Product: 50 First Dates (Widescreen Special Edition) (2004)
Rating: 3.0
Sweet, gross, sappy, stupid, and did I say sweet?
Adam Sandler plays Henry Roth, a sleezeball cassanova who sleeps with a different woman every day and makes up excuses to never see them again. This is usually very easy for him, since he lives in Hawaii and has encounters with tourists who will quickly be flying away, never to bug him again. He is a veterinarian at an aquarium theme park, where his specialty is working with large sea mammals. He has a better rapport with the animals than with other people.One day, everything changes. He finds himself at an out-of-the-way waffle house where he first spots Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore). He is instantly smitten and quickly makes conversation with her. They arrange to see each other the next morning. He shows up and resumes their conversation, only to see her get "weirded out" and wondering why he is behaving the way he is. The waitress explains Lucy's problem to Henry. After a head injury received in a car wreck, she cannot save short term memories into long-term memories... her slate is wiped clean each night when she sleeps.The film's trailers fail to show the crude sexual humor peppered through out the film and only highlight the sweet sappy flavor of this seemingly doomed romance. When the film was being conceived, they writers no doubt had a lot of laughs and threw in gags and jokes here and there, but didn't have the wisdom to leave some of them on the cutting room floor. First the film is a comedy, then a disgusting sexual parody, then a tragedy, then a sappy romance flick, then a "happily ever after" film - but it does not do well in all these roles.Sean Astin portrays Doug, Lucy's steroid-abusing brother with a bad lisp and not much between the ears. This character simply was not necessary, and if snipped, could have spared the viewer 10-15 minutes of mental drivel.Then there's Henry's aquarium assistant, Alexa (Lusia Strus), who by virtue of being plain and flat-chested has been made out as an androgenous bisexual who is the butt of jokes, including being sprayed on by walrus vomit. It's as though this woman has no feelings, just happy and randy at all times, even though she is treated like garbage. This character could have also been eliminated, spared the viewer another 10 minutes of eye-rolling, and made the romance and drama portion of the movie that much more enjoyable.Lucy's brain injury is no laughing matter and at times, the movie addresses this, as she goes through the mental trauma of daily reliving the fact that each day is another lie, as when she wakes up each morning, she has no idea that a year has gone by. To make Lucy feel better, Dr. Keats (Dan Akroyd) introduces Lucy to "Ten Second Tom" who lost a portion of his brain during a hunting accident, so he can only remember things for 10 seconds. This is incredibly tragic, yet made as a comic relief gag.Ula (Rob Schneider) is Henry's best friend and coworker at the aquarium. While also an improbable character, is a hilarious character and a fun side-kick for comic relief... although he can be quite crude as well.As with every character that Adam Sandler has ever played on the big screen, his character is a pathetic lonely man whose heart is forever changed by one magical moment and a special warm-hearted woman who gives him focus and purpose in life... and then after some drama, they live happily ever after. It's a good formula, but a good 30 minutes could have been snipped from the film and it would have been much better in the long run.The content is so highly valued by the filmmakers, however, that everyone at the screening I attended was searched for any recording devices... another indication that they took every portion of the film so seriously, they weren't able to stand back and with some tough love, edit out the less savory portions and make it a more palatable film.In the end, the film evokes real tears and some real belly laughs, but like a rollercoaster ride after eating a monster chili dog, sometimes the thrills aren't worth pain. Fun to watch, but I never have to see it again.