>>REVIEW
CLICK
STARRING Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale and Christopher Walken
DIRECTED BY Frank Coraci
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So after seeing the trailers and TV spots for Adam Sandler’s newest movie, Click, there seemed only two ways it could go. Either it would be a one-gimmick, "whoop-dee-doo" Sandler dumb fest (Little Nicky), or a knockdown, hilarious, pee-in-your-pants Sandler laugh fest (Happy Gilmore).
Director Frank Coraci, who previously helmed The Waterboy and The Wedding Singer, has made a movie that avoids both and somehow lands somewhere in the middle. The promotion of Click has catered to Sandler’s built-in comedy audience, so is it smart marketing because it will attract those fans, or a dumb move because audiences will get a movie that isn’t at all what they expect?
Michael Newman (Sandler) is a man struggling to maintain his sanity while trying to balance his drive to succeed at work and his relationship with his family. Not the most creative of storylines, but for this one it’s just the lame setup to get to the fun. Seemingly at the end of his rope, he heads out one night to find a universal remote for his TV and ends up finding Morty (Christopher Walken) and more than he could ever have dreamed of.
Fast forward, mute, pause, rewind and even some nifty menu options are all part of the new remote’s package, and for the first half of Click it’s all about the fun and games of using such a fantastic thingamajig. Although the jokes are hit-and-miss, it’s still entertaining on a low level, but then at about the halfway mark, there’s a sudden change in tone and instead of laughing at David Hasselhoff taking a massive fart in his open mouth, audiences are given a serious and sentimental view of the old "careful what you wish for" theme.
This mix of drama and comedy could easily backfire on an audience ready for gut-wrenching guffaws, but somehow it doesn’t and the reason for that is Sandler is smart enough to know that if your premise is wafer thin, you surround yourself with good people to distract from it. And no matter what people say, Christopher Walken doing Christopher Walken is always great and Henry Winkler, Julie Kavner and Sean Astin weren’t too shabby either. |
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