Big Daddy

So my friends from school are going to be pretty mad at me if they happen to remember that I have a website. They’ll surf on in and find out that I already saw the movie that we were supposed to go see this weekend. But, you see, I saw it with another more persuasive friend. (Not female, unfortunately. No one that persuasive.)

Anyway, Adam Sandler is back in form. I (and most college aged males) have been watching this guy’s movies for a while. Billy Madison was ok. Kinda stupid, but not too bad. (Ok, REALLY stupid.) Happy Gilmore was great. Best golf comedy since Caddyshack. Bulletproof was pretty funny, if not much of an action movie. And it’s the one I remember the least about. (Everyone always forgets that one.) The Wedding Singer was more subdued, but still great. More heart than anything he had done up to that point.

Then came The Waterboy. Oh my God. What a waste of everyone’s time. It wasn’t worth the hour and a half that I used to watch it, much less the cast and crew’s six months to film it. It made me re-think my Adam Sandler fanhood. And what made Kathy Bates and Henry Winkler decide to do this to their careers? It certainly wasn’t a good sense of humor.

So I was kind of scared going into this one. Will it be a return to form? Will it actually bring him a good part again?

Luckily, the answers were yes. In this one, Adam brings his frat-boy humor to the softer side of Sears. He’s still a loser–works one day a week at the toll booth, has a beautiful girlfriend (Kristy Swanson)–but she wants more, and has a pretty high IQ–but he doesn’t want to use it.

No, he would rather live off of the $200,000 he made off of a taxi accident two years ago. (He went to law school, so he knew how to get that kind of money from nothing.) This pretty much explains why he can afford to live off of a one day a week salary.

Then his girlfriend leaves him for an older man (“He’s got a five year plan!” “What is it? Don’t die?”) played by one of Adam’s teachers from The Actor’s Studio (!?!? Are they letting anyone in now?). She just says that Sonny (oh yeah, that’s Adam’s character) doesn’t have any responsibility.

Then responsibility is dropped on his doorstep, Three Men And A Baby style. Kevin (Jon Stewart), Sonny’s roommate, apparently had a kid that he didn’t know about and now his mother is dropping him off. Sonny poses as Kevin and takes the kid on for a while to show his ex that he can grow up. Hilarity ensues.

Sonny (and, in effect, Adam) starts to show maturity that he never had before. He was always open to other ways of doing things (especially when two of his college buddies fell in love, a fact that another one of the buddies can’t quit get a handle on), but he just couldn’t handle growing up. Now he has to. He has to show his dad that he can do something with his life. He has to win the girl (the always radiant Joey Lauren Adams–who is starting to rival Julia Roberts for the biggest smile in Hollywood). He has to keep Julian (the kid played by twins Dylan and Cole Sprouse) from the not quite evil Mr. Brooks (Josh Mostel also in Billy Madison) from the adoption agency. (By the way, is it a coincidence that Josh’s character name is the name of the man who directed his father, Zero, in his best role, The Producers (Mel Brooks) and that they feature Mel’s best movie, Young Frankenstein, in this movie? Hmmm.)

Anyway, the movie kind of reminded me of Jim Carrey’s Liar, Liar. That, too, was a broad comedian calming down to do a sweet little story about an irresponsible guy’s love for his son. They both showed that these guys have a little talent behind their constant mugging (Jim maybe more than Adam, but still…) I don’t see any Truman Show‘s in Adam’s future, but we may see a slight downsizing of his humor. That’s not always a bad thing, but let’s hope he doesn’t lose site of things like Happy Gilmore. After all, look at Tom Hanks. Yeah, he’s got two Oscars and a third nomination, but what has it gotten him, really? Ok, a bigger fan base. Ok, more respect. Ok. Ok. Ok. But wouldn’t we all like to see him in Bachelor Party 2?

Behind all the funny stuff in Big Daddy, there’s a big heart. Even bigger than the one in The Wedding Singer. Sonny really does grow to love Julian and he would stop at nothing to keep him in his life. The final courtroom scene is maybe a little out of place (would they have bothered to take him to court for everything he did? Probably not.) but it worked. It made everyone in the theatre want to call their dads. That is, until everyone on the screen started to call their dads. I think we could have done without that.

Then there’s Leslie Mann (George Of The Jungle) and her fake Hooters’ breasts. (They couldn’t get enough jokes in about Hooters. Hearing Adam say “Hooters” is kind of like hearing Norm McDonald say “hooker” or “dirty whore.” It’s inherently funny.) She’s got a nice body, but those can’t be real. I’ve seen scenes from GOTJ. Kristy Swanson’s are real, though. She still looks good.

Good movie. If you liked Liar, Liar you’ll like this one. And, if you liked Adam’s other movies, you’ll like this one, too. You’ll also have fun watching for people you recognize from his other flicks. He keeps his friends around him. Also, Steve Buscemi has a pretty good Steve Buscemi role. (No one else can play these guys like him.) And Rob Schneider is actually funny again! That hasn’t happened in a while. (Peace out!)