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REIGN OVER ME / Mike Binder (2007)

October 9th, 2007 by Scott Marks

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REIGN OVER ME (2007)
Written and Directed by Mike Binder
Starring: Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Liv Tyler and Donald Sutherland
Running Time: 124 min.

Aspect Ratio: in CinemaScope

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Rejoice! With his first full-blown dramatic performance, Adam Sandler has finally given us reason to laugh  Remember the painfully maudlin last reel of Click? Multiply the nasty snickers by ten and you’ll know what you’re in for.

It would have been even funnier had the subject matter managed to avoid trivializing the families of 9/11 victims.

Charlie (Sandler) is (what else?) a stunted adult who tools around New York on a gas powered scooter, is addicted to video games and plays drums in a punk band. Not your usual baby-talking water boy or wedding singer, Charlie suffers from post traumatic stress disorder resulting from his family being on one of the planes that flew into the World Trade Center.

Compared to Charlie, his former college roommate Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) is all grown up. He’s a successful dentist who is semi-happily married to Jada Pinkett Smith. Even though the thought of such mundane tasks like taking photography classes with the family or completing a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle with his wife revulses him, pussy-whipped Alan refuses to stray.

It is not as though he didn’t have a chance. Alan attracts the ladies more for his virility than his veneers. Try as she might, recently divorced Saffron Burrows just can’t convince Alan of her need to polish his crown. Her character and a subsequent bogus sexual harassment suit are both planted early on so when it comes time in reel six to find a mate for Charlie, there’s a horny broad waiting in the wings.

When they first meet by accident, Charlie pretends not to know Alan. Much of his memory was wiped out by the tragedy, yet he still remembers sleeping nude in college and the size of Johnson’s Johnson. This is made even more uncomfortable when, after Alan refuses to call home and ask if he can stay out all night at a Mel Brooks marathon, Charlie calls him a “faggot.”

Prior to this, Charlie has spoken to no one except his gate-keeping landlady. Shunning his in-laws and former business manager, Charlie takes to Alan only because he never met his wife and children. Avoidance made easy.

The rest is painfully contrived except for five minutes towards the end when Donald Sutherland shows up and does some real acting. Sandler stinks and sadly the same can be said for the writing and direction. Mike Binder already managed to pull off the impossible: he coaxed a superb comic performance out of dramatic actress Joan Allen in The Upside of Anger. He never should have given Sandler free reign.

If you missed it in the theater, here’s your chance to skip it on home video.

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I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY / Dennis Dugan (2007)

July 24th, 2007 by Scott Marks

A Must to Avoid

I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY

Directed by Dennis Dugan

Written by Barry Fanaro, Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor

Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Jessica Biel & Dan Aykroyd

Running Time: 110 min.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

The premise makes this sound like an American remake of a decade old French comedy. Chuck (Adam Sandler) and Larry (Ralph Kramden wannabe Kevin James), two sworn heterosexuals, agree to pass as lovers in order for recently widowed Larry to collect domestic partner benefits.

Expectations were piqued higher than usual for a Sandler vehicle, particularly one directed by his stalwart lackey Dennis Dugan. The credits boasted the Academy Award-winning writers behind the runaway hit comedy Sideways (plus Barry Fanaro, former producer of The Golden Girls). Instead of an appealing buddy picture, this time they deliver an appalling butt-buddy comedy.

The writing conference probably went something like this: Three straight guys sat around a table jotting down every homophobic cliché they could recall from grade school. Sprinkle in a few pleas for tolerance and, in order to give it the “Sandler touch,” equal doses of maudlin sentimentality and brutal fisticuffs.

Continue reading I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY / Dennis Dugan (2007)

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Filed Under Reviews, Theatrical