Wasn't expecting much from this movie but it turned out to be way worse than I had ever anticipated!
It's of course an absolute requirement for a comedy to be funny and feature some good creative jokes and entertaining moments in it. I really can't say that this movie features any of that but that's only part of the reason why it works out as such an incredibly weak and even annoying movie.
Thing with this movie is that they obviously were going for a sweet and cute sort of approach with its story lines, different characters and comedy. It basically in essence is a movie about family and about finding love when you maybe aren't really expecting it or looking for it. It makes this a romantic comedy for the whole family but I wish I could say that I can recommend this movie to the whole family as well. At first sight the movie seems to have all of the right ingredients in it to turn this movie into a good, cute and fun one but the problem however is that the director and writers obviously had no idea how to use any of the ingredients to help to turn this into an actually good and cute enough comedy to watch.
it simply comes down to it that this movie is neither a cute and funny one to watch, at all. It fails miserably, which in my opinion still is mostly due to the forced romance in the movie. It truly is a big problem for the movie that there is absolutely no chemistry between Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore in this movie. Nothing about the romance feels natural or convincing and there is no reason for their two characters to fall in love with each other. They have absolutely nothing in common with each other and I just don't get what is supposed to be the attraction. It seems that the film-makers themselves realized this as well, which forced them to throw in a scene in which the two characters both simultaneously order some black coffee, after which they look at each other with a look of; 'Wow, we have so much in common with each other! We definitely should be together.' It's just one of those forced things that neither works out as effective or cute but rather as something stupid and unnatural instead.
It also truly bothered and annoyed me that this movie was partly supposed to take place in South Africa. No, nothing against South Africa of course but I definitely have something against the way the country gets depicted in this movie. But aside from that, there in my opinion also was absolutely no reason for this movie to take place in South Africa in the first place. It adds absolutely nothing to neither the story or atmosphere of the movie and most of the time it doesn't even feels like the movie is taking place in Africa in the first place. Now, could be wrong of course but to me it seemed like most of the scenes involving the Drew Barrymore, Adam Sandler and other main characters were filmed in a studio or somewhere else outside in the good old US of A instead. All of the exteriors shots featuring elephants, rhinos, other wildlife, the natural environments and African sunsets feel cut in and they never appear in a scene together, alongside with any of the characters. But like I said, it also incredibly annoyed me how the country got depicted. There's nothing but tourist resorts and all of the locals only live to entertain and serve the wealthy tourists and are otherwise completely oblivious and stupid individuals, at least according to this movie. This movie in no way feels like it's actually taking place in South Africa and there is absolutely nothing or anybody in it that resembles South Africa or an actual South African. Now, I'm obviously not South African but if I would have been I most likely would have felt terribly offended by this movie.
There in my opinion also are only an handful of comedies that are 'allowed' to be 2 hours long. Not this one though obviously. And I really don't get why it's nearly 2 hours long either. It's not like it features a complicated story, with multiple different story lines and tons of characters in it. It's a very basic romantic comedy, with also a very basic story, that so easily could have been told in 90 minutes or less. It of course also would have prevented the movie from turning into a tiresome and repetitive one.
It's a fast paced- but not a very well paced movie, that keeps firing jokes at you. This also has as a result that the movie on some rare occasions does still manage to work out as a funny one. As much as I disliked watching this movie I still have to admit that I laughed during it as well. I for instance still enjoyed the parts in which Adam Sandler's daughters got mistaken for boys and I also have to admit that while watching it I felt confused as well. I had no idea whether or not his daughters were played by boys or girls, so kudos to the makeup- and costume department for that.
But really, other than that, I often felt puzzled by how incredibly ineffective this movie was as both a romantic-comedy and just movie in general. Bad storytelling, weak writing, poor characters and absolutely no chemistry between its two leads makes this one turd of a movie and quite honestly one of the worst comedies that I have seen in awhile. And I'm not even an Adam Sandler hater...
3/10
Watch trailer
It's of course an absolute requirement for a comedy to be funny and feature some good creative jokes and entertaining moments in it. I really can't say that this movie features any of that but that's only part of the reason why it works out as such an incredibly weak and even annoying movie.
Thing with this movie is that they obviously were going for a sweet and cute sort of approach with its story lines, different characters and comedy. It basically in essence is a movie about family and about finding love when you maybe aren't really expecting it or looking for it. It makes this a romantic comedy for the whole family but I wish I could say that I can recommend this movie to the whole family as well. At first sight the movie seems to have all of the right ingredients in it to turn this movie into a good, cute and fun one but the problem however is that the director and writers obviously had no idea how to use any of the ingredients to help to turn this into an actually good and cute enough comedy to watch.
it simply comes down to it that this movie is neither a cute and funny one to watch, at all. It fails miserably, which in my opinion still is mostly due to the forced romance in the movie. It truly is a big problem for the movie that there is absolutely no chemistry between Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore in this movie. Nothing about the romance feels natural or convincing and there is no reason for their two characters to fall in love with each other. They have absolutely nothing in common with each other and I just don't get what is supposed to be the attraction. It seems that the film-makers themselves realized this as well, which forced them to throw in a scene in which the two characters both simultaneously order some black coffee, after which they look at each other with a look of; 'Wow, we have so much in common with each other! We definitely should be together.' It's just one of those forced things that neither works out as effective or cute but rather as something stupid and unnatural instead.
It also truly bothered and annoyed me that this movie was partly supposed to take place in South Africa. No, nothing against South Africa of course but I definitely have something against the way the country gets depicted in this movie. But aside from that, there in my opinion also was absolutely no reason for this movie to take place in South Africa in the first place. It adds absolutely nothing to neither the story or atmosphere of the movie and most of the time it doesn't even feels like the movie is taking place in Africa in the first place. Now, could be wrong of course but to me it seemed like most of the scenes involving the Drew Barrymore, Adam Sandler and other main characters were filmed in a studio or somewhere else outside in the good old US of A instead. All of the exteriors shots featuring elephants, rhinos, other wildlife, the natural environments and African sunsets feel cut in and they never appear in a scene together, alongside with any of the characters. But like I said, it also incredibly annoyed me how the country got depicted. There's nothing but tourist resorts and all of the locals only live to entertain and serve the wealthy tourists and are otherwise completely oblivious and stupid individuals, at least according to this movie. This movie in no way feels like it's actually taking place in South Africa and there is absolutely nothing or anybody in it that resembles South Africa or an actual South African. Now, I'm obviously not South African but if I would have been I most likely would have felt terribly offended by this movie.There in my opinion also are only an handful of comedies that are 'allowed' to be 2 hours long. Not this one though obviously. And I really don't get why it's nearly 2 hours long either. It's not like it features a complicated story, with multiple different story lines and tons of characters in it. It's a very basic romantic comedy, with also a very basic story, that so easily could have been told in 90 minutes or less. It of course also would have prevented the movie from turning into a tiresome and repetitive one.
It's a fast paced- but not a very well paced movie, that keeps firing jokes at you. This also has as a result that the movie on some rare occasions does still manage to work out as a funny one. As much as I disliked watching this movie I still have to admit that I laughed during it as well. I for instance still enjoyed the parts in which Adam Sandler's daughters got mistaken for boys and I also have to admit that while watching it I felt confused as well. I had no idea whether or not his daughters were played by boys or girls, so kudos to the makeup- and costume department for that.
But really, other than that, I often felt puzzled by how incredibly ineffective this movie was as both a romantic-comedy and just movie in general. Bad storytelling, weak writing, poor characters and absolutely no chemistry between its two leads makes this one turd of a movie and quite honestly one of the worst comedies that I have seen in awhile. And I'm not even an Adam Sandler hater...
3/10
Watch trailer
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