GROWNUPS 2

US, 2013, 91 minutes, Colour.
Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Salma Hayak, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph, Taylor Lautner.
Directed by Dennis Dugan.

Puerile. That is as good a word as might be found to describe this sequel to Grownups, which was not so good in itself but certainly quite a deal better than this sequel.

This story takes place over one day. It seems to be a collection of skits and episodes dreamed up by Adam Sandler and his co-writers, the continuing story of the family which has come back from Hollywood to their hometown in Connecticut, has settled in even though some of the inhabitants have bad memories from the past. And it is an opportunity for Adam Sandler to hang out with his buddies. Kevin James, Chris Rock are much the same as they were in the first film.

There are a whole lot of pratfall jokes, especially for David Spade, the slightest of the group, who led the beginning of the day by discovering that he has a son he knew nothing off, a huge lug of a boy, rebelling against his father, seeming to indicate some tension in the family. However, once the group of men are confronted by a group of self-important frat boys from a college, the son takes the side of his father and his friends and no family conflict.

Speaking of the frat boys, they are having a holiday on the cliff overlooking the river where everyone in the past jumped into the deep water. This is a lead in for the boys to challenge the men not only to dive, but to dive naked. They do. Later, the men with friends from the town go to the cliff to confront the frat boys and there is an all-in melee.

The film give some attention to each of the characters, relying on the audience friendliness to accept them. However, not much attention is given to their wives who are critical of their husbands though loving them, join together for some chat and gossip, but, it seems, that their role in the film is more of female decoration.

That may seem a little mean-minded, but mean-minded is one of the characteristics of the film: the men are continually slinging off at each other, one-upping each other or associates from the past, wanting to win in any argie-bargie. This gives something of an unpleasant edge to the proceedings.

Grownups! Puerile! While Adam Sandler can be entertaining and clever when he wants to be, especially in a film like Funny People, he is not particularly funny in performance or screenplay this time. That Chris rock does say when confronted by the students, ‘isn’t any one afraid of a black man in America anymore?… Damn you, Obama!’ is a high point. Though that line could have come out of one of his stand-up comic routines rather than just for the film.