Grown Ups is a summer June 2010 buddy/comedy film. shot in the USA intended and marketed
towards families that details the story of a man and his family who meets up with his childhood friends
and their new families at their basketball coach's funeral and gather to celebrate the anniversary of
their championship game. Grown Ups explains adult life as one that provides certain responsibilities
but still opens room for enjoyment; this is expressed mainly through the films cast. The film is directed
by Dennis Dugan, famous for directing a number of Adam Sandler starring films (Just Go With It,
You Don't Mess With The Zohan, Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy) and this film their fifth collaboration, a
great of the main cast members of the film are also all former SNL (Saturday Night Live) cast members,
these include Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider (1990–1991) as well as Maya
Rudolph. The film was produced by Adam Sandler’s production company Happy Madison, which the name
a mashup of his two most successful films Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison, the company is best known
for its comedy films as is Adam Sandler yet he is also known for his comedic flops as his feel-good films
can take an offensive or purely unfunny tone as they did with Jack & Jill.
Grown ups tries to place adults/parents in a relatable fashion, showing that yes they make mistakes,
have their personal struggles and responsibilities, they still are childish are heart in certain situations
are that they use these to connect and teach their children by finding common interests such as what they
enjoyed as children and hoping to pass their memories onto them as well as rebuiliding their own strained
relationships. The film does this through comparing different incomes of the different families, as well as
ethnitiies and job positions in order to show that although they have seperated and have different lives
they are able to find common ground and with help from each other can teach them and their children to
grow, this is done to make the film relatable, as many Sandler films are, audiences are given clear
oppourtunity to place themselves in the shoes of the characters which collectively represent different
types of families.
For example, the main character Lenny (Sandler) is presented as the wealthiest member of the group due to his profession as a high powered talent agent while his wife is a famous fashion designer, his three children are presented as spoilt due to their parents well paying jobs, this is used as a source of humor in the film, comedy films are intended to make the viewer laugh, as Lenny constantly attemps to make his children see that there is more to life than money and technology, audiences can engage with this idea as contextually even in poorer families most children are fairly obsessed with their technological devices and most would rather stay inside and socially exclude themselves from those not usuing thewm which can caused strained family ralationships and social problems. The film also puts a high focus on moral message a great deal of the film is learning about having humility and the viewers can see the characters struggle with this through how they interact with poorer characters (Kevin Smith's character lying about his job) in an effort to impress thier friends and those around them. Which relates to the 'American Dream' of making as much money as possible in an effort to better yourself when in relatity just encourages greed.
In terms of sound Grown's Ups has a theme song in the form of Escape (The Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes which perfectly describes and fits the feel good nature of the film, with hawaiian holiday vibes and it's theme of escapism it reflects the tone of many Adam Sandler films as they provide an idealistic view on familiy life and the need to sometimes experience something for pleasure and not for technical useful purposes. It also carries a nostaligic type of sound through its soundtrack, accentuating the theme of rememberence which is aso prevalent in the film as thew come together to remember their basketball chocach who brought them together as friends and has once again united them through his death.
Critically Adam Sandler films don’t tend to do well as shown by it recieving a 10% rating on the
tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes, but it is seen that many people enjoyed the film not for critical
or technical reasons as it’s not technically a great film, yet it was shown to me a massive box office
success, grossing $271 million worldwide which could be interpreted as film intended to just do well
commercially and a quick cash grab for Sandler and his co-stars who he purchased Maserati’s for after the
success of the film. However in order for a comedy film to do well there needs to be humor and the film
itself is genuinely funny just very family-centered humor which doesn’t make it a bad film, it doesn’t make it
an extraordinary film but in my opinion it’s unique and special in its own right as the film carries a certain
vibe that can only be found in films with this type of laidback, sometimes cute, sometimes dark and
sometimes obvious levels of humor.
These films are exclusive to Adam Sandler being cast as the main character as his films have a certain
enjoyable tone when done right.
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale which shows
that a film doesn't have to be critically acclaimed in order to be successful.
"Grown Ups' cast of comedy vets is amiable, but they're let down by flat direction and the scattershot,
lowbrow humor of a stunted script." Rotten Tomatoes, critical consensus
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