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Take a bucketful of Saturday Night Live alumni, add director Bill Dugan who has a long list of comedies, and throw in a script that allows its cast to show their stuff, and you have a recipe for laughter. That’s what Grown Ups delivers, and I don’t know a better way this hot summer to chill out at the movies.
Following the death of their grade school coach, the basketball team members that won him a championship, Lenny (Adam Sandler), Eric (Kevin James), Kurt (Chris Rock), Marcus (David Spade) and Rob (Rob Schneider), attend his funeral. After the services, the team gets together for an impromptu reunion at the lake house where they had celebrated their big win 30 years earlier. Each brings their families with them for the retreat. When they start to reminisce about the past and their families start to mingle, the fun begins.
Thanks to some very good directing, I liked the central characters in the film, each able to offer their brand of comedy without being stepped on. To me it looked like director Dennis Dugan just gave Sandler, James, Spade, Rock and Schneider the basic lines for each scene and then let the group go at it, ad libbing throughout. Although Dugan does get a little out of control at times, especially during the water park scenes, his ability to keep that many crazy comics on track is a great feat.
The humor in the Grown Ups is wide-range. It’s physical, situation comedy, scripted, ad lib, slap stick, tongue-in-cheek -- all the improvisation techniques used to make Saturday Night Live a huge success. Thrown in the mix, you’ll even see a stand-up comedy routine by David Spade and some dark comedy by Rob Schneider. It’s all in fun, and the cast does their best to please in spite of a plot that doesn’t have much of a story.
You can count on some interesting support players, including the likes of Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Joyce Van Patten, Norm MacDonald (SNL), Colin Quinn (SNL), Tim Herlihy (SNL), Tim Meadows (SNL), Maya Rudolph (SNL), Jackie Sandler (Adam’s wife), Sadie Sandler (Adam’s daughter), and Sunny Sandler (Adam’s daughter).
The film is rated PG-13 for crude material, including suggestive references, language and some male rear nudity.
FINAL ANALYSIS: This cool comedy provides a lot of laughs.
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