Film of the Week: Grown Ups 1 and 2

This week is going to be something different. Not only am I going to be covering 2 films, but I’m going to defend them as well. I think they’re OK and a good watch. Both co-written by Adam Sandler, neither film has seen a good review by critics, but I’m going disagree with all of them.

Adam Sandler is an article all on his own. He is a machine when it comes to working hard. He writes, directs, stars, and produces – he has had some decent hits such as “50 First Dates”, “The Wedding Planner,” and he has had some not so decent hits, such as “Pixels”, and “The Ridiculous 6”, which was given the rare 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, a rating it still has as of writing this article, but has a 33% audience score, so there’s that. Grown Ups has 10% on the Tomatometer, with an audience score of 62% - over half the people who submitted the review liked it enough to bump up the score. It’s sequel, Grown Ups 2, has 7% on the Tomatometer, with an audience score of 53% - so less than the first one, but still over half the reviews are positive enough to create a vast gap between both scores. I am one of those people who like both films.

It should be stated that I don’t think either film are the best films ever made – but they are decent in their own ways. The first reason being the strong chemistry the cast have with each other, creating a solid atmosphere of feel-good vibes. The first film sees the main characters get together, along with their families, to pay respects to their basketball coach. As kids, they were good friends but since leaving high school they drifted apart until now. Each has their own life, and the majority have their own family, but the one thing they do together is a strong friendship, which has held strong enough to make it feel as if it was only the day before since they saw each other. Even for the audience watching, there’s the sense that you’re apart of the team, and upon watching it again after a couple months break, it feels like only yesterday since you did so. The majority of the film takes place at a lake house, where the kids are ushered to play outside instead of constantly using technology such as playing video games or on their phones. Over the course of the film, secrets are revealed, bonds grow stronger, and a heck of a lot of fun is had.

The second film takes place 3 years after the first, and sees Adam Sandler’s character along with his family move back to the town in which he grew up in, and hangs on with his friends from the last film around town on the last day of term before summer break… and that’s it. That’s the entire plot of the film, and everyone has a heck of a lot of fun doing just that. The strong dynamic between the main characters seems even stronger than the first film, and once again there’s that feel-good factor throughout.

The main criticism is that both films have very little plot. I counterargue that statement by confusingly agree to disagree with them, because having little plot is all need with a group of good friends hanging out with each other, creating an easy watch for the audience. The cast members are genuine friends, so them playing friends in the film came easy, and therefore made their antics and banter and everything else that happens across the two films, entertaining.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)