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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 13.25%
Worth A Look: 32.45%
Average: 19.87%
Pretty Bad: 23.84%
Total Crap: 10.6%
10 reviews, 91 user ratings
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| 50 First Dates |
by Scott Weinberg
"Adam Sandler & Drew Barrymore: The Next Chevy Chase & Goldie Hawn?"
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It would please me greatly to call Adam Sandler & Drew Barrymore the modern-day Chevy Chase & Goldie Hawn. Why? Because Chase and Hawn made precisely two movies together, and the lazy and formless "50 First Dates" represents the second go-round for the duo of Drew & Adam. Which means we'd be done seeing these two together.To answer the most obvious question: yes, Adam Sandler's latest is not at all unlike his five previous projects, if perhaps a little more cuddly so as to bring in and appease the female crowd. But just because 50 First Dates is not as outspokenly awful as a Big Daddy or an Anger Management...that doesn't automatically make it a good movie. For all its forced niceness, 50 First Dates is, quite simply, not all that funny.
Eschewing the Loud & Raunchy approach that has made him millions of frat-boy fans the world over, Sandler tries a return to his "milder" persona - the one that helped make The Wedding Singer his biggest crossover hit to date. Going so far as to wrangle his former "Wedding" co-star Drew Barrymore back for a second go-round, Adam Sandler is clearly shooting for a Meg Ryan-style rom-com here.
The gimmick this time around (and let's be honest; Adam Sandler movies don't have plots so much as they have easily-digestible gimmicks) is that Sandler has a kooky girlfriend who has no short-term memory. Every time Barrymore's Lucy Whitney hits the sheets, the previous 24 hours are wiped from her memory. Therefore Sandler has to woo her anew every day.
Sounds like a perfect combination of high-concept comedy and romantic silliness ad nauseum, right? Such might have been the case if the screenplay (courtesy of one George Wing, a newcomer to Sandler's camp) had offered some genuine laughs, as opposed to a limp collection of schtick culled from Sandler's previous movies. [Note to Mr. Sandler: That "pretend you're beating me up" gag? Wasn't all that funny in Mr. Deeds, and your recycling of it in 50 First Dates indicates a supreme sense of laziness.]
The two leads are perfectly likeable, if not more than a little insubstantial. One never gets the impression they're watching two characters in a movie; this affair is a Sandler / Barrymore vehicle all the way, which might make the fans happy, but proves fairly tiresome to those of us looking for something beyond funny voices, puppy-dog eyes and quirky-girl nose-crinkling.
As is often the case in Sandler's movies, we're offered a colorful collection of supporting actors, none of whom are given anything particularly creative to do. Sean Astin plays a lisping bodybuilder who uses Steroids. Those three character points are beaten into the ground within Astin's first three scenes. Rob Schneider is once again on hand (this time as a slobbish Hawaiian) to continue showcasing his complete lack of acting talent. (Hey, the guy used to be hilarious on SNL, but that seems like a million years ago.) Dan Aykroyd has a few straight-man scenes as Lucy's doctor; why you'd hire a comedian for a gag-free role makes no sense to me, but it's always nice to see Dan Aykroyd anyway.It's as if Sandler and his handlers wanted to use 1/3 slob comedy, 1/3 romantic schmaltz and 1/3 of their favorites parts of "Memento" and "Groundhog Day". The result is as choppy and unformed as one might expect from such a recipe.
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=8698&reviewer=128
originally posted: 02/20/04 03:33:11
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USA
13-Feb-2004 (PG-13)
DVD: 15-Jun-2004
UK
N/A
Australia
25-Mar-2004
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