Just Go With It (12A)
Director
Dennis Dugan
Dennis Dugan
Review byMatthew Turner11/02/2011
Two out of Five stars
Running time: 115 mins
Despite an amusingly game supporting performance from Nicole Kidman and a decent amount of chemistry between its two leads, this is a disappointing, lazily scripted, overlong and largely laugh-free comedy that never really comes to life.
What's it all about?
Directed by Dennis Dugan, Just Go With It is loosely based on the 1969 Walter Matthau comedy Cactus Flower, which won Goldie Hawn a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Adam Sandler stars as Danny, a wealthy plastic surgeon who routinely uses a fake wedding ring in order to pick up women but comes a cropper when he falls for gorgeous 20-something Palmer (Brooklyn Decker) and she discovers the ring in his pocket after they sleep together.
Danny tells Palmer that he's about to get divorced but the lie spirals quickly out of control and when she insists on hearing it from his wife, he has to persuade his loyal assistant Katherine (Jennifer Aniston) and her two children (Bailee Madison and Griffin Gluck) to pose as his wife and kids. Soon everyone ends up on a weekend trip to Hawaii where things get even more complicated when Katherine bumps into her old rival Devlin (Nicole Kidman) and lies about being happily married to Danny.
The Good
Aniston delivers a likeable performance that is much better than the film deserves - there's also a surprising amount of chemistry between her and Sandler and the scenes where (Spolier Alert! in case you've never seen a movie before) they realise they're falling for each other are genuinely sweet and nicely handled. In addition, there's an amusingly game performance from Nicole Kidman – indeed, the scene where she and Aniston compete in a Hula competition is almost enough to earn the film a pass. Almost.
The Bad
Unfortunately, Danny is so boorish and obnoxious that you can't see why Palmer would fall for him in the first place. Similarly, the script is criminally lazy and completely cops out of the expected confession scenes, though at least that spares us the tired romcom cliche whereby the lead's girlfriend/fiancée is cast aside in favour of the female lead.
However, the film's biggest problem is that, the occasional line aside (“Is it made out of panda?”), it's never actually funny. Basically, you know you're in trouble when you can't even get laughs out of someone getting hit in the balls.
Worth seeing?
As Adam Sandler movies go, Just Go With It is largely disappointing thanks to a general lack of laughs and a pitifully lazy script. However, as Jennifer Aniston movies go, it's not that bad.
Running time: 115 mins
Despite an amusingly game supporting performance from Nicole Kidman and a decent amount of chemistry between its two leads, this is a disappointing, lazily scripted, overlong and largely laugh-free comedy that never really comes to life.
What's it all about?
Directed by Dennis Dugan, Just Go With It is loosely based on the 1969 Walter Matthau comedy Cactus Flower, which won Goldie Hawn a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Adam Sandler stars as Danny, a wealthy plastic surgeon who routinely uses a fake wedding ring in order to pick up women but comes a cropper when he falls for gorgeous 20-something Palmer (Brooklyn Decker) and she discovers the ring in his pocket after they sleep together.
Danny tells Palmer that he's about to get divorced but the lie spirals quickly out of control and when she insists on hearing it from his wife, he has to persuade his loyal assistant Katherine (Jennifer Aniston) and her two children (Bailee Madison and Griffin Gluck) to pose as his wife and kids. Soon everyone ends up on a weekend trip to Hawaii where things get even more complicated when Katherine bumps into her old rival Devlin (Nicole Kidman) and lies about being happily married to Danny.
The Good
Aniston delivers a likeable performance that is much better than the film deserves - there's also a surprising amount of chemistry between her and Sandler and the scenes where (Spolier Alert! in case you've never seen a movie before) they realise they're falling for each other are genuinely sweet and nicely handled. In addition, there's an amusingly game performance from Nicole Kidman – indeed, the scene where she and Aniston compete in a Hula competition is almost enough to earn the film a pass. Almost.
The Bad
Unfortunately, Danny is so boorish and obnoxious that you can't see why Palmer would fall for him in the first place. Similarly, the script is criminally lazy and completely cops out of the expected confession scenes, though at least that spares us the tired romcom cliche whereby the lead's girlfriend/fiancée is cast aside in favour of the female lead.
However, the film's biggest problem is that, the occasional line aside (“Is it made out of panda?”), it's never actually funny. Basically, you know you're in trouble when you can't even get laughs out of someone getting hit in the balls.
Worth seeing?
As Adam Sandler movies go, Just Go With It is largely disappointing thanks to a general lack of laughs and a pitifully lazy script. However, as Jennifer Aniston movies go, it's not that bad.
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