July 07, 2006

Click This!

Yesterday the Missus asked me if I thought she ought to take the Llama-ettes to see the new Adam Sandler movie Click. Aside from the fact that I don't like Sandler anyway, I said I thought the movie would be a bit much for the gels (given it's rated PG-13 and we're trying to shelter their innocence), so no, don't bother.

According to Derb, I chose wisely:

Particular features of Click's stinkiness:

—-Treacle. Are we really this gloppily sentimental? Do we really slobber over our kids whimpering "I love you Timmy!" And get back a trembly "I love you Dad!" Not in this household we don't. Certainly not fifteen times in the average hour, the way these characters do. If you love someone, *****show***** it. If you're talking about it repetitively, at the frequency these people do, there's probably something wrong.

—-The Parenting Trap. Movies like this—-there seem to be a lot of them—-delivering, with all the subtlety of an artillery shell, the message that we spend too much time working and not enough time with our kids, must cause untold guilty anguish among the adult population. Get over it, guys. Adults work, kids play. And this movie, and all the others, was made and acted by a bunch of Hollywood big shots each of whom has a platoon of nannies raising his kids for him.

—-Fast Forward. On "automatic pilot"? This is implausible even for a fantasy movie. Gimme a break. And he fast-forwards through **sex**? Oh, right, he's married—never mind.

—-Christopher Walken looks too much like Dudley Sutto[n], but isn't half as good an actor.

(Link and correction added by Self.)

Posted by Robert at July 7, 2006 03:10 PM | TrackBack
Comments

A few days ago I was stuck at home and apparently suffering from a serious case of flattened brainwaves, because I actually watched "Mr. Deeds."

Much of what the Derb said about "Click" applies to "Mr. Deeds" as well. Sure, it was vulgar. But worse than that, it was mind-numbingly trite and shamelessly exploitive in trying to punch every conditioned-reflex button in the pop-culture lexicon: dumb people are good, clever people bad. Poor people are good, rich bad. And on and on we go. I laughed exactly once, and by the end of the movie I felt like kicking in the picture tube.

And the fact that Winona Ryder, who is smart and crazy and who I actually like, played Sandler's love interest was just an exquisite refinement of the general torture.

Posted by: utron at July 8, 2006 03:27 PM

Oh good grief. Why would anyone want to sit through that drivel? If being a parent means that you have to watch this crap, I'm adding this as #87 on my list of "Reasons Why I Will Never Have Children."

Posted by: bobgirrl at July 9, 2006 03:37 AM