By James Sabata
“Grown Ups 2” was not what I was expecting. I liked the first movie. It wasn’t a masterpiece, but what Sandler movie is? I went into this movie not expecting a lot, and I was given even less. From the opening scene of a deer (that is too clearly computer-generated) peeing in Sandler’s face to the closing scene where our hero farts on his wife, Grown Ups 2 is a nonstop joyride of sight gags, toilet humor, and burpsnarting (a combination of burping, sneezing, and farting).
The sequel takes place three years after the original, where we find that Lenny Feder (Sandler) and family have moved back to his hometown. Lenny is officially retired. His friends, Eric (James), Kurt (Rock), and Marcus (Spade), are all still there. Together, they spend the day lamenting how they used to party, and complaining about their dull lives of being married to Salma Hayek, Maya Rudolph, and Maria Bello. Meanwhile Roxie (Hayek) tries to convince Lenny that they should have another baby. Marcus finds out he’s already had a baby and goes to meet the little guy, only to go face to face with his son, a high school senior who looks like a giant, muscular Spade, only dumber. Lenny and friends accidentally cross paths with a group of psychopathic fratboys headed by Taylor Lautner and in turn make them so mad the frat boys force the men to take of their clothes and jump off a cliff. When those frat boys find their house has been vandalized, they set out to ruin Lenny’s life on a much bigger level… by fist fighting everyone at Lenny’s 80s themed party.
In case you couldn’t tell, this movie lacks any semblance of an actual plot, instead existing as many skits running together that occasionally attempt to build off of one another, but not for long. The jokes themselves either cut off right before they could get to the punch line, or continue rambling for two minutes after it.
The chemistry between the main actors is undeniable – so much so that they relied on that to get them by instead of offering anything of interest. Often, when old friends come together, they find their new lives have nothing to do with one another and they resort to talking about the good old days and force laughs from one another. That is the only thing Grown Ups 2 gets right – it leaves the viewer wishing for the good old days when these four men at least attempted to entertain their audience.
1 stars out of 5
