details here, so as not to spoil the plot. When it's stupidly funny, it's pretty stupid, and occasionally quite funny--how could it be otherwise, with Rob Schneider as a native Hawaiian; Sean Astin as a lisping, steroid-abusing idiot; an Eastern European of indeterminate gender; and a gigolo walrus? But all these things really don't work so well together in the same movie, except perhaps for the scene where Sandler serenades Barrymore on his ukulele at the aquarium ("You cracked your head like Gary Busey / Forgetful Lucy").I read somewhere that, given the plot device of Lucy's short-term memory loss, this could have been another "Groundhog Day"--that I'm not sure about. Strangely enough, I found the plot of "50 First Dates" *less* plausible than that of "Groundhog Day," if only because the latter makes total sense if you're willing to grant that Bill Murray really is reliving one day over and over, whereas although losing one's short-term memory is entirely possible in the real world, the behavior of Lucy's friends and family is quite bizarre and illogical at times. However, this could have been a very solid romantic comedy if they had ditched the walrus vomit, "It's Pat" redux, and pretty much all of Sean Astin and Rob Schneider (though I do have to say, the scene in which he's chased down by Barrymore and beaten with a bat is as funny as it looks in the trailer).As it is, it's neither here nor there, so it disappoints on both counts. *Might* be worth it for a weekend matinee--probably better to wait, and rent it when it comes out on DVD.