Just Go With It
110 Minutes
PG-13
Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Brooklyn Decker, Nick Swardson, Baillee Madison, Griffin Gluck
Directed by Dennis Dugan
“Um... okay. How about this: Adam Sandler is like, in love with some girl, but then it turns out that the girl is actually a ...golden retriever, or something.”
-Eric Cartman
I went into this movie with very low expectations. Adam Sandler hasn’t done anything funny in the past ten years. The director’s (Dugan) credits include: National Security, The Benchwarmers, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, You Don't Mess with the Zohan and Grown Ups. Finally, there is the story. Five minutes into the movie, you know that he going to marry his secretary. If you combine all these ingredients, the result is a perfect storm of crapulence. A storm that will continue to gather strength before it crosses landfall. Unfortunately, this perfect storm did not include George Clooney.
Danny (Adam Sandler) is a plastic surgeon in southern California. He wears a wedding ring to pick up women. Danny meets a young, attractive women named Palmer (Decker). Danny and Palmer really hit off at a party. Moments later they’re making love on the beach. The following morning Palmer notices a wedding ring in his backpack. She ends things with Danny right there; or so it seemed.
Katherine (Jennifer Aniston) is his assistant. Think of her as a down to earth version of Racheal Green, from Friends. Danny gets Katherine to be his fake ex-wife. Danny, Palmer, and Katherine go out for dinner. Just to prove that Danny isn’t really married (Palmer can’t know the real truth). Before you know it, Katherine’s kids have pretend they’re Danny’s kids (Madison, Gluck). Katherine and her kids extort all kinds of nice things from Danny. This is all to continue the charade of his fake happy family. Eventually they all go to Hawaii on vacation. This is where Nick Swardson comes in and plays Katherine’s fake, German boyfriend.
Nicole Kidman kind of pops up out of nowhere. She play’s one of Katherine’s old high school ‘freniemes’. How did she have time to do both this movie and Rabbit Hole. Her performance in this movie did seem kind of labored. Just when you think this movie couldn’t possibly get any worse. Yeah that’s right, Dave Matthews shows up. He plays Nicole Kidman’s secretly gay husband. Going out with a guy that’s secretly gay. That’s a bit of stretch for her.
The film’s one saving grace is it’s lack of Rob Schneider. Still, a great deal of Adam Sandler’s fair weather friends are in Just Go With It. A long time ago, Adam Sandler decided making funny movies is less important than making a lot of money for his entire entourage. Charlie Sheen puts more effort into Two and a Half Men, than Adam Sandler put into this. He even stared in Funny People: a movie that makes fun of the crappy movies he makes. This movie was not funny, it was painful to watch. I would have laughed more if I stayed home and watch the Grammys.
Final Verdict: 25 out of 100
