With Adam Sandler’s last two comedies – Jack and Jill and That’s My Boy – flopping hard at the box office, I can only wonder if (and hope that) his stupid style of humor is on a downward trend. I don’t wish for his failure out of spite or anger, but because I was the good Adam Sandler to return. While Grown Ups 2 is easily the funniest movie that he’s made in several years, it’s still not worthwhile and definitely has the potential to continue killing his star power.
Grown Ups 2 isn’t an actual movie, but a collection of random mostly unconnected scenes that set the characters up for shenanigans. It’s disjointed, like a grouping of back-to-back SNL sketches that don’t flow well. Some of these “sketches” feel like they’re dumbed down for PG audiences, some made for the cruder PG-13 audiences and some for the audiences who enjoy vulgar R-rated. The sketches don’t further a solid story, although there is a microscopic arc that solely paves the way for literally every character to be in the same location at same time for an absurd supposed climax.
Sandler has brought back the majority of the original Grown Ups crew. The only noticeably absent actor is Rob Schneider. Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James and David Spade play the lead characters; Salma Hayek, Maya Rudolph, Maria Bello, Nick Swardson, Steve Buscemi, Colin Quinn, Tim Meadows, Jon Lovitz, Shaquille O’Neal, Steve Austin and Taylor Lautner play the supporting characters. As always, Sandler has included all of his buddies in cameo roles, but this time they appear along side Will Forte, Andy Samberg and the rest of the Lonely Island crew. The lite story follows the principal characters on their kids’ last day of school, coming to a close with a massive impromptu house party.
Chris Rock and (surprisingly) Taylor Lautner bring out the majority of the laughs. David Spade even earns a few good ones. But Sandler and Kevin James continue to remain consistently unfunny. The first Grown Ups was painfully unfunny, so it’s quite an improvement for Grown Ups 2 to make me laugh – but I still cannot recommend it to anyone who doesn’t unapologetically love Sandler’s recent work.
