Title: Grown Ups 2
Release Date: 2013-07-12
Genres: Comedy
High essence:
"There's also loopy, strung-out bus driver Nick (Nick Swardson), who keeps tagging along with the guys whether he fully realizes it or not; Roxanne's new boutique employee, the barrette-wearing Penny (Cheri Oteri), who is still very much obsessed with former sixth grade classmate Lenny; first dates for Lenny's eldest son Greg (Jake Goldberg) and Kurt's daughter Charlotte (China Anne McClain); out-of-contrre) and Fluzoo (Shaquille O'ly's past, Tommy Cavanaugh (Steve Austin), and a group of idiotic frat guys led by Andy (Taylor Lautner) whom Lenny and his buddies clash with at the swimming quarry.""After stops along the way to watch Swardson defecating in a Kmart display toilet, the school principal eating his own belly button lint, Spade projectile vomiting, Quinn in a poop-themed soft-serve gag, and a lot of ogling of the hot school ballet teacher, it all ends up with an 80s-themed party at Lenny s, where the host confronts his own childhood bully (Steve Austin, who actually comes off as a nicer guy than Lenny or his friends)."
"None of this deserves a pass in balance with Steve Buscemi dressed as Flavor Flav or the satisfaction of what has to be the largest gathering of Saturday Night Live vets ever on film - not that giving all these guys an easy paycheck isn t part of the point of its production (even Melanie Hutsell gets a line of dialogue and Cheri Oteri a very weak story arc)."
"Like Ulysses though unlike Mrs Dalloway it features plentiful flatulence, and James Joyce might well have appreciated the neologism burpsnart, which describes Kevin James character's ability to burp, sneeze and fart simultaneously."
") At a lakeside end-of-semester beer bash, ripped frat boys, led by the unbilled Taylor Lautner, go all Porky's on our good-buddy heroes Adam Sandler's Lenny Feder, Kevin James' Eric Lamonsoff, Chris Rock's Kurt McKenzie and David Spade's Marcus Higgins and force them to leap nude off a 35-foot rock."
"-- go to the lake they used to swim at as kids and are harassed by a gang of fraternity bros, led by Taylor Lautner and Milo Ventimiglia."
"From there, it's pretty much a string of never-ending scatological jokes, including an immensely tiresome running gag about burping, sneezing, and farting at the same time."
Medium essence:
Dustin Putman:- Once more directed by Dennis Dugan (2011's Just Go with It ) and written by Fred Wolf (2008's Strange Wilderness ), Tim Herlihy (2008's You Don't Mess with the Zohan ), and Adam Sandler (2011's Jack and Jill ), Grown Ups 2 stays true to the first film by not overstuffing itself with a major central storyline, instead letting the amiable cast do their thing while clearly having a blast shooting it.
- There's also loopy, strung-out bus driver Nick (Nick Swardson), who keeps tagging along with the guys whether he fully realizes it or not; Roxanne's new boutique employee, the barrette-wearing Penny (Cheri Oteri), who is still very much obsessed with former sixth grade classmate Lenny; first dates for Lenny's eldest son Greg (Jake Goldberg) and Kurt's daughter Charlotte (China Anne McClain); out-of-contrre) and Fluzoo (Shaquille O'ly's past, Tommy Cavanaugh (Steve Austin), and a group of idiotic frat guys led by Andy (Taylor Lautner) whom Lenny and his buddies clash with at the swimming quarry.
- As for the gals, Salma Hayek (2012's Savages ), Maria Bello (2011's Beautiful Boy ), and a woefully underutilized Maya Rudolph (2013's The Way Way Back ) gamely go through the motions, thankful whenever they get a scene that gives them something to do.
Sara Stewart:
- (I like to imagine Schneider reading the screenplay and going, This is beneath me and I starred in Deuce Bigalow 2!
- And Eric is honing his ability to burp, sneeze and fart simultaneously, to the great envy of his mouth-breather pals.
- After stops along the way to watch Swardson defecating in a Kmart display toilet, the school principal eating his own belly button lint, Spade projectile vomiting, Quinn in a poop-themed soft-serve gag, and a lot of ogling of the hot school ballet teacher, it all ends up with an 80s-themed party at Lenny s, where the host confronts his own childhood bully (Steve Austin, who actually comes off as a nicer guy than Lenny or his friends).
Christopher Campbell:
- When a gross-out situation occurs where a character is made to look like soft serve chocolate ice cream is coming out of his ass, everyone on screen seems to get a giggle out of it and shrug it off instead of seeing it as we do, with a combination of disgust and disbelief that elicits gut reaction laughs of shock and discomfort.
- It's got the usual jokes about and gags featuring poop, piss, balls, cleavage, vomit and naked or near-naked men.
- None of this deserves a pass in balance with Steve Buscemi dressed as Flavor Flav or the satisfaction of what has to be the largest gathering of Saturday Night Live vets ever on film - not that giving all these guys an easy paycheck isn t part of the point of its production (even Melanie Hutsell gets a line of dialogue and Cheri Oteri a very weak story arc).
Andrew Barker:
- Like Ulysses though unlike Mrs Dalloway it features plentiful flatulence, and James Joyce might well have appreciated the neologism burpsnart, which describes Kevin James character's ability to burp, sneeze and fart simultaneously.
- Whether he would have appreciated seeing this trick repeated no less than five times is an enigma for the ages, though the sheer amount of pissing, vomiting, ear picking, crotch sniffing, man-on-dog tongue kissing and belly-button lint eating that the film contains would surely push anyone over the edge.
- And while Sandler's films usually feature wall-to-wall product placement, Grown Ups 2's brand-whoring is constrained to a single albeit seemingly endless scene set prominently inside a K-Mart.
Michael Sragow:
- ) At a lakeside end-of-semester beer bash, ripped frat boys, led by the unbilled Taylor Lautner, go all Porky's on our good-buddy heroes Adam Sandler's Lenny Feder, Kevin James' Eric Lamonsoff, Chris Rock's Kurt McKenzie and David Spade's Marcus Higgins and force them to leap nude off a 35-foot rock.
- Sadler shows his enduring love for his wife by setting off his first successful burp-snart.
- Examplelink to graphic lightbox Starring: Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade Behind the scenes: Directed by Dennis Dugan Rating: PG-13 for crude and suggestive content, language and some male rear nudity Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes Playing: Throughout Orange County ( See theaters and movie times ) In this misbegotten sequel, Adam Sandler and friends try to re-ignite their old partying spirit on their kids' last day of school, leading to a big blow-out at Sandler's place and jokes about every possible bodily fluid.
Eric D. Snider:
- -- go to the lake they used to swim at as kids and are harassed by a gang of fraternity bros, led by Taylor Lautner and Milo Ventimiglia.
- In a real movie, this would happen not just because a deer peeing on a man is a funny sight, but for some story-related reason: to establish that the family has moved out of the city and into the country, maybe, or that this guy has a fear of animals, or that he's constantly having terrible luck.
- Sometimes they even start at the end and work backwards: Dude, it would be HILARIOUS to see a deer pee on a guy's face, so let's think of a funny sequence of events that would lead to that!
Jeff Beck:
- From there, it's pretty much a string of never-ending scatological jokes, including an immensely tiresome running gag about burping, sneezing, and farting at the same time.
- Shaq and Dante : Police Force: One of several pointless featurettes.
- Sandler and his co-writers desperately try to fill the time with one random scene after another: Lenny's wife (Salma Hayek) is thinking of having another baby, Kurt's wife (Maya Rudolph) forgets their anniversary, Eric spends a lot of time with his mother watching soap operas, Marcus tries to connect with his brute of a son, and so on and so forth, but just like last time, none of it ever ends up coming together, making for another tedious outing that wanders on and on aimlessly.
Low essence:
Dustin Putman:- Since last they were seen, forty-something best friends Lenny Feder (Adam Sandler), Eric cus Higgins (David Spade) have reconnected in a big way, moving their families (or, in terminal bachelor Marcus' case, himself) back to their Massachusetts hometown to get closer to their roots.
- Once more directed by Dennis Dugan (2011's Just Go with It ) and written by Fred Wolf (2008's Strange Wilderness ), Tim Herlihy (2008's You Don't Mess with the Zohan ), and Adam Sandler (2011's Jack and Jill ), Grown Ups 2 stays true to the first film by not overstuffing itself with a major central storyline, instead letting the amiable cast do their thing while clearly having a blast shooting it.
- For Kurt, now working as a cable installer, he enjoys milking the fact that wife Deanne (Maya Rudolph) forgot their twentieth anniversary.
- As for Marcus, he only recently found out he had a son, but doesn't quite know how to connect with Braden (Alexander Ludwig), a hulking teenager who's practically twice his size.
- There's also loopy, strung-out bus driver Nick (Nick Swardson), who keeps tagging along with the guys whether he fully realizes it or not; Roxanne's new boutique employee, the barrette-wearing Penny (Cheri Oteri), who is still very much obsessed with former sixth grade classmate Lenny; first dates for Lenny's eldest son Greg (Jake Goldberg) and Kurt's daughter Charlotte (China Anne McClain); out-of-contrre) and Fluzoo (Shaquille O'ly's past, Tommy Cavanaugh (Steve Austin), and a group of idiotic frat guys led by Andy (Taylor Lautner) whom Lenny and his buddies clash with at the swimming quarry.
- As for the gals, Salma Hayek (2012's Savages ), Maria Bello (2011's Beautiful Boy ), and a woefully underutilized Maya Rudolph (2013's The Way Way Back ) gamely go through the motions, thankful whenever they get a scene that gives them something to do.
- In a mountainous cast featuring what seems to be a hundred recognizable faces, Steve Buscemi (2013's The Incredible Burt Wonderstone ) continues to show off a fearless comedic side as driving instructor Wiley; Shaquille O'Neal (2006's Scary Movie 4 ) and Steve Austin (2010's The Expendables ) are surprisingly inspired as Officer Fluzoo and tough guy Tommy Cavanaugh, and Cheri Oteri (2007's Southland Tales ) is a happy addition as Penny, the delusional girl from Lenny's past that he doesn't even remember existed.
Sara Stewart:
- (Everett Collection) Morning dawns in the hometown of Lenny Feder (Sandler), where he's moved with his family after giving up his Hollywood agent job.
- He and wife Roxanne (Hayek) are awakened by, inexplicably, a deer in their bedroom.
- (I like to imagine Schneider reading the screenplay and going, This is beneath me and I starred in Deuce Bigalow 2!
- And Eric is honing his ability to burp, sneeze and fart simultaneously, to the great envy of his mouth-breather pals.
- The wives gather for an aerobics class, where they shudder at the appearance of a mannish female instructor and coo over a hunky guy until finding out that he, too, is gay.
- They re the only SNL people you don t actively pity; Colin Quinn, Tim Meadows, Jon Lovitz, Ellen Cleghorne and Cheri Oteri are another story.
- After stops along the way to watch Swardson defecating in a Kmart display toilet, the school principal eating his own belly button lint, Spade projectile vomiting, Quinn in a poop-themed soft-serve gag, and a lot of ogling of the hot school ballet teacher, it all ends up with an 80s-themed party at Lenny s, where the host confronts his own childhood bully (Steve Austin, who actually comes off as a nicer guy than Lenny or his friends).
Christopher Campbell:
- At $271m, it's the highest grossing movie worldwide for both Sandler and his production company, Happy Madison.
- This is a movie that opens with Sandler's character, Lenny, waking up to the sight of a big buck deer staring back at him in his bedroom.
- Grown Ups 2 , which is directed by regular Sandler movie helmer Dennis Dugan ( Grown Ups ; Happy Gilmore ; Jack and Jill ), is a mostly plotless movie, a feature-length sitcom (some supporting players even have catchphrases) where the situation is that it's set in a town filled with maturity-challenged morons.
- Here that d be Sandler, who with his trio of buddies are typical-of-late comedy protagonists in arrested development, only the manchild shtick is less prominent because every other character is dumber and/or more immature than the next.
- When a gross-out situation occurs where a character is made to look like soft serve chocolate ice cream is coming out of his ass, everyone on screen seems to get a giggle out of it and shrug it off instead of seeing it as we do, with a combination of disgust and disbelief that elicits gut reaction laughs of shock and discomfort.
- It's got the usual jokes about and gags featuring poop, piss, balls, cleavage, vomit and naked or near-naked men.
- None of this deserves a pass in balance with Steve Buscemi dressed as Flavor Flav or the satisfaction of what has to be the largest gathering of Saturday Night Live vets ever on film - not that giving all these guys an easy paycheck isn t part of the point of its production (even Melanie Hutsell gets a line of dialogue and Cheri Oteri a very weak story arc).
Andrew Barker:
- The first scene in Grown Ups 2 depicts a deer urinating directly onto Adam Sandler's face.
- Like Ulysses though unlike Mrs Dalloway it features plentiful flatulence, and James Joyce might well have appreciated the neologism burpsnart, which describes Kevin James character's ability to burp, sneeze and fart simultaneously.
- Whether he would have appreciated seeing this trick repeated no less than five times is an enigma for the ages, though the sheer amount of pissing, vomiting, ear picking, crotch sniffing, man-on-dog tongue kissing and belly-button lint eating that the film contains would surely push anyone over the edge.
- The cast is massive in addition to a cross-section of Sandler's former Saturday Night Live compatriots, Lautner, Shaquille O Neal and Steve Austin are among the newcomers and rather than attempt to construct intersecting plotlines that involve all these thesps, the script (by Sandler, Fred Wolf and Tim Herlihy) instead simply doles out a single task for each character to accomplish (ask the girl out, avoid the bully, bond with the long-lost son, etc.
- In one scene, the central foursome come across a giant tire, and with no attempt at explanation or reasonable comedic setup, Spade is simply thrust inside and sent rolling through town, because that's what grown men do when they find a giant tire.
- And while Sandler's films usually feature wall-to-wall product placement, Grown Ups 2's brand-whoring is constrained to a single albeit seemingly endless scene set prominently inside a K-Mart.
- The film also avoids some of the misanthropy and borderline racism that has emerged in so many recent Sandler projects, although a female bodybuilder comes in for some bizarrely elongated and repeated abuse, and never with more wit than the moment in which Maya Rudolph's character randomly points at her and yells, She's got a penis.
Michael Sragow:
- Husbands ogle their daughters' sexy dance teacher.
- ) At a lakeside end-of-semester beer bash, ripped frat boys, led by the unbilled Taylor Lautner, go all Porky's on our good-buddy heroes Adam Sandler's Lenny Feder, Kevin James' Eric Lamonsoff, Chris Rock's Kurt McKenzie and David Spade's Marcus Higgins and force them to leap nude off a 35-foot rock.
- Lenny must get behind Roxanne's determination to have a fourth child as well as teach his younger son how to combat bullying.
- ) The film is mostly an exhausted, middle-aged, family-values version of This is the End, with Sandler functioning as the host.
- Sadler shows his enduring love for his wife by setting off his first successful burp-snart.
- Examplelink to graphic lightbox Starring: Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade Behind the scenes: Directed by Dennis Dugan Rating: PG-13 for crude and suggestive content, language and some male rear nudity Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes Playing: Throughout Orange County ( See theaters and movie times ) In this misbegotten sequel, Adam Sandler and friends try to re-ignite their old partying spirit on their kids' last day of school, leading to a big blow-out at Sandler's place and jokes about every possible bodily fluid.
- Excretory products fuel the humor and jiggle shots supply the titillation for an hour and half in a cozy New England suburb where ordinary guys and gals lead the life of Riley.
Eric D. Snider:
- -- go to the lake they used to swim at as kids and are harassed by a gang of fraternity bros, led by Taylor Lautner and Milo Ventimiglia.
- There's an awful lot of business with the second generation of idiots, too: Lenny's teenage son (Jake Goldberg) asking a girl on a date; Kurt's son (Nadji Jeter) taking his driver's test; Eric's tween daughter (Ada-Nicole Sanger) being a kooky individualist with bedazzled boots.
- Why bother with voices and costumes when you can just throw on a T-shirt, walk onto the set, and be yourself?
- In a real movie, this would happen not just because a deer peeing on a man is a funny sight, but for some story-related reason: to establish that the family has moved out of the city and into the country, maybe, or that this guy has a fear of animals, or that he's constantly having terrible luck.
- And that's what I mean when I say the movie is lazy.
- Sometimes they even start at the end and work backwards: Dude, it would be HILARIOUS to see a deer pee on a guy's face, so let's think of a funny sequence of events that would lead to that!
- Why go to the trouble of crafting jokes, sight gags, and situational humor when you can make just as much money filming 101 minutes of warm-ups and outtakes?
Jeff Beck:
- The Film: Some of you may have vague memories of 2010's Grown Ups , an unfunny, plotless, tedious mess that featured a collection of has-beens ( Adam Sandler , David Spade, Kevin James , Chris Rock , and Rob Schneider).
- From there, it's pretty much a string of never-ending scatological jokes, including an immensely tiresome running gag about burping, sneezing, and farting at the same time.
- In an effort to cover up the directionless nature of the story, the filmmakers have squeezed a number of cameos into the film.
- The film once again reunites Sandler with his long-time partner in crime, director Dennis Dugan, who has been responsible for some of the worst films made in the past ten years, including Jack and Jill, You Don t Mess with the Zohan, and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.
- Shaq and Dante : Police Force: One of several pointless featurettes.
- This release just reeks of laziness through and through.
- Sandler and his co-writers desperately try to fill the time with one random scene after another: Lenny's wife (Salma Hayek) is thinking of having another baby, Kurt's wife (Maya Rudolph) forgets their anniversary, Eric spends a lot of time with his mother watching soap operas, Marcus tries to connect with his brute of a son, and so on and so forth, but just like last time, none of it ever ends up coming together, making for another tedious outing that wanders on and on aimlessly.
Source:
http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/reviews/grown-ups-2.php
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/kurt-516542-eric-kids.html
http://www.examiner.com/article/blu-ray-review-grown-ups-2
http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/movies/immaturity_abounds_in_adam_sandler_0vlnD3bozrSZGo1p9F0MTP?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Movies
http://twitchfilm.com/2013/07/review-grown-ups-2-is-somehow-even-worse-than-grown-ups.html
http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/film-review-grown-ups-2-1200561423/
http://www.dustinputman.com/reviews/g/13_grownups2.htm