Spring Break
'Click' Nearly Does It For Sandler
Dan Gross
Issue date: 10/12/06 Section: Focus
Adam Sandler´s newest offering, "Click," is now out on DVD. If you weren´t part of the film´s $137 million gross, you´ll probably be seeing it soon enough. It is the third Adam Sandler film directed by Frank Coraci ("The Wedding Singer," "The Waterboy"). Don´t fret, it´s a decent film worthy of your attention, and you won´t regret giving it a watch. Being a Sandler film, however, it´s not immune to some major flaws. The cast, other than Sandler, includes Kate Beckinsale ("Underworld"), Christopher Walken ("Wedding Crashers"), David Hasselhoff ("Baywatch"), Henry Winkler ("Happy Days"), Julie Kavner ("The Simpsons"), Sean Astin ("Lord of the Rings"), and Jennifer Coolidge ("American Pie").
The plot of the movie is simply this: a workaholic architect named Michael Newman (Sandler) gets fed up with the contradicting demands and pressures from his family, his wife, Donna (Beckinsale) and his arrogant boss, Ammer (Hasselhoff). Michael is particularly ill equipped in sorting out his mess of a life, and almost always chooses to focus on anything but his son, daughter, wife, mother (Kavner) and father (Winkler). One night, he finds himself going to Bed, Bath and Beyond to find a universal remote control for his television, but instead meets an eccentric inventor named Morty (Walken), who offers him a new remote Michael soon finds out "controls his universe." As can be expected, Michael begins to rewind and fast-forward his life at his discretion, with little regard for anyone else in it. Michael begins to suffer the consequences when the remote develops a mind of its own, and fast-forwards through huge chunks of his life against his will.
The first 20 minutes of the movie spare no time in reminding you you're in Sandler country; pop songs, juvenile humor and Sandler shtick abound. However, the movie takes bold new steps in tone when the remote makes its debut. Clever visual concepts, special effects work and sound design take stage, as well as some surprisingly intelligent satire of our electronic, money-centric culture are all well done. However, Sandler ultimately hinders this half of the movie with poorly written juvenile humor, a lack of character development and omnipresent obnoxiousness. Ultimately, it makes us wonder what the movie would be like without Sandler. Do we really want all this in a movie such as Click? Aren´t there enough Sandler flicks that have plenty of that? It wouldn´t be a problem if, in Click´s case, it actually worked; sadly, I find it does not, and that the Sandler formula badly needs an update.
The plot of the movie is simply this: a workaholic architect named Michael Newman (Sandler) gets fed up with the contradicting demands and pressures from his family, his wife, Donna (Beckinsale) and his arrogant boss, Ammer (Hasselhoff). Michael is particularly ill equipped in sorting out his mess of a life, and almost always chooses to focus on anything but his son, daughter, wife, mother (Kavner) and father (Winkler). One night, he finds himself going to Bed, Bath and Beyond to find a universal remote control for his television, but instead meets an eccentric inventor named Morty (Walken), who offers him a new remote Michael soon finds out "controls his universe." As can be expected, Michael begins to rewind and fast-forward his life at his discretion, with little regard for anyone else in it. Michael begins to suffer the consequences when the remote develops a mind of its own, and fast-forwards through huge chunks of his life against his will.
The first 20 minutes of the movie spare no time in reminding you you're in Sandler country; pop songs, juvenile humor and Sandler shtick abound. However, the movie takes bold new steps in tone when the remote makes its debut. Clever visual concepts, special effects work and sound design take stage, as well as some surprisingly intelligent satire of our electronic, money-centric culture are all well done. However, Sandler ultimately hinders this half of the movie with poorly written juvenile humor, a lack of character development and omnipresent obnoxiousness. Ultimately, it makes us wonder what the movie would be like without Sandler. Do we really want all this in a movie such as Click? Aren´t there enough Sandler flicks that have plenty of that? It wouldn´t be a problem if, in Click´s case, it actually worked; sadly, I find it does not, and that the Sandler formula badly needs an update.
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