Thursday, June 24, 2010

A LAZY, FLACCID, COMPLACENT, LIFELESS DUD OF AN EGO-TRIP MASQUERADING AS AN ALLEGED SUMMER COMEDY.: Our friend Dan Fienberg did not care for "Grown Ups":
"Grown Ups" is the least funny theatrical release that any of its stars have ever been a part of.

I just want to let that sink in, because Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider have combined to be in some truly unfunny movies.
But I did love this line:
Because I'm a fair and even-handed reviewer, I have to give a little credit where it's due: Tim Meadows pops up in the third act and his first line of dialogue led to the only time I laughed out loud in the entire movie. That may be the equivalent of bunting in the ninth inning to break up a perfect game or it may be an achievement. Either way, kudos Tim Meadows.
[He was great in "Mean Girls," great in "Walk Hard" -- why doesn't he work more often?]

The AV Club's Scott Tobias claims that the film "betray[s] the toxic arrogance of coasting comic superstars who realize they can exert the least possible effort and still come away with a hit." Its current Rotten Tomatoes score is 13%** -- in other words, it's as bad as "500 Days of Summer" and "Superbad" were deemed good on the Tomatometer. Wow.

**Since I drafted this, now down to 9% -- as bad as "Crazy Heart," "There Will Be Blood" and "Frost/Nixon" were deemed good. The NYT's Stephen Holden calls it "lazy, mean-spirited, incoherent, infantile and, above all, witless."

15 comments:

  1. LisaJunior10:16 PM

    I've been saying for weeks I would rather watch SATC2 every day for a month than see Grown Ups.

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  2. 1.  As Feinberg points out, this seems like one of those movies where the cast decided they'd like to just hang out for a couple of months and the movie studio offered them a bunch of money to do so.  Sometimes, this can give an enjoyable vibe (much of Ocean's 12 has it), but rarely does it yield a coherent film.

    2. It's a particular shame, since pretty much everyone in the movie has made me laugh hard in the past (yes, even Sandler)--I wish Chris Rock could find a better use of his talents than playing third banana beneath Sandler and James.

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  3. Yeah, WTH is Rock doing there?!  This is the guy who drove a Civic even after being on SNL.  I can't see him doing this for the money.  

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  4. Jenn.8:18 AM

    Heh.  Down to 7% on the Tomatometer.  Armond White will probable just love it.

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  5. Andrew10:48 AM

    I was planning on going to see Toy Story this weekend, but now that I know that "Grown Ups" is out, I'm going to have to revise my plans. When have Kevin James, Rob Schneider and David Spade ever not been funny?

    Er, hold on.. aha:

    Seriously, when have Kevin James, Rob Schneider and David Spade ever been funny in any context?

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  6. Anonymous10:58 AM

    I'll offer one for each:

    Kevin James was quite funny in his supporting role in "Hitch," and there are plenty of fans of "King of Queens" out there, for which he did get an Emmy nod one season.

    David Spade was great when he did "Hollywood Minute" on SNL, perfectly fine on "Just Shoot Me," and a nice foil to Chris Farley in "Tommy Boy."

    Rob Schneider is admittedly the hardest, but the "copy guy" sketch on SNL made me laugh more than a few times (hangs head in shame), and "Hot Chick" helped give Rachel McAdams her big break.

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  7. They filmed this movie in my brother's town, north of Boston.  Essentially, all of the guys and their families moved up there and hung out together all last summer.  This was a vacation project and not much else. 

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  8. Oops--that was me.  Work cleared cookies.

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  9. Anonymous11:47 AM

    Finding one moment for each shouldn't be that hard.  I don't know anything of Kevin James's oevre (and he'd probably be the hardest for me).  Spade's '90s work was funny for a '90s sensibility.  It wouldn't work now that tastes have changed, but I agree with Matt that Hollywood Minute was funny.  I wouldn't call it great, but it worked.  I hated Copy Guy with a passion (largely for all of the idiotic regurgitation that otherwise unobjectionable people did of it, but also partly just because I never thought the sketch was funny), but Schneider did three things on SNL that I loved: 

    (1) His greatest moment, irrefutably, was the mother's day special when they did a 10-second taped mom-and-cast-member bit before the commercials.  He sang a little bit of Elvis (unsarcastically), and his mother said he had a nice voice, which looked genuine.  Then she went to hug him, and he did this perfectly timed flinch (like an abused child), which startled her.  It was very dark, very unusual (especially in light of the ingrained beat-beat-punchline cadence of the other mom pieces), and very efficient comedy. 

    (2) Orgasm boy. 

    (3) The nudist-colony sketch, when Schneider goes, "hey, nice penis!" 

    I mean, I think that Rob Schneider is execrable, and I came up with three things that I liked.  But this is taking Andrew's question too literally, because I read his point as "can a person reasonably take the position that the presence of Kevin James, Rob Schneider, or David Spade increases the likelihood that a movie will be funny vs. their absence?"  And on that point, I agree with Andrew:  each makes it substantially less likely that a movie will be as funny as it is intended to be.  I would go further and say the same of the current versions of Adam Sandler and Chris Rock.  Chris Rock is an extremely funny man, but he does not make funny movies. 

    Tim Meadows, on the other hand, is funny every time I see him.  I didn't see the Ladies Man movie, but the Ladies Man sketch always cracked me up.  It was just weird enough.  The highest and best use for Meadows, though, is the role that seems like it's going to be straight man and then completely jumps the rails into angry or surreal territory, but still with straight man delivery.  Like his pissed-off principal in Mean Girls or the school board purchasing officer who turns out to be surprisingly on Michael Scott's exact wavelength in The Office. 

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  10. isaac_spaceman12:04 PM

    That was me.

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  11. Genevieve1:29 PM

    As Roger Ebert previously said to Rob Schneider, "Your movie sucks."

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  12. Paul Tabachneck1:30 PM

    I have always taken issue with the blanket assertion about post-Wayne World SNL movies, because I LOVED the Ladies' Man movie -- especially the musical number led by Will Ferrell.  The elevator beat was so perfectly played -- it was the moment it registered to me that I was having a good time.  Caught me completely off guard. :-D

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  13. Daniel Fienberg2:31 PM

    "Grown Ups" is *markedly* worse than "Frost/Nixon" is good...

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  14. Deena4:12 PM

    Time Meadows has been back in Chicago, improvising a ton and be amazing every time.

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  15. Armond White gave Grown Ups a positive review after panning Toy Story 3.  It never gets old.

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