Review - Grown Ups 2

I Don't Want To Grow Up, Not Quite Yet..

The Grown Ups are back. Wait…there’s a problem with that title for this movie as Lenny (Adam Sandler), Eric (Kevin James), Kurt (Chris Rock) and Marcus (David Spade) are anything but grown up for the bulk of this sequel. But that’s no surprise here.

In this second story Lenny has moved back to his home town to be with his friends. As school is about to end for all the kids, the friends find that the local college kids are trying to squeeze them out of the town they love.

That isn’t going to cut it, for these guys. Taylor Lautner leads the college students to show them who is in charge of their swimming hole and their town.

Writing the summary here shows one of many problems, even for a fan of Sandler. I generally have been very forgiving of Sandler in the last few films he’s made. (Well with the obvious exception of Jack and Jill). In the first film, these characters were fun to sit around and listen to a discussion about almost anything.  Instead Sandler and company find themselves working extremely hard to make people laugh. And they are working in the wrong area as the jokes tend to miss more marks than they hit.

Sure I laughed at some sequences. I found the addition of Shaquille O’Neal to work. He was funny and solid throughout. I also tended to like Dan Patrick’scameo sequences. But the rest of the characters left images within me that were less than friendly. I found cringing to be more likely than laughing at some of the humor. And I was in a state of wanting to have some juvenile humor for the night.

I don’t want to grow up, but if this is what I've got in store for me…I might just stay a kid forever. Grown Ups 2 makes growing up something to avoid. I don’t want to grow up, at least not quite yet.

C-

Grown Ups 2

Director: Dennis Dugan

Cast: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, Salma Hayek, David Spade, Maya Rudolph, Maria Bello

Rating: PG-13 for crude and suggestive content, language and some male rear nudity.

Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes