One of my favourite Adam Sandler

Although Adam Sandler's glory days as an actor are long gone, at the time "That's My Boy" debuted, he was still a big draw in Hollywood. However, the film's failure at the box office seemed to spell the beginning of the obvious end for the man.

When the film began, I could see IMMEDIATELY why the film bombed at the box office and why many Sandler fans dismissed the film. It begins with a sexy school teacher sexually abusing an 11 year-old. This is an odd topic for a comedy. But what made it MUCH worse is the reaction when they are caught. During a school assembly, the pair are caught naked in front of the entre student body...and the kids and ALL the teachers applauded the kid and thought it was great. Only the kill-joy principal objected. Later, at court it was similar...with the fun-hating judge sentencing the woman of many years in prison...while the bailiff and others applauded the kid for being so lucky. Imagine had they changed the scene slightly and made the boy an 11 year-old girl instead! Not so funny, huh? And, people was in many cases angered by this.

The reason for this 'funny' beginning is to explain how and why Todd (the offspring from this molestation) grew up the way he did. Apparently, he was raised by his 11 year-old father and left home as soon as possible--wanting nothing to do with his slimey father, Donny. Since then, Todd has become very successful and is about to marry a lovely woman from a very rich but trashy family. When Donny discovers this, he drops by the family's home to crash the wedding....and presumably to see if he could cash in on Todd's success. And, only Todd and Donny know who Donny really is, as he's introduced to everyone as Todd's friend.

While I think there's no way to defend the first 10 minutes of the film, as it's about as funny as Ebola or rectal cancer, could the rest of the film be good enough so you should watch it anyway? Well, first, it's almost impossible for ANYTHING to make the film worth seeing after the distasteful introduction.

Well, I can just cut to the chase and say NO...no it didn't make up for it. But it did manage to be loud, obnoxious and a waste for the talents of Andy Samberg, who played Todd. As for Sandler, it was pretty much a good fit. If you like your comedy unfunny and exceptionally crude (the film nearly got an NC-17 rating...and I could hear why when characters talked in the story),then by all means watch it.

Judging by the rather unnecessarily condescending tone of some of the positive reviews you'd think it'd actually be against the law to dislike Adam Sandler or his films. The bottom line is, it is not, people have different tastes and the word "opinion" is around for a reason, if you like them that's fine but please try to be respectful to anybody having a different opinion to you instead of accusing them of "not having a sense of humour" or "trying to be part of the bandwagon" (that is true of any positive reviews for a movie that is critically panned). Surely it can't be THAT hard to be accepting of other people's opinions, could it?

As for me, I am neither a detractor(I am not going to use the term "hater" as I can't stand that word) of Sandler or his films. Nor am I exactly a fan. In terms of Sandler's films, I loved or thoroughly enjoyed Punch Drunk Love, Reign Over Me, Spanglish, The Wedding Singer and Happy Gilmore. But he has churned out some terrible films as well, Going Overboard, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and You Don't Mess with the Zohan are bad but even they aren't as awful as Jack and Jill. My opinion towards Sandler is pretty much the same, some of his performances like in Reign Over Me have been great but there are others especially in Jack and Jill where he is unbearably irritating.

That's My Boy, seeing it out to curiosity to see whether it would be either another dud or a return to form, is neither among his best or worst. For me it is a mediocre film rather than a terrible one, and it does deserve credit for actually being significantly better than Jack and Jill. I do think that That's My Boy does have redeeming qualities. The best assets were the soundtrack and the performance of Vanilla Ice. The soundtrack I found to be great, managing to be upbeat and catchy, it also fits with the film very well. Vanilla Ice sends himself up and the way he does it makes for what is the only thing that is genuinely funny about the film. Milo Ventimiglia manages to be beautiful and earnest, and Andy Samberg gives his all and it shows, it is such a shame though that his role is so thankless.

Unfortunately, I didn't care for Sandler here. He has proved that he can be powerful, funny or endearing, but his performance in That's My Boy shows neither of those qualities. Instead I did find him irritating, in the sense that it is essentially a one-note performance that also has a tendency to be overly-exaggerated. He does do that dumb character shtick that we see a lot in his films, but there is nothing fresh or likable about the shtick. It just feels tired and as a consequence makes it difficult to properly engage with him or his character. Leighton Meester isn't bad, but is underused and has nothing worthwhile to say or do. Then we have actors like James Caan and Susan Sarandon showing up, and while it was nice to see them again I just couldn't think of any real reason as to why they were there in the first place, other than maybe money or just another film to add to their resume.

On a visual front, there are cheaper films out there, the locations are nice though nothing extraordinary, but the editing does at times have a rather rushed-through feel. Sean Anders' direction is flat and lacks any kind of vitality for my tastes as well. On top of that, the characters are stereotypes that are so bland and obnoxious that it is difficult to care for them. You know there is something wrong when the best actors in the movie have next to nothing that is remotely worthwhile. I would forgive the fact that the story is predictable, a lot of movies are even movies that I find enjoyable, if it engaged me at all. That's My Boy didn't do that, it was unevenly paced with a lot of the parts aiming to be funny coming across as forced and there is no real heart. There are a fair bit of sentiment here, sadly it's the kind that is cloying in alternative to touching.

But it was the humour that really hurt it. I can see what it was trying to do but in the end it just wasn't funny. I don't think I laughed or smiled much if at all during That's My Boy, Vanilla Ice aside. For a comedy, that is really bad news. The rude, raunchy kind of humour has worked before, though admittedly is not my style, but the slapstick in That's My Boy though is very shoddy and reeks of been there, done that, and the gross-outs are both unsubtle and laboured. There are jokes about rape and incest, as well as the fart jokes you'd come to expect from Sandler's kind of humour, the problem is that these subjects are not ones to laugh at, so the jokes come across as crude and rather offensive. And to cap everything off, the script is embarrassingly bad with no lines that come across as quotable or even remotely amusing, and a lot of it is very juvenile.

In conclusion, a mediocre film that tries hard but doesn't deliver or for me entertain. This is not Sandler's worst film and not quite bad enough to be down there, but this is really not him at his best. As I've said, while I've given an honest opinion BEFORE having read any of the critics' reviews(though I did have a suspicion) I am not going to say that you are wrong to like it. If you do, good for you, just don't expect everybody to feel the same that's all. 4/10 Bethany Cox