In the summer of 2010 Adam Sandler got together a bunch of his friends from "Saturday Night Live" (plus Kevin James filling in for dead Chris Farley) and made a film called "Grown Ups."
Despite solid numbers at the box office, this film, as with most of Sandler's more recent films, was a critical failure.
I saw the film with my dad, and while it was by no means a good film, it wasn't as terrible as everyone wanted me to believe.
I'm a big believer that people should make up their own minds. They shouldn't believe something is good or bad just because someone else tells them it is. That is why I hesitate to recommend movies to people, because the merits I judge a movie on are most likely not the same things they will judge a movie on.
But I have one reason that this movie is better than most of Sandler's other recent efforts: This movie is much grounded in reality. It doesn't have a wacky premise that drives the plot forward, or an odd gimmick to try and draw people into seeing it. The movie is based on five friends getting together over a weekend with their families to honor their dead basketball coach. The film's climax is the equivalent of a pick-up game is someone's backyard. In this way, it is a much more modest film than some of Sandler's other films.
The movie includes the exaggerated moments and crude childish humor that have come to define Sandler's films, but they are placed in a more relatable context.
This movie is free of funny voices, fake gay fire fighters and magic remote controls. It also doesn't try and convince the viewer to take Sandler as a serious actor.
What it does, however, is recapture, in a small way, the magic chemistry that existed between Sandler and his fellow "SNL" cast mates in the early 90's.
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