BIG DADDY Cast: Adam Sandler, Cole Sprouse, Dylan Sprouse, Joey Lauren Adams, Rob Schneider, Leslie Mann, Steve Buscemi, Jon Stewart, Kristy Swanson Director: Dennis Dugan Screenplay: Steve Franks and Tim Herlihy & Adam Sandler Reviewed by Luke Buckmaster
On the Buckmaster scale of 0 stars (bomb), to 5 stars (a masterpiece): 2 and a half stars
Screaming and groaning with his distinct, screw-you-I-won't-do-what-you-tell-me tone, Adam Sandler also screams down the throat of Hollywood's carefully evolved comedy genre. The comedy that we love to watch, or closer to the truth, the comedy that Hollywood execs like to think that we love to watch, now seems stale and uninspiring in comparison to Sandler's eruptions of cheap insults and dry, unemotional observations. Not just in his own right but in every right, Sandler is a Superstar, a wild animal in Hollywood's fun park who is not only able to jump in and out of his pen, he also gets paid and celebrated for it. Adam Sandler is cool…and funny…and cracks lots of great jokes…or is he the greatest joke of them all?
Sandler's been around for a reasonable time - in the public eye, at least, since 95's 'Billy Maddison', if you're a 'Saturday Night Live' fan, even longer - so one might expect (and many would hope) that in 1999, he would go ballistic. Rock the censors, Adam, shout your loudest and fart your proudest, make monkey noises and let us roll on the floor in shameful fits of laughter. Alas, far before his time, he's taken the coming-of-age approach and found (shudder) maturity and slight depth in at least two of his roles. In 'Big Daddy,' he preaches that love and companionship make for a fulfilling life, in 'Happy Gilmore,' he accidentally shoots a nail into his boss' head and later makes fun of it. Not that sentimentality has never been in a Sandler film - 'Gilmore' and 'Maddison' had romantic subplots and 'The Wedding Singer' was obviously a love story - it's just never been this bleeding obvious, or this forced.
There's a Cute Little Kid in 'Big Daddy' (played by identical twins Cole and Dylan Sprouse) who also happens to be an orphan, and then there's Big Daddy Sonny Koufax (Sandler) - a Homer Simpson prodigy who works one day a week at a toll booth - who acts as his surrogate father, as a means to impress women. And it works, too, as Sonny meets Layla (sue, Clapton, sue!), played by 'Jerry Maguire's' Joey Lauren Adams, and his life soon begins to take direction.
Sonny raises his voice enough times to remind us that this _is_ an Adam Sandler movie, although the jokes seem more marketed to a lawn bowls club - perhaps with a free luncheon and cup of tea after the movie - than the teenage audience. Director Dennis Dugan, who actually has a tiny role in the film as a reluctant Trick-or-Treat giver, is careful to keep his material easily digestible and feel-good. I find it hard to believe that this is the same man who manipulated Sandler for some of his most effective work thus far in 'Happy Gilmore,' a film that effortlessly took the piss out of itself and never looked back to see whether the audience was still smiling. Signs that his comedic timing is still on cue are evident in 'Big Daddy,' especially when Steve Buscemi, who's always fun to watch, plays a homeless cynic with effortless and hilarious conviction. The difference between Buscemi and Sandler: Buscemi can manage to look good in a bad picture.
However, I certainly wouldn't call 'Big Daddy' a bad picture. I'm more inclined to describe it as a piece that can't grasp or manipulate the audience's emotions, and that makes for some amusing viewing when one of its final scenes intends us to cry. Instead, it's purely laughable.
How lovely that the film's centerpiece scene is in a courtroom, near the film's conclusion, in which Sandler recites a bloated speech about his undying love for Julian and his new found responsibility. I had my fingers crossed that the judge would recite a few lines from 'Billy Maddison': "What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened." Now _that's_ an Adam Sandler movie.
Read more of my reviews at In Film Australia http://infilmau.iah.net
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