Grown Ups (2010) - Sandler & Co. look turgid in film with solely commercial appeal

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Five middle-aged male comedians in a water slide screaming make up this poster for Dennis Dugan's Grown Ups

Five childhood friends meet again as adults, when their high school basketball coach 'the Buzzer' passes away, and they decide to have a weekend vacation around the 4th of July.

 

Grown Ups is written by co-writer/co-producer/co-star Adam Sandler (Reign over Me (2007)) and Fred Wolf (Joe Dirt (2001)) and directed by Dennis Dugan (Problem Child (1990)).

In spite of the prominent funny-men (minus David Spade (Entourage (2015))) and comedienne Maya Rudolph (Sisters (2015)), Grown Ups is surprisingly unfunny. Bad jokes are mixed with vulgar or simplistic slapstick. Everyone: Maria Bello (Abduction (2011)), Salma Hayek (Traffic (2000)), Tim Meadows (Aliens in the Attic (2009)) and Steve Buscemi (Rampart (2011)) included, - look a little bit dumber for appearing in this immature, - immature in the bad way, - strained low-brow burp.

Grown Ups is a dopey product, and it seems a blatantly cynical (or is it merely dumb?) paycheck job. The characters laugh more than plenty in Grown Ups, but as audiences there's not much to grin at concerning these non-characters' outing.

 

Related post:

 

Dennis Dugan: I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007) - James and Sandler marry in Dugan's crude, wrongfully maligned buddy-comedy

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 80 mil. $

Box office: 271.4 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 3.39 times its cost)

[Grown Ups premiered 24 June (Australia, Iceland) and runs 102 minutes. Sandler earned 25 mil. $ from the film. Shooting took place in Los Angeles and Massachusetts, including Boston, from May - August 2009. The film opened #2, behind holdover hit Toy Story 3, to a 40.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#4-#4) and grossed 162 mil. $ (59.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 18.2 mil. $ (6.7 %) and the UK with 12.1 mil. $ (4.5 %). Sandler bought his four male co-stars new Maserati sports cars to celebrate the film's success. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Dugan returned to direct almost the entire cast for sequel Grown Ups 2 (2013), also a hit. Dugan returned first with Just Go With It (2011). Sandler also returned in Just Go With It (2011); Kevin James (Pixels (2015)) in The Dilemma (2011); and Chris Rock (Panther (1995)) in Two Days in New York (2012). Grown Ups is rotten at 11 % with a 3.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Grown Ups? 

Black Sheep (1996) - Maybe Chris Farley's funniest movie

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Crazy-Comedy of the Year 

Chris Farley and David Spade on the hilarity-promising poster for Penelope Spheeris' Black Sheep

QUICK REVIEW:

Here we have an ambitious gubernatorial candidate, whose fat, lead-footed brother so wants to help him out. So he pegs out a campaign worker to ensure that things stay under control as his brother 'helps out'. But pretty soon, damage control is the only kind of control that they can pursue.

Chris Farley is physically astonishing, in Penelope Spheeris' Black Sheep

Chris Farley (Beverly Hills Ninja (1997)) shows himself as a minor comical genius in the discipline of physical comedy here. Unfortunately, David Spade (Grown Ups (2010)) is totally inadequate as his weirdly wimpy 'buddy'.
Black Sheep is an over-the-top, overly happy, silly 90's comedy. Gary Busey (Lethal Weapon (1987)) and Tim Matheson (Animal House (1978)) are both in it as well and are both alright.
This laugh-fest contains many funny and crazy scenes.
There is much disagreement over the movie, though: Some consider it much worse than the buddy couple's previous, similar comedy, Tommy Boy (1995), but I think Black Sheep is far superior. It's far crazier, faster and has far more laughs.
The production of Black Sheep was troubled to say the least: A Paramount hired gig that no-one were very enthusiastic about, apparently, - which seems incredible when you see the film, - was made with a director, Penelope Spheeris (Wayne's World (1992)), who had a very bad relationship with one of the leads, diva Spade, who even claims to have gotten a permanent eye hyper-sensitivity to light-condition during the filming. Spheeris also had big problems with the film's writer Fred Wolf (Grown Ups 2 (2013)) whom she fired three times and eventually banned from the set.
All these facts almost only make the film even more legendary and incredible. - I should also mention that both Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert hated, - really HATED, - Black Sheep.
It all just goes to say ... if you haven't already, - WATCH Black Sheep!

 

Related post:

 

1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

If this trailer doesn't make you laugh, don't watch Black Sheep ... And go to a mirror and look long and hard in it, because what kind of a person are you?!?

Budget: Unknown
Box office: 32.4 mil. $ (US only)
= A hit

What do you think of Black Sheep?
And of Chris Farley, David Spade and Farley's other movies?