Kurt is still married to Deanne (Maya Rudolph) and the two have one daughter (China Anne McClain) who is on the verge of dating and one still hilarious baby who seems to have some of the film's best scenes.Įric is a bit challenged by marital problems with Sally (Maria Bello) and spending way too much time with his mom (Georgia Engel).įinally, Marcus has found out he has a now rather surly son (Alexander Ludwig) who pops in for a visit. Lenny's dealing with a wife who wants to have a baby and kids with a garden variety of typical kid problems that serve as dad's impetus to grow up but have fun doing it. His friends are back, of course, including Kurt (Chris Rock), Eric (Kevin James) and Marcus (David Spade) and all are saddled with fundamental life issues that are woven loosely and gently into the fabric of the film. The film kicks off with Sandler's Lenny having returned with his wife (Salma Hayek) and kids to his hometown. Grown Ups 2 is not without its flaws, but who really goes to an Adam Sandler film for artistic perfection? Grown Ups 2 is unquestionably a better film than its predecessor - it's funnier, more cohesive and more consistently entertaining throughout its 101-minute running time. The film was one of Sandler's more successful attempts at weaving together his juvenile humor with the fact that he's now a middle-aged husband and father and not quite as convincing pulling off the little boy shtick without coming across as rather creepy. The first Grown Ups won over audiences despite being universally panned, though that's not particularly a new thing for Sandler. If you've always hated Sandler's films, there's absolutely nothing in Grown Ups 2 that will change your mind. Grown Ups 2 is a return to the Sandler I know and love and, while it's destined to be ravaged by the critics, it's also a return to the type of man-child antics that has made Sandler the man-child America loves. Now, we're looking at Sandler's return to live-action where he also returns to his last major box-office hit, Grown Ups. Then, Sandler started to show a spark again with the surprisingly satisfying animated feature Hotel Transylvania, which for my money was worthy of an animated feature Oscar nomination over some of the other dreck that was nominated last year. I think I joined a good number of folks in wondering if Sandler had finally snuffed out his comic fire after all these years of box-office successes despite consistently negative reviews. Not so coincidentally, both Jack & Jill and That's My Boy were box-office disappointments with the latter barely recouping half its $70 million production budget. I figured Jack & Jill to be a bad fluke and thought for sure Sandler would return to form with his next live-action film opposite Andy Samberg, That's My Boy. After years of being one of the very few film critics to consistently praise the filmography of Adam Sandler, the streak finally ended with 2011's godawful Razzie darling Jack & Jill.
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