Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Adam Sandler, Brooklyn Decker
Director: Dennis Dugan
You have to be a die-hard fan of Adam Sandler to not be disgusted by the crude, tasteless humor in 'Just Go With It', his appropriately titled new film that asks you to cut it some slack.
Sandler stars as Danny, a successful Beverly Hills plastic surgeon who pretends to be unhappily married, so women will sleep with him out of pity. He has a frumpy assistant, Katherine (played by Jennifer Aniston), a single mom raising two precocious kids. At a party, Danny meets the much younger Palmer (played by Brooklyn Decker), and they make a connection instantly. But when she discovers the fake wedding ring he carries around, he makes up a lie about an impending divorce, and begs Katherine and her children to play along by pretending to be his family.
There are many reasons to not like this film - the plot's entirely predictable, there are way too many sick jokes about breast implants and penis enlargements, and clocking in at roughly 1 hour and 50 minutes it's much longer than it should be. Still, if you can look beyond those repeated references to shit, and more than a few scenes in which characters get hit in the groin, there are a few jokes that work. Danny's scenes with Katherine's daughter, an aspiring actress who insists on speaking in a cockney accent, are hilarious. There are a few inspired moments of improv by Sandler that are genius - like the Gollum voice he breaks into to describe his lucky ring: "It's my precious!" Jennifer Aniston too is in surprisingly good form, giving us a glimpse of those comic chops we fell for during her sitcom years.
But as an audience we deserve better than 'Just Go With It'. Credited as a legitimate remake of the 1969 comedy 'Cactus Flower' (which David Dhawan plagiarized in 2005 to make the Salman Khan-starrer 'Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya'), this film is low-brow entertainment at best. Why a fine actress like Nicole Kidman would humiliate herself in an entirely thankless, unfunny supporting role remains a mystery.
You don't go into an Adam Sandler movie looking for sharp wit or classy dialogue. But there's no excuse for such few laughs. I'm going with one-and-a-half out of five for 'Just Go With It'. The best thing about the film is its gorgeous Hawaiin setting. Now if you could only throw these annoying people off the island!
Rating: 1.5 / 5
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