'Grown Ups' opts for the juvenile instead of the mature

Posted June 24, 2010 11:00 pm

Dann Gire

"Grown Ups" is a sleazy, hypocritical family comedy that makes fun of fat people for being overweight, ridicules older people for having a libido, makes sport of "ugly" girls for not being supermodels, pokes fun at older women for expelling excessive gas, and gets mileage out of plopping people's faces into animal poop.

Clearly, a market exists for this juvenile, witless comedy, as evidenced by a Monday night preview of "Grown Ups" where viewers roared with approval at many of these jokes - except for the many other jokes when they remained stone-cold silent. (Rob Schneider waking up with a breast pump attached to his right nipple didn't go over well at all.)

Taking a cue from "The Big Chill" (which took its cue from "Return of the Secaucus Seven"), "Grown Ups" uses a funeral to reunite five childhood basketball pals 30 years after they won the 1978 championship for their school.

Their beloved coach (Blake Clark) has gone to the final playoff in the sky, and the former players have come together for not only his funeral, but to spend a few days reconnecting at a summer cabin near the lake with all their kids.

Lenny (co-writer Adam Sandler) has become a successful showbiz guy married to an ultrahot Roxanne (Salma Hayek), who wants to zip off to a fashion show in Milan as quick as possible.

Eric (Kevin James) runs his own business and arrives in a Cadillac with his wife Sally (Maria Bello), who still nurses their 4-year-old son in public.

Kurt (Chris Rock, stretching himself) is a sensitive, metrosexual cooking show fan and hubbie to the very pregnant Deanne (Maya Rudolph, sporting the same prop bump she probably used in last year's "Away We Go"). In tow is Deanne's sarcastic, gaseous mother, Mama Ronzoni (Ebony Jo-Ann).

Unkempt party dude Marcus (David Spade) doesn't appear to have either a career or a family going for him.

Finally, Rob (Schneider) has become a New Age poser, walking around in 1960s flower power garb and dating a much, much older woman, Gloria (television veteran Joyce Van Patten). He also has three daughters, only two of whom look like Victoria's Secret models.

Once together, the five buddies confirm something the audience has already figured out, that none of the guys really wants to be a grown-up, and so they indulge in a lot of mean-spirited pranks and tasteless jokes to prove to themselves they're not adults.

"Grown Ups" has been directed without a whit of flair or cleverness by Wheaton native Dennis Dugan, who owes his career of late to his friend Sandler. (The lackluster "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" and "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" belong to Dugan's resume.)

Worse, the script (by Sandler and Fred Wolf) takes a false, unearned emotional turn late in the story when Lenny's dysfunctional family inexplicably sees the domestic light, and rallies behind a newfound togetherness that's been plucked from the ethos.

The comedy offers an action subplot of sorts, created when an old childhood rival, Dickey Bailey (Colin Quinn), demands a basketball rematch with the original team that beat him in 1978.

Here, "Grown Ups" makes a feeble attempt to rise up from its lowbrow humor by providing a noble act for Lenny to perform and redeem himself.

But it comes off as condescending and insincere, just a cheap plot device to make amends for the earlier barrage of Don Rickles-like insults, toilet humor and endless shots of males ogling Rob's daughters in skimpy shorts as they bend over a car hood.

How strange that "Grown Ups" would use a title identifying the very demographic market slice who wouldn't really want to see it.

"Grown Ups"

★½

Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, David Spade, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph, Salma Hayek

Directed by: Dennis Dugan

Other: A Columbia Pictures release. Rated PG-13 for language, partial nudity. 98 minutes

Article Comments

Article Categories
Communities Entertainment Lifestyle Movies Wheaton

Article Comments

Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.