★ 2 / 10
Risible! That's My Boy finds Adam Sandler on
John Chard
Risible! That's My Boy finds Adam Sandler on auto pilot, for this represents him not giving a care in the world about his fans or anyone remotely interested in…
Risible!
That's My Boy finds Adam Sandler on auto pilot, for this represents him not giving a care in the world about his fans or anyone remotely interested in watching a decent comedy. Sure this has fans, and it's not my want to chastise people's personal preferences, especially with what makes them laugh, and certainly making light of serious issues doesn't have me signing up for the next PC Brigade march, but this is pathetically played.
It was a colossal failure at the box offices, and it deserved to be. Sandler and his writer, David Caspe, blend edgy offensiveness with base juvenile comedy, throwing erection and sperm gags together with incest and statutory rape was always going to be tricky to successfully pull off, even more so when Sandler and co seem to think shouting loud makes scenes more funny. It's just that it never comes off as a funny whole, just a series of mind farts dotted alongside a potentially warm bonding between estranged father and son thread.
Next to this Little Nicky looks a masterpiece! It's a tough film for Sandler fans to defend, and I have been one in the past, but when Vanilla Ice sending himself up is a highlight then you got problems. Whilst Susan Sarandon and James Caan should look in the mirror and ask questions about appearing in this... 3/10
Read full review
★ 4 / 10
Bad watch, won't watch again, and can't recommend
Kamurai
Bad watch, won't watch again, and can't recommend. I really couldn't believe I didn't know about this movie before. I've organized a series of Happy Madison…
Bad watch, won't watch again, and can't recommend.
I really couldn't believe I didn't know about this movie before. I've organized a series of Happy Madison watch parties before, but after watching it, then I know why I didn't know about ti.
Now I'm not a big fan of either Adam Sandler (though he has movies I enjoy, repeatedly) or Andy Samberg (I think he's better at creating comedy than performing it), but this was really like he was at a party with a big head and bet someone that he could make anything funny.
So, of course, the movie starts with a statutory rape case. Now, MAYBE, he was making a message out of the ridiculous double standard about whether or not the minor is male or female, but the seriousness of the situation (though flatly stated in the movie) is not conveyed properly.
Since most of the movie is about sex, and possibly alcoholism (again, the point isn't made very clearly), there is a fair amount of sex positive messaging throughout the movie, being inclusive of maturity, skin color, body type, handicapability, and open expression. However because there is a key component of adultery and incest used for humiliation and comedy, it throws any of the previous sex situations into comedy bits, which means not only the message to laugh at people in a messed up sex situation because of incest / adultery (the morality between the two directly addressed), but also statutory rape, the elderly having sex, people expressing thoughts about sex, sex with big black women as things that are comical and that you shouldn't do and should repress. And if that's a thing, then fine, but don't make a movie about it and make me think about it, and then call it a comedy.
All of that is on top of the usual thing where everyone wants to bang Adam Sandler, and then he's an alcoholic on top of it, and then we add the litany of things that happen to Andy Samberg's character, to include child neglect, and probably abuse. And it's great for a family to rectify and come to terms together, but to make a movie where they bond over Donny's awful social magic is a weird message on which to make a production.
Look, I like being able to turn off my brain and watch some silly movie, and I was ready for it, but then I go thrown into a someone else's debate about if it's okay for a high schooler to knock up his teacher, and it kind of ruined it for me.
Read full review
★ 6 / 10
am i the only one who mildly enjoyed it?!?!?!?
mbs
Yes, its not nearly as good as anything Sandler starred in in the 90's but i would argue that its about on par with most of the stuff he's been in in the 00's…
Yes, its not nearly as good as anything Sandler starred in in the 90's but i would argue that its about on par with most of the stuff he's been in in the 00's laugh wise. (On the scale of movies from the 00's,I think its probably the equivalent to "I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry" if only Andy Samburg were as good playing off of Sandler as Kevin James was. Samburg's not bad, but the movie really doesn't let him do anything outside being the straight man here.) Its certainly got more laughs in it then Jack and Jill at the least. No, not everything that's in it is funny, yes it goes on for way, way, way longer then it should. Yes, some of the jokes are pretty awful. Yes the premise is quite unbelievable. (30 years after the student/teacher affair scandal rocked the tabloids--why would random people still know who Sandler's character is by sight? especially if he hasn't been in the media in a good decade or two at that point and he was near completely broke???) Plot holes aside I would still be lying if i said that i didn't laugh at a fair number of things that happen throughout the film, and i would be lying if i said that i didn't think the semi serious scenes between Sandler and Samburg didn't work. I thought they were really effective. The scene where Sandler is hugging Samburg and tells him he regrets letting him go all those years ago and that he wished he'd been a better dad and samburg drunkenly forgiving him and kind of shrugging off the years of resentment actually felt heartfelt and genuine. That's really what drunken forgiveness looks like. It was kind of similar to the scenes in "Chuck and Larry" where Sandler stands up in open court and says how he feels flat out about people who call him names and how much they hurt more then he'd ever care to admit in public. Sure those scenes were written to give both films some semblance of dramatic heft--and to give Sandler something dramatic to play-but to me they were both effective, and they both show how even in somewhat tossed off comedies Sandler can still manage to maintain his dignity on screen and come off as a better actor then the material. Maybe he really has become a better actor as he's gotten older, because i really think he's a lot better at playing these serious heartfelt moments towards the last half hour of his films where his character is supposed to learn a lesson then he's ever been before. (Especially in something like Click where the humor turns much more bittersweet in the last half) Its because I felt that Sandler geuinely wanted to be a better person to his kid, that i thought the ending worked, (even if the end reveal does kind of come out of nowhere) and i thought the movie to be a resonably good time if you've liked sandler's movies these past number of years more or less....and c'mon some of the things happening are pretty funny.Also the very quick scene with Vanilla Ice where Sandler asks him to drive him at the end and Vanilla goes "You Kidding Me????" and then strikes a pose and then Sandler waits a beat and says "Is that a yes or a no? I don't know what that pose means Ice." was pretty hilarious--and that was just a tossed off thing. (Why wouldn't Sandler's character be friends with Vanilla Ice anyways???)
Read full review
20%
TOMATOMETER
· 109 reviews
51%
AUDIENCE
· 100K ratings
5.6/10
123.9K
•••
WHATS UUUUUUUUP!