You'll Laugh till You Cry....and Then Some!I had high hopes for this movie and it didn't disappoint me! Anything with the words "Happy Madison" in the opening credits has to be good.
I mean seriously, combine Happy Gilmore, The King of Queens, Dicky Roberts, Duce Bigalo, and Caretaker - how could it not be funny? This movie featured five of the funniest men in hollywood as well as a great supporting cast (which included Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, and others).
The movie opens with the fab five playing basketball as middle schoolers in the final seconds of a championship game. The youngsters who played Sandler, James, Rock, Spade, and Schnider as kids actually somewhat resembled the actors they were playing as children.
Twenty of so years later the fab five is forced to return to their small New England town to morn the death of their beloved basketball coach. Lenny (Sandler) is a sucessful, wealthy, hollywood agent with a fashion designer wife (Hayek), three bratty kids and a nanny. Feeling ashamed, her tries to keep his good fortune secret from his friends. Eric (James) has a wonderful wife and two great kids but can't let his friends know that he's currently out of work and not as sucessful as he pretends. Kurt (Rock) tries to hide the fact that his pregnant wife works all day while he stays at home cooking and cleaning. Along for the ride is his rude, crass mother in law who tries to blow his secret. Hopeless romantic Robbie (Schneider) disgusts his friends by bringing his much older wife along. They are soon joined by his three daughters from three previous marriages (two of them gorges) which distracts his friends, including Marcus (Spade), a playboy who never grew up. After the funeral, the five friends and their families head to a lake house for some fun and catching up - and that's where our story begins.
Many hectic adventures follow, starting with the fab five rowing to a nearby island to spread the coaches ashes and ending with a basketball rematch against their old rivals, who are still bitter about the loss so many years ago. The game ends with Lenny teaching his son a lesson in humility. Eventually everyone secrets come out of course, but the best scene is when the fab five leads their kids down a lake trail to an old rope sing hanging over the lake. "You see a rope and a lake and that doesn't make you wanna go nuts?" Lenny asks his kids. Eric volunteers to try it out but just as he's soaring over the lake he get scared and forgets to jump off, crashing onto the hard, rocky ground below and crushing a bird. The fun continues at a water park where we get to see Adam Sandler do a flip off a zip line and land in the water!
If your among the thousands who loved The Benchwarmers, Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, Blades of Glory..ect, give Grown Ups a try. Anyone who's looking for a laugh will not be disappointed!
5 Stars
