That's My Boy (D+ or 1.5/4 stars)
If you're looking for a heartwarming film to take your dad to on Father's Day, look no further than 'That's My Boy' (directed by Sean Anders) ... NOT! The movie opens with a pretty humorous (if icky) prologue in which a horny middle schooler named Donny Berger impregnates sexy 8th grade teacher (Eva Amurri Martino, Susan Sarandon's daughter) & becomes a tabloid celebrity after she is sentenced to 30 yrs. in prison for statutory rape. Donny grows up to become a sloppy, unemployed loser (Adam Sandler, of course) who squanders the $$ from selling his life story to Hollywood, drives a rusted Fiero, hangs out at an omelets-&-strip-joint bar called Bacon & Leggs, and owes some $43,000 in back taxes.
His estranged son born out of the affair - named Han Solo at birth, but now going by Todd Peterson (SNL's Andy Samberg) - is a successful hedge-fund exec who tells everyone that his dad died in an explosion. But when a producer offers Donny $50,000 for a reunion show with his son, this beer-swiggin', crotch-grabbin' father comes barreling into the seaside estate where Todd is due to get married (and introduces himself as a long-lost friend). With Todd afraid to reveal his past to his high maintenance fiancee (Leighton Meester), he goes along with Donny's ruse. The wedding weekend becomes a marathon of atrocious behavior. Trying desperately to reconnect with his son (as well as getting the reunion deal), Donny is forced to deal with the repercussions of being a bad father for all these years.
You know, this movie is pretty damn bad across the board. Bad. It's also vulgar, profane, mean-spirited, gross, uncouth, stupid, & juvenile. But it actually has quite a few funny moments ... though, they come when an annoying Sandler is off the screen. Vanilla Ice, playing a washed-up, but good-natured, self-deprecating rapper named Vanilla Ice {haha}, comes across as lame-yet-endearing. He steals scenes from his co-stars, & seems comfortable in his own skin to poke fun at himself. James Caan pops up as an Irish priest who prefers fistfights to reading from the bible.
Heroes’ Milo Ventimiglia is quite amusing as Todd’s soon-to-be brother-in-law, a jarhead with a violent streak & a secret {and it's a hysterical secret}. Andy Samberg, who spends most of the film suffering indignities, lends a humorous anal-retentive persona as Todd/Han Solo; and he hauls along several of his former SNL co-stars for small roles. As usual with Sandler flicks, there are horrifically UNFUNNY jokes about bodily fluids, moments of humiliation, fat people, & elderly folks. If I were to pick a set piece that was actually, you know ... funny ... it would be the entire Bachelor Party sequence - which was just batsh*t crazy.
But like I said earlier, when Sandler is front & center, this film suffers (for me). His beer gut, his choice of clothes, his mullet, his loud, whiny, potty-mouthed-"funny" voices, his perpetual adolescence ... it's all a bit of a chore to sit through. I don't think many Sandler fans (as I once was) enjoys that shtick anymore; especially when it's in a movie of this poor quality. The celebrity cameos are stale. The fart jokes have become old hat. The ONLY thing to rest back on are the few-and-far-between moments where you're genuinely laughing at something stupid-but-funny. And the quotient of that happening is far less than the times you'll be disgusted. I'm giving this movie a D+ and not an F because: for as wretched as it is, the hectic, go-for-broke final half hour is involving "enough" & funny "enough".
His estranged son born out of the affair - named Han Solo at birth, but now going by Todd Peterson (SNL's Andy Samberg) - is a successful hedge-fund exec who tells everyone that his dad died in an explosion. But when a producer offers Donny $50,000 for a reunion show with his son, this beer-swiggin', crotch-grabbin' father comes barreling into the seaside estate where Todd is due to get married (and introduces himself as a long-lost friend). With Todd afraid to reveal his past to his high maintenance fiancee (Leighton Meester), he goes along with Donny's ruse. The wedding weekend becomes a marathon of atrocious behavior. Trying desperately to reconnect with his son (as well as getting the reunion deal), Donny is forced to deal with the repercussions of being a bad father for all these years.
You know, this movie is pretty damn bad across the board. Bad. It's also vulgar, profane, mean-spirited, gross, uncouth, stupid, & juvenile. But it actually has quite a few funny moments ... though, they come when an annoying Sandler is off the screen. Vanilla Ice, playing a washed-up, but good-natured, self-deprecating rapper named Vanilla Ice {haha}, comes across as lame-yet-endearing. He steals scenes from his co-stars, & seems comfortable in his own skin to poke fun at himself. James Caan pops up as an Irish priest who prefers fistfights to reading from the bible.
Heroes’ Milo Ventimiglia is quite amusing as Todd’s soon-to-be brother-in-law, a jarhead with a violent streak & a secret {and it's a hysterical secret}. Andy Samberg, who spends most of the film suffering indignities, lends a humorous anal-retentive persona as Todd/Han Solo; and he hauls along several of his former SNL co-stars for small roles. As usual with Sandler flicks, there are horrifically UNFUNNY jokes about bodily fluids, moments of humiliation, fat people, & elderly folks. If I were to pick a set piece that was actually, you know ... funny ... it would be the entire Bachelor Party sequence - which was just batsh*t crazy.
But like I said earlier, when Sandler is front & center, this film suffers (for me). His beer gut, his choice of clothes, his mullet, his loud, whiny, potty-mouthed-"funny" voices, his perpetual adolescence ... it's all a bit of a chore to sit through. I don't think many Sandler fans (as I once was) enjoys that shtick anymore; especially when it's in a movie of this poor quality. The celebrity cameos are stale. The fart jokes have become old hat. The ONLY thing to rest back on are the few-and-far-between moments where you're genuinely laughing at something stupid-but-funny. And the quotient of that happening is far less than the times you'll be disgusted. I'm giving this movie a D+ and not an F because: for as wretched as it is, the hectic, go-for-broke final half hour is involving "enough" & funny "enough".