By Robert Barrett
A good movie to watch with your significant other is the best way to describe “Just Go With It” starring Adam Sandler.
Sandler’s newest movie is a story about a plastic surgeon who had his heart broken at an early age, but it leads him to discover that wearing a wedding ring helpd him with the ladies.
Sandler’s character Dr. Daniel “Danny” Maccabee uses a wedding ring, lies, puppy-dog eyes and sob stories to have one night stands with much younger women.
At a party, Sandler’s character meets Sports Illustrated swim suit cover model Brooklyn Decker’s character, Palmer Dodge, who is a young sixth grade teacher. At first sight , Decker’s character seems to fall into the stereotype tall, beautiful blonde, but her character quickly shows that she is educated, kind and has morals.
After hooking up on the beach outside of the party, Palmer finds the fake wedding ring that Danny had accidentally taken off before meeting her. She shows disgust and leaves Danny lying on the beach as she stormed away.
In an attempt to regain favor with Palmer, Danny asks his long time assistant Katherine Murphy, played by Jennifer Aniston, for advice. During the dialogue between these two characters, Katherine mentions the word divorce. A light bulb goes off in both characters’ heads and a plan is made to have Katherine pretend to be Danny’s future ex-wife in an effort to explain the ring to Palmer.
Eventually, this lie is made bigger when the lie expands to include Katehrine’s kids who add a comedic factor to the overall story. Bailee Madison, who plays Maggie Murphy, spends the movie using a British accent, and Griffin Gluck, who plays Michael Murphy, is only eight years old, but has the personality of a depressed philosopher.
After a business deal is struck with Katherine’s kids that would make them pretend to be Danny’s kids. This is where the story takes a turn. All of a sudden, Gluck’s character Michael Murphy takes advantage of a pretend father-son situation and is able to manipulate Sandler’s character into a trip to Hawaii.
The story is entertaining to start, but quickly becomes predictable. There is one scene in particular were the story becomes obvious and you know exactly how the movie will end. The only problem is this happens with about forty-five minutes left in the movie.
The children in the story add an extra factor that helps elevate the film. If not for the two kids, this movie could have been a total comedic disaster. Sandler’s scenes with Gluck and Madison are some of the best in the movie and helps add depth to the story line.
The movie did have more than a few moments where the theater burst into laughter, but not the normal humor found in a Happy Madison Productions which is responsible for other comedies such as “Happy Gilmore,” “The Waterboy” and “Grown Ups.”
The “Just Go With It” trailer gives the impression that it is similar to past productions, but it is easily compared to Will Smith’s 2005 movie “Hitch,” except with much more crude humor.
This movie seems to be limited to a small viewing audience. It has too much crude sexual humor to be considered a family movie, but not enough of either to appeal to everyone else. This movie is a great date movie as a good compromise between couples.