Three years after the first ‘Grown
Ups’ movie, Lenny Feder (Adam Sandler) has joined his old friends Eric
Lamensoff (Kevin James), Kurt McKenzie (Chris Rock) and Marcus Higgins (David
Spade) after moving back to his hometown
along with his wife Roxane (Salma Hayek) and kids. Soon, they need to deal with funny situations involving
their old friends and the local college frat boys.
Looking at it critically, the film could have just begun anywhere and
ended up nowhere! Wait, no story? Are you
kidding me? How can a movie exist without
a central plot or a conflict that works itself out in the end? Well, they
do it in ‘Grown Ups 2’ which credits Adam Sandler as one of the writers!
The movie has numerous themes,
like the issues of teenage kids of the lead characters who get into funny
situations, a couple of them involving dating. Then, there are some gags involving accidents, baldness, farts, etc. which
are not entirely unusual. And the kids and the grownups have a run-in with some college boys over the use
of a secluded lake. And there’s a scene involving a funny car-wash!
‘Grown Ups 2’ has a massive star-cast.
Along with those already mentioned here, there’s Twilight’s Taylor Lautner playing one of the frat boys, the tall basketball star Shaquille O’Neal
playing a cop and there is wrestler Stone
Cold Steve Austin who has been cast as a former school bully with a
sizzling girlfriend (April Rose) who doubles up as a ballet teacher to one of
Lenny Feder’s kids.
The movie tries hard to be funny.
Take that incident involving a heavily drugged bus driver using the bed and
toilet on display at a K-mart. Another one involves Lamensoff’s lame gag that
combines a burp, sneeze and a fart. A scene of a deer pissing on Sandler is
extremely lame brand of humor. When you know that the film has Adam Sandler in it, you know the sort
of humor that the film would have.
Nonetheless, ‘Grown Ups 2’ also has
its funny moments too. Some of its original but adult humor involves the faux exercise routine for the film’s women.
Also, the fact that Salma Hayek can
pull of a glamorous role in her late
forties is noteworthy! And the scene showing the attack by the Frat Boys
led by Lautner, one tends to ask ‘Hey, why isn’t he turning into a werewolf?’
Verdict: Movies like ‘Grown
Ups 2’ are those that are lazily made; imagine a movie without even a real plot. As such, it won’t make it worthwhile to
visit to visit the big screen and pay big bucks. It has its share of fart
jokes, but guess what, watching this film isn’t altogether regrettable either. You
could as well enjoy this on a lazy weekend
when there seems nothing better to do.
Rating 5/10: A funny pastime
flick with tons of actors but without any real plot
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