Just Go With It

Here is my promised review of the new Adam Sandler film and I have just one question to ask; will Adam Sandler ever grow up? He is 44 years old and he continues to play variations of the same childish guy he was in Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore. In Just Go With It we are supposed to believe this childish man, who spends his time pretending to be married in order to have sex, is also a highly successful Los Angeles plastic surgeon. It just doesn't work. 

The movie is based on a French farce, which was made into the Broadway play Cactus Flower, which was made into a smart, witty, funny movie starring Walter Matthau, Ingrid Bergman and Goldie Hawn. Now Sandler and his long time directing partner Dennis Dugan, along with writers Allen Loeb and Timothy Dowling have taken this sophisticated adult comedy and dumbed it down to the least intelligent common denominator, and turned in a lazy, slowly paced, stupid comedy, with an abundance of poop jokes.

The only saving grace in the film is Jennifer Aniston, she has excellent comic timing and does the best she can with a script that asks her to be as dumb as everyone else. Aniston and Sandler have great chemistry but the movie does nothing with it. 

The movie relies on characters, who in no way resemble real people, being as stupid as they possibly can be, while still being unbelievably nice to each other. 

As I stated earlier Sandler is Dr. Daniel Maccabee, a successful plastic surgeon, who pretends to be married in order to meet women for one night stands. One day while not wearing the ring he meets Palmer, a beautiful blond, and they spend a glorious night on the beach together. He thinks Palmer is the girl for him, but then she discovers the ring and thinks he is another lying married man. 

So of course instead of relying on the friends that introduced them to tell her he's not married, he enlists the aid of his very capable nurse and office manager Katherine (Jennifer Aniston) to pretend to be his wife and state that they are getting a divorce. The lies grow more complicated, including children and a boyfriend, for the unfaithful soon to be ex-wife. All of this is played with complete stupidity, and Palmer, the beautiful blond, is so clueless, she suspects nothing. But she does teach sixth grade math, so their should be some brains in there somewhere. No wait, the script only made her a grade school teacher, so they can ensure that her character loves children.

The movie also adds two new characters, an old college friend of Katherine's, and her boyfriend, played by Nicole Kidman and Dave Matthews. Here is a chance two write to very funny roles, but no, they are just stupid too. 

Just Go With it asks the audience to just go along with this sloppy, overly long, poorly paced mess and ignore how bad a movie it is. I suggest you don't.

At The Movie House rating *1/2 stars