My Review: Jack and Jill (2/10)

¨His twin sister is coming for the holidays…and it ain`t pretty.¨

Adam Sandler stars in yet another disastrous comedy this year, this time playing two characters: a male and female version of himself. This is just one of those movies Sandler could make with his eyes closed. It requires no dedication from him whatsoever and I don’t blame him. Why try to change what you do when it is having results? It doesn’t matter that the critics don’t enjoy his films because the audience seems to keep on coming back for more. I find most of his films pretty much alike and haven’t enjoyed one of them in a long time, but it doesn’t matter because Sandler fans will continue to support his movies and fill theater seats. One thing is for sure, Sandler has a lot of fun at work. He probably has a blast making these easy movies which don’t have anything memorable about them, but sometimes are enough for a few laughs. I think I enjoyed Just go With It a little more than this movie, but I really had a hard time deciding which film was worse. Director Dennis Dugan has worked many times with Sandler in the past beginning with Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, and ending with Grown Ups and Just Go With It. They seem to be making the same films over and over again and repeating the same jokes, but Sandler has his fan base and he stays true to them. I enjoyed his earlier films, but have stopped doing so in recent years. The jokes have gotten old and there are many other better comedies coming out these days. I wouldn’t be surprised if this film actually wins every Razzie Award it`s been nominated for, including Worst Picture.

Jack Sadelstein (Adam Sandler) is a successful commercial producer who has a happy life alongside his wife, Erin (Katie Holmes), and two children, Sofia (Elodie Tougne) and Gary (Rohan Chand). They are expecting Jack`s twin sister, Jill (Adam Sandler), annual visit for Thanksgiving. Jack doesn’t get along with Jill very much although she thinks the best of him and misses the old days when they spent all day together. The truth is Jill is very loud and obnoxious and Jack enjoys his normal and quiet family life. What should have been only a weekend visit ends up being a long one since Jill feels lonely after her mother has passed away. She ends up staying and things get out of hand at times. In the meantime, Jack needs to sign Al Pacino (played by himself) for a commercial and so decides to try to convince him to accept the offer. Pacino ends up falling in love with Jill, but she wants nothing to do with him. Jack tries to use her in order to convince him to do the commercial but things begin to get out of hand. The film doesn’t really have much of a plot as we have to sit down and see a Sandler double feature but that is pretty much all I can say about the plot synopsis.

I don’t see how anyone could actually enjoy this film, but I`m guessing most Sandler fans will like this considering they get to see two Sandler characters. The highlight of the films might be the special cameo appearances as we get to see Shaq, David Spade, Norm MacDonald, Dana Carvey, Regis Philbin, Dan Patrick, Drew Carey, John McEnroe, and Johnny Depp among many others. I don’t know how Sandler gets all these people to show up in his movies but somehow he manages too. This may be Al Pacino`s worst role to date, I guess he just wanted to try something new, but he looked absolutely ridiculous in this film. Katie Holmes was alright, she didn’t have to do much, and her character wasn’t funny so she just played a safe role. Eugenio Derbez was the best thing about the movie. His character, Felipe the gardener, was by far the funniest thing about Jack and Jill. There is not much more I can say about this, It is really a lazy comedy, but I can see how all these actors might have had such a fun time playing together and making easy money. I was tempted to stop watching this movie right after it started, but I decided to suck it up and stay to the end. My favorite scene was when Jill was working out in the cruise with the two beefed up men and making them look bad. I really laughed hard at that scene, probably because I was just too bored with the rest of this terrible movie.

http://estebueno10.blogspot.com

My Review: Just Go With It (4/10)

¨Feels good being honest, doesn`t it? Were you telling the truth when you said you might be in love with me? ¨

It actually feels good being honest; unfortunately there is nothing honest about this romantic comedy. The movie is just one big lie after another and I simply couldn`t just go along with it. It made no sense at all and at the same time a five year old could know where this movie was heading from the opening credits. The jokes and gags have been told before by Adam Sandler himself and repeated over and over again in his movies. It was funny in his early Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore days, but listening to the same joke repeated time after time again is simply not funny anymore. As for the romance, if you`ve ever seen a chic flick you`ve also seen Just Go With It and it`s clichés. Dennis Dugan has directed Adam Sandler at least half a dozen times before and they seem to be making the same movie over and over again. I don`t blame them: their films make money in the box office and they seem to be having a lot of fun at work because they don`t even have to try to make a good film because audiences simply are willing to just go with it. If you are the type of viewer who doesn`t really care too much about originality, good acting, or good scripts, then you probably will have a good time just going with it, but I guarantee you will forget you even saw it the next day. This movie was just so predictable from the very beginning to the very end that I simply couldn`t just go with it.

This time around Adam Sandler is Danny, a plastic surgeon and a player with the ladies. His heart was broken several years ago on his wedding night, but he also learned an important lesson on how to get girls to fall for him. He keeps the ring and tells the girls he is married, but is going through a rough time. Apparently they all seem to have a weakness for broken hearted and committed men so he gets what he wants: a one night stand and no relationships. The only person who he is really honest to is his assistant, Katherine (Jennifer Aniston), who somehow finds his ¨romantic stories¨ amusing. She is a single loving mother of two children: Maggie (Bailee Madison) and Michael (Griffin Gluck). The player finally ends up falling in love with a gorgeous and much younger woman named Palmer (Brooklyn Decker) who is a sweet math teacher. Danny never actually plays the married card with her, but the next morning she discovers the ring in Danny`s pocket and is upset that she has slept with a married man. Her parents got divorced and she had promised herself she would never wreck a marriage. Danny really likes this girl so he does the only thing he really knows how to do which is to lie. He says that he is getting divorced, that his wife cheated on him, but Palmer won`t believe him until she hears it from his soon to be ex-wife. Danny asks Katherine to act as her, but through a mix up her kids also get involved and now Palmer wants to spend time with the kids so they all travel together to Hawaii and the lies begin to build.

Adam Sandler always finds the best locations to make his movies. He really makes sure he is going to have a fun time while filming. I don’t blame him; he is a great comedian and really doesn’t have to try too hard. He has proven he can act in dramatic roles as well like Drunk Punch Love or Reign Over Me, but those great movies simply don`t get that much recognition or bring in huge box office numbers, so why stress out when audiences continue to go with his light comedies? Jennifer Aniston is a great actress, and she was alright in this movie. Brooklyn Decker might be beautiful, but she isn`t a good actress. My favorite performance came from Bailee Madison; the girl has a lot of charisma and she delivered the most laughs in my opinion. Nicole Kidman and Dave Matthews play secondary characters and they share some moments, but the script really didn`t help anyone out that much. Nick Swardson played the role of the dumb and obsessed with girls’ character that always shows up in an Adam Sandler film. His sole purpose in the movie is just to be ridiculous. I didn’t find him funny at all. I really don’t understand how Sandler`s character was planning on having a long relationship with this girl with all these lies he was telling her. How does a loving mother go along by dragging her kids into this mess? I mean the kids weren’t going to disappear after the ¨family vacation, ¨ but I guess it really didn`t matter because we knew exactly what direction the movie was going to go anyway. All we had to do was sit down, leave our brains at home, and just go with it.

http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/