Kevin Nealon
Occupation
Actor
Blended Review
By Rich Cline
OK
Even with its inane script and limp direction, this film is watchable simply because Drew Barrymore is present to humanise Adam Sandler. How she does this is a mystery, but the fact remains that he's annoyingly unlikeable without her. And history proves the point: Sandler's best-ever performances were in two films opposite Barrymore, 1998's The Wedding Singer and 2004's 50 First Dates. Although this movie isn't quite in that league.
They play Lauren and Jim, who meet on a disastrous blind date and vow never to see each other again. But they end up inadvertently sharing a safari holiday to South Africa when Lauren's best pal (Wendi McLendon-Covey) and Jim's boss cancel a holiday with their five kids. Which is handy since Lauren has two energetic sons (Braxton Beckham and Kyle Red Silverstein) while Jim has three needy daughters (Bella Thorne, Emma Fuhrmann and Alyvia Alyn Lind). Of course, the children are happy to have same-sex role models along, even if Lauren and Jim can't bear to be around each other.
There isn't a split-second when we don't know exactly where this plot is heading, even though the script veers wildly between wacky slapstick mayhem and sappy lesson-learning sentimentality. Every scene is carefully concocted to elicit either laughter or tears, and the manipulative filmmaking occasionally works. Although the movie's funniest moments are offhanded gags that feel improvised between Barrymore and Sandler. The child actors are all decent, carefully cast so each each simplistic character can have his or her corny journey to some sort of personal discovery.
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Walk Of Shame Trailer
Meghan Miles is a reporter whose best friends insist on taking her out and dragging her away from a night in alone wearing sweatpants. She is forced to don her friend's 'slutty', bright yellow dress that is unfortunately overly conspicuous and she is subsequently picked up by a charming stranger. Later on, however, she awakens with several voice messages from work explaining that the network are looking for a new anchor; this is the job of a lifetime for Meghan, but she has a serious mission if she wants to get to the studio on time - a mission that's made even more complicated when her car is towed away with her purse inside and she finds herself lost without money, ID or a phone. With everyone thinking she's just a roaming hooker, nobody seems willing to help her. Just what trouble will she have to push through to collect her belongings and get to work on time?
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Blended Trailer
Jim and Lauren are single parents who, after possibly the worst blind date both of them have ever been on, part ways hoping that's the last time they'll ever see each other. However, when the restaurant manages to get their cash cards mixed up, Jim is forced to call at Lauren's house to correct the mistake. It's there he finds out that his boss has just broken up with Lauren's best friend ahead of their luxury trip to Africa, leaving the vacation up for grabs for any other takers. Excited, Jim and Lauren separately arrange to take their kids along on the safari, but are convinced their holiday is ruined when they unexpectedly bump into one another. Against all odds, however, the pair find themselves with more in common than they initially thought and start to bond over their beautiful surroundings.
'Blended' is the latest movie from comedy duo Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler who previously co-starred in '50 First Dates' and 'The Wedding Singer', with Sandler also among the production team. It has been directed by Frank Coraci (' Here Comes the Boom ', 'Click', 'Around the World in 80 Days') alongside writers Ivan Menchell ('Jonas', 'The Nanny'), Clare Sera ('Doin' It Yourself'). 'Blended' is set to hit cinemas on May 23rd 2014.
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Just Go With It Trailer
Danny is a successful plastic surgeon who likes playing the field. Most guys who are practised in the bachelor world have a pick up line and Danny has come up with quite a unique way of attracting women; he tells them that he's in an abusive relationship and that his wife is horribly cruel to him. Danny finds it a massively effective way of hitting on women but when he meets Palmer, a girl he instantly falls for he doesn't even go down his usual route, it appears Palmer reciprocates his feelings but when she finds the wedding ring in his pocket, Danny finds himself repeating his much rehearsed speech but this time he tells her his marriage is over. Like all the others Palmer falls for Danny and his ways, but being a genuine person Palmer requests she meets his wife to clear the air.
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Coneheads Review
OK
It sounds weird to say it, but Coneheads the movie is underrated. How come it's better than your typical SNL adaptation? A new spin on the original skit with some fresh stars like Sinbad and McKean plus a generous special effects budget fill in the gaps when the movie flags. Plus a revival of "Tainted Love" doesn't hurt.
Little Nicky Review
Excellent
For better or for worse (mostly for the worse) Adam Sandler's back on the big screen. And it's pure, satanic family fun.
Little Nicky (Adam Sandler) is the devil's third---and least impressive---son. Bested in brains by his brother Adrian (Rhys Ifans) and in strength by his brother Cassius (Tiny Lester), Nicky finds little joy outside of hanging out in his hell-bound bedroom, banging his head to heavy metal favorites. That is, until his father's 10,000-year reign draws to a close and it's time to name the new ruler of Hades.
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Cecil B Demented Review
Good
If John Waters' last few gentler and (slightly) more commercial movies ("Pecker," "Serial Mom," "Cry-Baby") had his fans thinking the once-warped director had lost his edge, that perhaps he was inching toward mainstream repeatability, they need not fear. It was all a ruse.
It seems Waters was only lulling the cinematic establishment into a false sense of security so he could turn around and bite them in the ass with "Cecil B. Demented," a hilarious -- and very much old-school John Waters -- anti-blockbuster romp that chews up and spits out the kind of pandering Hollywood conventions that to toothless, cookie-cutter box office hits.
Cecil B. Demented (Stephen Dorff), you see, is an independent filmmaker of the purest order. His goal: cinematic revolution by any means necessary. If that includes kidnapping one Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith), Hollywood's biggest spoiled bitch/aging bimbo star, and forcing her at gun point to play a lead in his guerilla movie about celluloid terrorists (much like himself), so be it.
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Adam Sandler's 8 Crazy Nights Review
Unbearable
As if searching for some nonexistent middle ground between the cartoon raunchiness of "South Park" and the innocuous banality of a cheap children's Christmas special, Adam Sandler has now weaseled his way into the animation and holiday genres with "Adam Sandler's 8 Crazy Nights."
A sub-formulaic slap in the face to seasonal cheer, it's a movie about an acrimonious, 33-year-old layabout with Sandler's voice and Sandler's doltish manner whom we're also supposed to laugh along with as he makes fun of fat little kids and kicks port-a-potties down snowy hills with people inside. But the movie also expects us to view him as a big jerk with a tormented soul who is badly in need of a "Christmas Carol"-type personality breakthrough.
Sentenced after a drunken rampage to doing community service as a youth basketball referee (depicted in exactly one scene of the movie), the cartoon Sandler is taken in by a fellow ref who feels sorry for him -- a kindly, seizure-prone, 70-year-old midget gimp with a shrill, whimpering, falsetto voice (also Sandler's). But he treats the old man (and everyone else) like garbage until he finally has an overdue cry about how his parents died when he was 12, then sees the error of his ways just before the credits roll.
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