Adam Sandler is one person, whose movies I never miss. Be it the outrageously funny You Dont Mess with the Zohan, or the romantically sensitive Spanglish.
Teaming up again with the director of Zohan and I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry (the origin of Dostana), Dennis Dugan, Happy Madison Productions present GROWN UPS.
15 minutes into the movie and you know very well that this movie is not about people growing up, it is how boys will be boys..always!
Starting off in 1978, about how Coach Buzzer leads a team of 5 friends to win the junior high basketball championship. In the victory dinner celebrations, the coach gives them a piece of advice, hoping they will follow it throughout their lives.
30 years have passed, life has moved on and with that, so have the 5 friends. Lenny Feder (Adam Sandler) is a top shot, Hollywood talent agent. Married to Roxanne (Salma Hayek), a successful fashion designer herself. Lenny is saddened by the fact that materialistic pleasures have taken over the childhood of his 2 boys. Eric Lamonsoff (Kevin James), married to Sally (Mario Bello) has 2 kids and is the co-owner of a furniture company. Kurt Mckenzie (Chris Rock) lives with his wife Deanne (Maya Rudolph), 2 kids and mother in law. He is a stay at home dad waiting patiently for his wifes third delivery to take place. Marcus Higgins (David Spade) is a single womanizer and Rob Hilliard (Rob Schneider) is married to a woman 30 years his senior.
They all get the news of the death of Coach Buzzer and converge in New England to attend the funeral, where Lenny has planned a weekend stay for the rest of the gang.
Like all Sandler movies, the humour in the film is loud. Sandler shares excellent chemistry with his guy friends in real life and it shows onscreen too. Rob Schneider, Kevin James, Steve Buschemi are his eternal favourites and he rocks with them on screen too. Chris Rock is relatively more subtle than his earlier films though, reacting more to the jokes of Sandler and Spade. David Spade takes the term being cool to new heights. Schneiders new age guru act, gets to you past a point. He comes across as a mix between, Elvis and Ace Venture in the Hare Rama Hare Krishna cult! Kevin James and Sandler, fit into their roles well.
The movie has its moments of buddyness, with the 5 friends having a reunion of sorts at a funeral! Typical Sandler. The ease with which the buddies interact with each other and get to pulling each others legs is what makes this different from the run off the mill types. There is a certain amount of warmth that the men share, which comes across through these interactions. The affection the guys share is natural.
The guys are well complemented in their comic act by Rudolph & Joyce Van Patten. Salma Hayek looks gorgeous as always and is complemented in that department with Mario Bello.
The movie although relies a lot on toilet humour, but it has its moments. The zip line dive by Sandler in the water park, the cup phones episode of the kids or the tooth fairy scene of Hayek, really leave you with a ting in your heart.
No one expects Sandler to come up with a Gandhi, and he lives up to those expectations. All in all, it is worth a watch once, wherein you do not take anything in the movie seriously, cos the movie doesnt.
Does it have THE Y FACTOR:YES
Rating :6/10
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