Some movies strain for their laughs, while others just have to turn the camera on their stars and the guffaws will flow. “Grown Ups” is one of the latter, a laid-back yet hilarious film that doesn’t have much of a plot but has a non-stop stream of funny lines and situations expertly played by a team of ace comic performers whose associations go back nearly 20 years now.
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Starring the powerhouse cast of “SNL” vets Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider and Maya Rudolph in addition to Sandler’s “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” costar Kevin James, “Grown Ups” actually does attempt to show these man-children in an occasionally mature and middle-aged way. Frequent Sandler director Dennis Dugan (“Chuck and Larry,” “Big Daddy”) also shows a somewhat more mature style that still knows when to cut loose with broadly funny situations.
The five lead guys are first shown as boys in 1978, winning a big basketball game against a team of thugs led by Colin Quinn’s youthful alter ego while under the expert leadership of a beloved coach. When the coach dies 30 years later, the boys return as forty-something men to pay tribute to their coach with a weekend that features much more than the church service and scattering of ashes.
These guys are out to reclaim their youth for even a couple of days, even as they are now mostly married (except for Spade, who plays his trademark single-guy cad to arch perfection) and mostly fathers (except for Schneider, who’s hilariously married to a much-older Joyce Van Patten). Sandler is a hotshot Hollywood agent whose kids are spoiled rotten and who’s married to a star fashion designer played by Salma Hayek, while James is saddled with a couple of kids including a 4 year old son whose mom (Maria Bello) just won’t stop breast-feeding him. And Rock is a henpecked Mr. Mom who has to learn to stand up for himself against his corporate-hotshot wife (Rudolph).
Through a series of funny yet relatable misadventures ranging from swinging through trees, mishaps at a water park and a climactic basketball rematch against Quinn’s team of sad-sack losers who never left town, the fab five slip easily into a camaraderie that’s rare on screen and immediately sets audiences at ease and ready to laugh.
Sure, there are some humorously risqué moments (mostly involving Bello’s breastfeeding and Schneider’s improbably hot adult daughters), but the film also shows the importance of strong families, teaching kids to break away from the wasteland of television and video games in favor of outdoor fun, and in a 4th of July sequence it has a positive portrayal of the pride inherent in our celebration of America’s birthday. The overall spirit of the film is of slightly naughty fun that anyone can still enjoy.
All in all, “Grown Ups” is an affordable two-hour getaway that will make you feel like you’ve spent a fun weekend with its stars. It is comparable in plot yet vastly superior to last year’s blandly disappointing “Couples Retreat,” and hopefully will at least match that film’s status as a $100 million blockbuster. It certainly deserves its success much more.
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