Grown Ups

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Release Date: August 27th 2010

After their high school basketball coach passes away, five good friends and former teammates reunite for a Fourth of July holiday weekend.

Director: Dennis Dugan (You Don't Mess with the Zohan, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Big Daddy, Happy Gilmore)

Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Selma Hayek, Mario Bello

Grown Ups is a film that involves little thinking; you're with them to share the fun. Unwind, relax and enjoy. It's inoffensive and easy going, like most Adam Sandler films. If you like some of his earlier, better material (Big Daddy, Anger Management, The Longest Yard, Click), you'll find this a bit mediocre in comparison.

Five school friends reconcile for their basketball coach's funeral. They spend a weekend together at a lake-house. Fun times should ensue, but more often than not they don't. It's true that when male friends are together they prat around. Grown Ups doesn't make use of mans immaturity (hence its  name) and at least half of the audience would relate to this. A couple of reminiscing moments that happen are by far the funniest i.e a game involving a bow and arrow, and alternating who checks out Schneider's unbelievable beautiful daughters.

There are a few subject matters that Dugan and Sandler don't take full of advantage of, instead GU resorts to flatulence jokes and low comedy. Kevin James and Mario Bello's sex life is almost non-existent because their (too old) child still breast feeds, Chris Rock wears the skirt in his relationship and is an emotional wreck and Rob Schneider is just weird. They never break their stereotypical boundaries.

Overview: Grown Ups lacks a narrative backbone that would make this film more engaging. Here's hoping the sequel learns from its mistakes.