TB4000
02-14-2004, 12:45 PM
50 First Dates Feels Like 1 Too many
I do not like Adam Sandler. Ask anybody that I discuss movies with and they will tell you upfront that with the exception of his Hanukah song, I think he’s an overrated, annoying personality who fumbled his way into stardom thanks to Saturday Night Live. Punch-Drunk Love was his only, and I mean ONLY movie that I enjoyed, mostly due to his being toned down from his other roles, where screaming and kicking random people earned him a $100 million box office nearly each and every time. I was talked into seeing 50 First Dates last night after a game of pool I had lost, so I figured may as well end the night with another big loss. Was I being too hard on the film before seeing it? Normally, I would concur with that, but after my initial viewing, I stand by my convictions about Sandler.
The setting for this newest tale is the island of Oahu, where Sandler’s character Henry Roth has a reputation for being a true ladies’ man, as the opening montage showcases dozens of women discussing how Henry wined and dined them on their trips to the big island. They range from a giggly college student to a black woman working in a beauty salon to a Chinese woman who tells her friend in subtitled Mandarin how he “pounded her like a mallard duck" (har har, it is to laugh). Unfathomable as it is that someone like Sandler could be that much of a pimp daddy; it’s even more implausible that his career is that of marine veterinarian. He spends his days taking care of penguins and walruses that have a tendency to projectile vomit, particularly when someone is within range of his mouth. You’ve seen stuff like this done I don’t know how many times, but of course the audience I was with laughed their collective asses off at it.
OK, enough debasing of Mr. Sandler, I’ll get back to that later. On to the oh so complex plot. One morning while eating breakfast in the local establishment, Henry notices Lucy (Drew Barrymore) sitting in a booth alone, and is immediately smitten. He introduces himself, player that he is, and they share a great first date. Next day, he finds her yet again, but alas, she doesn’t remember him. Turns out that a pineapple picking accident with her father caused her to lose her short term memory, so every morning she wakes up thinking it’s Oct. 15. You can see how such a thing could put a strain on one’s relationship, so Henry has to basically win her over day after day after day after day after…you see where it’s going.
Barrymore’s character is cute enough, but the fact that this plotline has been done to death over the past few years is what makes it stale. Memento started the trend, then Finding Nemo’s Dory suffered from the exact same punch line, er, ailment. And I won’t even get into how it’s blatantly ripping off Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day, though technically I did just get into it.
The cast does as decent job as can be, though not all of them are up to par. Since it does take place in Hawaii, the majority of the supporting actors are of the Pacific Island persuasion, and they don’t go into stereotypical caricatures at all, they actually are very complex characters. The closest thing you could compare it to is Lilo and Stitch in that way. However, you do have Rob Schneider as Ula, Henry’s best friend, who happens to be Samoan. Granted, Schneider is half Filipino, but the way he plays this character is like some outsider’s version of what native Hawaiians are. He speaks the equivalent of spanglish, and talks like Tito from Rocket Power, only amplified to about 20,000. He gets a few good one-liners, but a lot of his shtick is pretty painful to endure. The only saving grace is watching Lucy take to him with a baseball bat when she thinks Henry is being assaulted by him. Also in the fray is Sean Astin, Samwise himself, as Lucy’s tiny steroid induced brother. He’s one of the few characters that had me rolling, as I know many guys like him(including myself at one time), who tries to make up for his short stature by acting like he’s going to kick everyone’s ass within a 10 mile radius.
I really can’t recommend “50”, because it feels like such a retread, and also because Sandler is just going through the motions again. I don’t really blame the man, because that’s what sells, but if he makes more Punch-Drunk Loves, best believe I’ll be right there waiting eagerly.
I do not like Adam Sandler. Ask anybody that I discuss movies with and they will tell you upfront that with the exception of his Hanukah song, I think he’s an overrated, annoying personality who fumbled his way into stardom thanks to Saturday Night Live. Punch-Drunk Love was his only, and I mean ONLY movie that I enjoyed, mostly due to his being toned down from his other roles, where screaming and kicking random people earned him a $100 million box office nearly each and every time. I was talked into seeing 50 First Dates last night after a game of pool I had lost, so I figured may as well end the night with another big loss. Was I being too hard on the film before seeing it? Normally, I would concur with that, but after my initial viewing, I stand by my convictions about Sandler.
The setting for this newest tale is the island of Oahu, where Sandler’s character Henry Roth has a reputation for being a true ladies’ man, as the opening montage showcases dozens of women discussing how Henry wined and dined them on their trips to the big island. They range from a giggly college student to a black woman working in a beauty salon to a Chinese woman who tells her friend in subtitled Mandarin how he “pounded her like a mallard duck" (har har, it is to laugh). Unfathomable as it is that someone like Sandler could be that much of a pimp daddy; it’s even more implausible that his career is that of marine veterinarian. He spends his days taking care of penguins and walruses that have a tendency to projectile vomit, particularly when someone is within range of his mouth. You’ve seen stuff like this done I don’t know how many times, but of course the audience I was with laughed their collective asses off at it.
OK, enough debasing of Mr. Sandler, I’ll get back to that later. On to the oh so complex plot. One morning while eating breakfast in the local establishment, Henry notices Lucy (Drew Barrymore) sitting in a booth alone, and is immediately smitten. He introduces himself, player that he is, and they share a great first date. Next day, he finds her yet again, but alas, she doesn’t remember him. Turns out that a pineapple picking accident with her father caused her to lose her short term memory, so every morning she wakes up thinking it’s Oct. 15. You can see how such a thing could put a strain on one’s relationship, so Henry has to basically win her over day after day after day after day after…you see where it’s going.
Barrymore’s character is cute enough, but the fact that this plotline has been done to death over the past few years is what makes it stale. Memento started the trend, then Finding Nemo’s Dory suffered from the exact same punch line, er, ailment. And I won’t even get into how it’s blatantly ripping off Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day, though technically I did just get into it.
The cast does as decent job as can be, though not all of them are up to par. Since it does take place in Hawaii, the majority of the supporting actors are of the Pacific Island persuasion, and they don’t go into stereotypical caricatures at all, they actually are very complex characters. The closest thing you could compare it to is Lilo and Stitch in that way. However, you do have Rob Schneider as Ula, Henry’s best friend, who happens to be Samoan. Granted, Schneider is half Filipino, but the way he plays this character is like some outsider’s version of what native Hawaiians are. He speaks the equivalent of spanglish, and talks like Tito from Rocket Power, only amplified to about 20,000. He gets a few good one-liners, but a lot of his shtick is pretty painful to endure. The only saving grace is watching Lucy take to him with a baseball bat when she thinks Henry is being assaulted by him. Also in the fray is Sean Astin, Samwise himself, as Lucy’s tiny steroid induced brother. He’s one of the few characters that had me rolling, as I know many guys like him(including myself at one time), who tries to make up for his short stature by acting like he’s going to kick everyone’s ass within a 10 mile radius.
I really can’t recommend “50”, because it feels like such a retread, and also because Sandler is just going through the motions again. I don’t really blame the man, because that’s what sells, but if he makes more Punch-Drunk Loves, best believe I’ll be right there waiting eagerly.