Grown Ups *** (2010, Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph, Steve Buscemi) – Classic Movie Review 4636

When their beloved high-school basketball coach dies, five pretty dim, randy and unfit American middle-aged blokes reunite for the funeral and then plan a Fourth of July holiday weekend with their families. A lot of serious silliness follows, along with some silly soul-searching, in director Dennis Dugan’s 2010 comedy – for this is the American way!

Luckily there are five reasonably funny actors in these roles – Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider. And, with a script by Sandler and Fred Wolf that is fairly funny and charming (at least at times), this likeable comedy Grown Ups (2010) is quite a bit better than expected.

As Lenny Feder, Sandler goes for a bit of ‘real’ acting along with the comedy, James (as Eric Lamonsoff) triumphs over a mountain of ‘fat’ jokes at his expense, Rock is astonishingly low key for him and quite subtle in his against-type ‘new-man’ persona as Kurt McKenzie, while Spade and Schneider get by on their usual slack and silly oddball turns as Marcus Higgins and Rob Hilliard.

The women hardly get a look in. With most to do, Salma Hayek is required to be unpleasantly hard and bitchy for most of the movie, then melt improbably and quite ridiculously. This proves a real test of the actress’s appeal. Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph, Joyce Van Patten, Ebony Jo-Ann and Di Quon are all wasted. Steve Buscemi pops in as Wiley. Jake Goldberg plays Greg Feder, Cameron Boyce plays Keithie Feder and Alexys Nycole Sanchez plays Becky Feder.

Still, a few off-key jokes, slack patches and the sentimentality apart, this is not at all bad.

It was popular, and a sequel followed: Grown Ups 2 (2013).

Cameron Boyce.

RIP Cameron Boyce, who died in his sleep of a seizure on 6 July 2019, aged only 20.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4636

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