New Adam Sandler film slammed: 'This is pap'

Name: Trailer: Grown Ups 2
Uploaded: 2013-07-16T13:36:21+12:00
Duration: 138 s
Description: The all-star comedy cast from "Grown Ups" returns (with some exciting new additions) for more summertime laughs. Lenny (Adam Sandler) has relocated his family back to the small town where he and his friends grew up. This time around, the grown ups are the ones learning lessons from their kids on a day notoriously full of surprises: the last day of school.

By Chris Schulz

Herald online·

16 Jul, 2013 02:30 AM2 mins to read

The all-star comedy cast from "Grown Ups" returns (with some exciting new additions) for more summertime laughs. Lenny (Adam Sandler) has relocated his family back to the small town where he and his friends grew up. This time around, the grown ups are the ones learning lessons from their kids on a day notoriously full of surprises: the last day of school.

A new film from comedian Adam Sandler coming to New Zealand in November has been panned by critics as "pap" and "the most worthless movie of the decade".

Grown Ups 2, a sequel to the 2010 original, stars Sandler alongside fellow comedians Chris Rock, Kevin James and David Spade and is set for release in New Zealand on November 28.

The film follows Sandler's character Larry as he returns to the hometown he grew up in, and it has a paltry 7 per cent approval rating on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, and 20 per cent on Metacritic.

Critics in the US have panned the film as one of the worst of the year. The trailer shows a moose urinating on Sandler's face while he lies in bed next to Salma Hayek.

"There are not enough adjectives in the English language to describe this vile, disgusting excuse for a movie. If I can stop even one person from paying to see this crap, then I have done my job," wrote reviewer Jeanne Kaplan.

"This is pap, plain and simple: scattered raunch-lite devoid of emotional resonance," wrote Andy Webster from the New York Times.

"Once again Mr Sandler milks middle age for lucre, nostalgia and clunky, ham-fisted humour."

Said David Kaplan: "Grown Ups 2 ... will be hard to top as worst film of 2013, and is an instant contender for most worthless movie of the decade."

New York Post reviewer Sara Stewart said the film was "immature" and called it "a celebration of sexism, homophobia and general a-holishness.

"The movie lurches from one gross-out scene to another, flipping the bird at continuity and logic. It honestly seems as if Sandler and his team descended on a random suburb, halfheartedly improvising and moving on when they got bored," she wrote.

Washington Post critic Stephanie Merry was more positive, but it came with a warning: "The fact that some moments are genuinely laugh-out-loud funny almost makes the whole endeavour sadder."

Entertainment Weekly reviewer Owen Gleiberman was kinder, saying the film kept Sandler's "garden of idiotic innocence" alive.

And, as Leonard Maltin noted: "Judging from the box-office success of 2010's Grown Ups, there is a healthy-sized audience for this brand of comedy."

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- nzherald.co.nz