Review: Grown Ups 2

Everybody’s back, minus Rob Schneider (hooray!) for the sequel to ‘Hey, Adam Sandler Has Friends!’. In this outing, the gang (Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, and a flatulent Kevin James) throw an 80s party, get harassed by a bunch of dorky and  overcompensating macho college brats (led by a shirtless Taylor Lautner), and generally just try and avoid their wives and children. Stone Cold Steve Austin plays a former high school bully re-entering the picture to the horror of Sandler, whilst Cheri Oteri plays a woman who never got over her grade school crush on Sandler, who doesn’t even recognise her. Jon Lovitz plays a perverted janitor who poses as a Pilates instructor, whilst Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph, Colin Quinn, Tim Meadows, and Steve Buscemi all reprise their roles from the original.

 

The original “Grown Ups” could’ve been one of the more enjoyable Adam Sandler films, with a bit more effort and depth. Unfortunately, Adam just wanted to go on vacation with his buddies and film it. Well, 2013 gives us a repeat performance of that vacation, minus one cast member, and any giveashit factor from me, to be honest. An appearance by Rob Schneider wouldn’t have moved the needle one way or the other, but when the guy who made a movie about a guy who learns kung-fu so as not to get raped in prison, won’t appear in your movie…well, let’s just say I don’t necessarily buy the ‘schedule conflict’ story (nor the rumoured Sandler-Schneider rift for that matter).

 

Directed by Dennis Dugan (“Grown Ups”, “Happy Gilmore”, “The Benchwarmers”) and scripted by Sandler and his ‘Yes Men’ Tim Herlihy (who co-wrote two of Sandler’s better efforts, “Little Nicky” and “Bedtime Stories”) and Fred Wolf (“Grown Ups”, “Joe Dirt”, and the slightly underrated “Strange Wilderness”), the experience is much less interesting the second time around. Everyone’s going through the motions here. However, at least that means Jon Lovitz turns up as ‘guy who gets the only laughs in the film’. He’s hilarious and shameless as always. Other than that, Chris Rock’s unhip wardrobe amused me for some reason, Spade’s son gets a giggle on first appearance, Sandler crony Peter Dante is amusing, and Shaq has a funny sight gag playing Tim Meadows’ brother…or perhaps he was meant to be Hightower from “Police Academy”.  So it obviously has a few fun moments, just absolutely no freshness nor an overall reason for being. It’s incredibly lazy, right down to Sandler casting every friend he has, excepting Rob Schneider. So if you were somehow wondering if Colin Quinn, Cheri Oteri (who has really let herself go and has only ever made me laugh with her Barbara Walters imitation), and Ellen Cleghorne were still alive, then this film answers that for you. We get it Adam, you’ve got mates. Good for you. Insecure much? Sadly, he doesn’t give them much to do, wasting the enormous talents of Steve Buscemi in particular. It’s one of the rare dud appearances by him, as he can’t even get a laugh dressed as Flavour Flav. Nick Swardson has never been funny and that trend continues here.

 

The kids of the title characters getting their own subplot was also a bad idea. They’re not played by famous people, so why should I care? The kid playing Tim Meadows’ son is even less funny than Meadows himself, who has at least been funny elsewhere (The Ladies Man character cracks me up, OK?). Likewise, the stunt casting of Taylor Lautner as a young bully falls flat because people stopped remembering Taylor Lautner a year ago. Too much effort for zero reward there, a really unfunny character, played by a guy with no acting ability.

 

I also felt sorry for the trio of women in the film; Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, and Maya Rudolph are saddled with worthless, and rather shrewish roles. Also, I found Kevin James rather disconcerting in this. He seems to have put on a lot of weight since the last film, and has a bit of a latter day John Candy look to him. Not good.

 

The first film was pretty flimsy and middling but with more effort, could’ve been among the top-tier of Sandler films (“Funny People”, “Punch-Drunk Love”, “50 First Dates”, “The Wedding Singer”, “Bedtime Stories”, “Little Nicky”). This sequel is more of the same, only even lesser, and featuring deer piss (Or was that semen?). Barely adequate would be rather charitable, but it’s still better than “Just Go With It”, “That’s My Boy”, and “Jack & Jill”, that’s for damn sure. 

 

Rating: C