Mary Had A Little Amp, The Listener Chose No

The Good: Some decent tracks
The Bad: Some lame tracks, terrible execution of the stated concept
The Basics: Disorganized and esoteric, Mary Had A Little Amp fails to live up to its promise and offers instead a poorly executed musical experience.


I'm out. I began this month with the pledge to alternate my media reviews with non-media items and I'm out. I've no more electronics, no cars, no restaurants, no beauty products, no obscure household items left to review. Until I return from the trip I'm about to take, I'm all non-media'ed out! :( With that in mind, I sat down with a new disc that came across my desk called Mary Had A Little Amp. Every now and then as I explore a musical artist whose body of work I'm looking to review, I come across a weird citation for them. So, for example, when I hunted down the works of Liz Phair some months ago, I found her as the primary artist cited for Saturday Morning Cartoons' Greatest Hits (reviewed here!). Similarly, as I looked around for the many works of Madonna, I found Mary Had A Little Amp.

The by-line for Mary Had A Little Amp is "Music's Biggest Stars, Childhood's Greatest Songs." Because of the subjective nature of a disc that features Moby, Roseanne Cash, and Graham Nash alongside Madonna, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson and R.E.M., I'll not dispute the first part. This is a pretty impressive collection of musical artists. Where the concept fails is with the second part. For all that it is or is not, Mary Had A Little Amp is hardly "childhood's greatest songs."

I write this because I was once a child and I loved listening to music. When I picked up this disc, the only songs I knew from childhood were "Pure Imagination" (many will remember Gene Wilder singing it in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"), "The Rainbow Connection" (from "The Muppet Movie"), and "When You Wish Upon A Star" (from "Pinnoccio," I believe). Outside that, only three of the tracks were songs I had heard as an adult. Graham Nash's classic "Teach Your Children," R.E.M.'s esoteric "We Walk" (which I had only heard for the first time earlier this year on their Best of the I.R.S. years album - reviewed here!), and "Little Star" a Madonna song from her Ray Of Light c.d. Out of fourteen songs, three were covers of songs I knew from childhood and three I encountered as an adult. This is hardly "childhood's greatest songs."

Indeed, there is a distinctly un-childlike take on several of the songs. Opening with Maroon 5's version of "Pure Imagination," the listener feels more menaced than enlightened. Maroon 5 uses reverb, creepy keyboards, and stark percussion to create a "big room" feel that has an undertone of sinister to the sound of the song. It's wonderfully dark in this presentation, but hardly wonderful for children.

Similarly, I can only believe that the musings on conformity that are struck out by the Blue Man Group and Dave Matthews on "Sing Along" are included because of the singsong rhymes presented in the song. After all, lyrically, it is an innocuous song as Matthews sings "If I pretend to be strong / Will you play along" ("Sing Along") over and over again. The thing is, he sings it with the voice of The Man, crushing individuality with conformity. This has a march quality to it that is draining, foreboding, again menacing.

That's not to say the entire album is not geared toward children. The Dixie Chicks do an upbeat sounding rendition of "The Rainbow Connection" that is wonderfully articulate and fresh. With the use of the pedal steel in the song, it takes on a distinctive flavor that is less stark than when it's been presented other times. And there's nothing wrong with Bonnie Raitt and Was (Not Was) performing "Baby Mine." It's a quiet, sad tribute to love or a child and from an adult perspective it's beautiful, though likely to go over the head of preschooler (this disc was produced to benefit preschool education).

I'll admit I winced hearing the Indigo Girls making animal noises on "Wild, Wild Party In The Loquat Tree" that were reminiscent of the B-52's "Rock Lobster." It's a fine folk tune, but again, not one I'd heard before nor would consider one of childhood's greatest songs.

And some of it is just plain pointless. Madonna's "Little Star" is a rock ballad that did not stand out on Ray Of Light and doesn't blow the roof off this disc either. "We Walk" is a weird R.E.M. tune, but also far too obscure to be considered much by children. And even my favorite track on the album, Moby's "Anchovie" a techno recreation like the many Moby has made in the past, doesn't inspire the listener to turn the disc over to a child.

Ultimately, this is a hit or miss collection of singles that vary greatly in sound and quality. We have the wonderful folk melody "Teach Your Children" which closes the album which has the utterly unmemorable "Gentle Breeze" (performed by Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson). You have Madonna's pure pop following on the Dixie Chick's country-slanted classic. The best songs reinterpret classics (like Maroon 5's creepy "Pure Imagination"), the lesser songs seem to simply be songs culled from artists that have singsong lyrics.

Indeed, checking out the liner notes, most of these songs (judging by the copyright dates) are available elsewhere. I'm not knocking the concept of either famous artists presenting childhood songs or a benefit to raise money for preschool education. The problem here is this mix. It's completely inconsistent. It is mixing recognizable songs from childhood (like "When You Wish Upon A Star") with (apparently) whatever work an artist was willing to donate to the cause (like Madonna's "Little Star") with songs that don't really relate to children ("Sing Along").

A good mix that has a theme comes together, this one does not. While it may have various styles on it: from country to techno, pop to folk, rock and roll to classical, the arrangement has to flow, one song to another in a way that makes the album come together. This does not. Cover song abuts quirky original work, folk follows folk follows folk, it's not well assembled.

Because some of these tracks may not be available elsewhere, die hard fans might have to pick this up. As a service, this is what the disc contains:
"Pure Imagination" - Maroon 5
"We Walk" - R.E.M.
"The Rainbow Connection" - Dixie Chicks
"Little Star" - Madonna
"Sing Along" - Blue Man Group featuring Dave Matthews
"Baby Mine" - Bonnie Raitt & Was (Not Was)
"The 3 R's" - Jack Johnson (it's a recycling jingle!)
"Anchovie" - Moby
"Life Line" - Nancy and Ann Wilson with the Brian Wilson Band
"Gentle Breeze" - Lou Reed & Laurie Anderson
"Wild, Wild Party In The Loquat Tree" - Indigo Girls
"How To Be Strong" - Roseanne Cash
"When You Wish Upon A Star" - Joe Henry
"Teach Your Children" - Graham Nash

Unfortunately, this disc does not execute what it promises and even without its stated purpose, it does not hold together as a meaningful musical collection. The best track is "Anchovie," the weakest part song is "Gentle Breeze."

For other compilation albums, please visit my reviews of:
Millennium ‘80’s New Wave Party - Various Artists
An Inconvenient Truth Soundtrack
Where Have All The Flowers Gone?: The Music Of Pete Seeger - Various Artists

3/10

For other music reviews, please visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Messing With You Don’t Mess With The Zohan On DVD Is A Waste Of Time.

The Good: Moments of message
The Bad: Not funny, Wastes good cast members, Predictable, Lame character development, Moments of message
The Basics: A terrible film not worth anyone's time or attention, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan is not funny, not clever and certainly not constructive.


Sometimes, it is only in assembling lists that I discover I have overlooked something I thought I had reviewed. For example, when I was making my list of the "Worst Films Of 2008,” I discovered that I had never actually penned a review of the film You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, even though it easily made that list. Now on DVD, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan is just as bad and a film I loathed having to suffer through again.

Whenever people pitch the "worst movie of the year" or make grandiose claims that certain films are the worst film of a certain time frame, I suspect they forget about works like You Don’t Mess With The Zohan. So, for example, for all of the problems some reviewers had with Twilight, it is hard to take them seriously when they declare that film to be worse than You Don’t Mess With The Zohan or The Love Guru. Similarly, when people claim that 2008 wasn't all that bad in the theaters, my first questions tend to be "Did you see Disaster Movie or (Stupid) Quarantine?" I preface my considerations of You Don’t Mess With The Zohan with these thoughts because it is an utter waste of time, talent and the DVD medium. And sitting through it twice now just left me feeling robbed of time and life.

Zohan is an Israeli secret agent who has no greater ambitions than to cut hair. A superstar in Israel, he dances, plays hackey sack, has sex with many women and catches numerous things - like a fish - in his butt. As the violence between the Israelis and the Palestinians escalates, Zohan sees no potential end to the violence and the rise of an equally powerful adversary, the Phantom, leaves him wishing for more.

So, Zohan fakes his own death by appearing to let the Phantom defeat him in hand-to-hand combat. As many women mourn the loss of Zohan, he escapes to the United States where he assumes an alter ego as a hairdresser. As a corrupt real estate developer moves in on a New York City neighborhood, Zohan raises business at Dahlia's boutique by cutting hair and having sex with all of her clients. Soon, though, Zohan is spotted by a man he once wronged, Salim, who is furious over Zohan taking his goat some years before. Salim threatens to expose the Phantom as a fraud for not killing the Zohan and they converge upon Zohan at a sham hackey sack tournament as the real estate developer hires some white supremacists to burn everything down.

Every now and then, there is a movie that just makes one sit up and say "wow, this is a stupid movie." You Don’t Mess With The Zohan is one such stupid movie, but not for all of the reasons one might think. For example, a comedy about Arab and Israeli relations is about due. The fundamental concept of this flick is not a bad one. The problem is in the execution. So, for example, watching Adam Sandler as the Zohan grill naked and shoot a fish out of his butt has no real redeeming value. And by the time that the viewer gets to more telling, quirky funny bits like Salim's obsession with the goat Zohan once took, the viewer already does not care. Why? In between there are a slew of jokes that virtually all boil down to the idea that it is somehow funny that Zohan has sex with middle aged women or senior citizens of all body types.

Moreover, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan is so forced with its generic and stupid form of humor that it has to telegraph it. This is essentially the function of Gail's son. Gail takes the Zohan in and her son walks in on Zohan and her repeatedly having sex. The joke then is about the son's revulsion and as most of the things with that character, the lines he delivers are essentially saying, "this is what you ought to be laughing at." The problem is, this type of humor is likely to only appeal to the 13 year-old members of the PG-13 audience. And of those, it's not even the brightest and certainly not the most mature 13 year-olds that will find it funny.

By the time the humor gets around to actually being political, it is far too late and hardly funny. So, when Zohan's friends in New York City begin talking politics, the conversation soon degenerates into a conversation on which politician's wives each of the men would be willing to have sex with.

Far more insidious in the film is the equation of Israelis and Arabs with terrorists, though to be fair to Sandler, Smigel and the other writers, they are indiscriminate in their prejudice. Both the Israeli characters and the Palestinian ones are heavily armed and have all sorts of weapons just laying around. This - even in the context of a comedy - reinforces the prejudice that "they" are all terrorists. And it is in that regard that the film has its one decent exchange of dialogue. One Arab character says "People hate us because they think we are terrorists!" to which an Israeli character notes, "People hate us because they think we are you!" There is plenty of hate to go around in You Don’t Mess With The Zohan and unfortunately, when it is not overtly combating the hate, it is subversively reinforcing the worst prejudices about the Israelis and the Palestinians.

At least as offensive is the sheer amount of talent that You Don’t Mess With The Zohan wastes. Talented comedians show up for quick appearances that do not utilize their talents or make them the butt of jokes pertaining to one aspect of their personality. So, for example, Chris Rock's appearance as a cab driver is short and disappointing. That George Takei, Dave Allen and Kevin Nealon went anywhere near this movie is unfortunate.

And of the principles, one tends to expect what they get from both Adam Sandler (who plays Zohan) and Rob Schneider, who is "disguised" as the Arab Salim, but that John Turturro gets sucked into this crapfest is just offensive. Turturro has a great ability to play comedic as well as dramatic. And I had to watch Cradle Will Rock (reviewed here!) after seeing this movie on DVD just to cleanse my palate because Turturro plays a character of such integrity in that film. But in You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, Turturro is wasted, even with his sense of comedy. As the Phantom, he flops with the physical comedy and the verbal gags are hardly funny enough to waste his abilities on.

Now on DVD, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan includes a bevy of deleted scenes which add nothing to the movie, featurettes on the behind-the-scenes antics and development of the movie and commentary tracks that are not funny either. Those who find this movie funny are hardly the type who will enjoy commentary tracks and Sandler and Schneider, who both appear on the commentary track, are particularly unenlightening about anything in regards to the movie.

For those even considering You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, just ask yourself if there isn't some better way to waste two hours of your life. Having wasted over four hours on this insipid "comedy," I can tell you: there are better uses of your time!

For other works with Nick Swardson, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Jack And Jill
30 Minutes Or Less
Just Go With It
Bolt
I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry
Almost Famous

1.5/10

For other movie reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Over A Decade Later, Under The Table And Dreaming Is Still Decent!

The Good: Good lyrics, Decent sound, Good instrumentals
The Bad: Some of the singing is grating/incomprehensible, Liner notes
The Basics: Under The Table And Dreaming rightfully brought the Dave Matthews Band into the forefront of pop culture with strong lyrics and a diverse accompaniment.


Back when I was in high school and classes were winding down for the year, the Dave Matthews Band was charting its first major single on the pop charts, "What Would You Say," which was the first I had heard of them. I recall a classmate being very excited about an upcoming concert with them. I remember this because in the prior eleven and a half years of schooling together, I could not recall a single conversation we had had. Having only heard the one song from the Dave Matthews Band, I suppose I was a bit of a wet blanket and asked, "That's cool, but do they sing anything other than 'What Would You Say?'" By that, I meant "Is there anything else by them, I might know?" My classmate, however, took it literally and sardonically responded, "No, they'll just get up for an hour and a half and sing that over and over again!" She didn't talk to me again. So now, after about twelve years, I'm finally getting around to listening to a full Dave Matthews Band c.d., indeed the very one that includes "What Would You Say."

Of course, between then and now, I've heard other Dave Matthews Band songs, like "Ants Marching" and "Satellite" from Under The Table And Dreaming, "Crash," "Crush" and other songs. I've also become aware of the rabid following the Dave Matthews Band has, comparable to fans of Phish, the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd - the legions of a special type of fan whose response to an album critique is "You'd never say that if you'd seen them perform at Spokane!"

So, Under The Table And Dreaming, is solid rock and roll. Dave Matthews, the head of the Dave Matthews Band, has a great musical sense and a message. A lot of my problems lately with musical works I've heard have been in the arena of the lyrics, usually problematic obvious rhymes. I am pleased to say Dave Matthews, who wrote all of the songs on Under The Table And Dreaming (save the instrumental #34, which he co-wrote) does not suffer from that particular malaise.

I write that Matthews has a message and I think the most telling example is in his song "Ants Marching." Capitalism and its droning effect is not the most common topic in popular music. That's more of a folk standard to complain about money and the way it corrupts. Matthews infuses the folk sensibility and ability to widely use metaphor when he sings "He wakes up in the morning / Does his teeth bite to eat he's rolling / Never changes a thing / The week ends, the week begins" ("Ants Marching"). Not only is it an atypical topic, it was a successful song and it rocks, so Matthews is clearly appealing to something that is too long lacking from pop culture.

The album opens with the rousing "The Best of What's Around" that establishes a strong rock sound that defines what the Dave Matthews Band is. Matthews does the primary vocals and his voice is out front and center relaying the story. Matthews sings powerfully ("The Best of What's Around," "What Would You Say"), talks his way into singing soulfully ("Pay For What You Get") and actively competes with the background music ("Ants Marching"). This, in combination with the use of such instruments as the acoustic violin, flute and three types of saxophones gives the Band a more diverse sound than most groups on the radio even now.

The only real drawbacks to Under The Table And Dreaming and (possibly) the Dave Matthews Band come in some of the vocals. There are moments that Dave Matthews does not sing so clearly, so the contrast between him soulfully articulating on "Pay For What You Get" and the jumbled lines near the beginning of "The Best of What's Around" is problematic. Also, the liner notes have the lyrics arranged in an esoteric way, in balls or a page with a circle missing with little distinction between the songs, which is just plain annoying.

"34," the smoky instrumental is track #34 with a large gap most players will simply skip over. It's a nice, soft ending to the album and it works for a group that has cultivated a mature sound utilizing a number of instruments. Under The Table And Dreaming is also a little over an hour long, so it pleases me that it is using the space provided on the medium well.

Who will like Under The Table And Dreaming? Anyone who likes pop or rock music but is sick of artists who either are stuck on the guitar/bass/drums combination or are singing solely about love or breaking up. The Dave Matthews Band offers a generally upbeat, diverse listening experience on Under The Table And Dreaming with songs that are poetic ("Satellite"), poignant ("Ants Marching") or just plain recognizable and fun ("What Would You Say").

It's a solid album and almost enough for me to go to my high school alumni website and let that former classmate of mine know that I get why she was excited about that concert. The best track is "Ants Marching" and "Dancing Nancies" is fairly unmemorable, making it the worst.

For other indie rock groups, check out my reviews of:
Rock Spectacle - Barenaked Ladies
Real Gone - Tom Waits
Play: The B-Sides - Moby

8/10

For other music reviews, be sure to check out my Music Review Index Page!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Disappointing, But Still Enough Good To Recommend, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry.

The Good: Moments of humor, Ultimately a pro-tolerance stance, Moments of acting, DVD bonus features
The Bad: Pulls punches, Pacing, Predictable plot
The Basics: Funny, but hardly a timeless comedy, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry has a basic premise and ultimately promotes tolerance of gay and lesbian civil rights.


Lately, I have found myself watching a lot of movies to keep my partner happy, though I am generally glad to do that. The other day, she had a rough day at work - she works at a pet store and a puppy had to be put down because another worker administered the dog a pill, which ended up in the animal's lung! - and she wanted a movie to take her mind off her day. So, we went to our library and I let her pick out a film. The one we ended up watching was I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry and it served its purpose, to distract her from what was going on.

The problem with I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry is that once one hears the title, they pretty much get the entire concept of the movie and the execution of that concept offers few surprises or laughs. The movie is entirely predictable, is unimpressive in terms of scope or even the delivery of its message. For those looking for a pro-gay rights film, the comedy makes jokes that are often too awkward to be considered truly open minded and the movie takes no real risks in terms of storytelling. In many ways, it becomes a very typical Adam Sandler film.

Chuck and Larry are New York City firefighters who are best friends. They wisecrack as they put out fires and perform rescues and their lives seem generally content. Chuck is a womanizer who is happily promiscuous and untied to any one woman, while Larry is a widower raising two children. When Chuck nearly plummets to his death during an investigation of a burnt-out building, he is rescued by Larry. Larry, in the process, comes to realize that his children are not protected by his benefits package, which still names his dead wife as the beneficiary. Because of an administrative error, the benefits cannot be transferred unless Larry gets married.

Larry, then, decides to call in Chuck's promise of doing anything for his friend in gratitude for being saved by him; he asks Chuck to be his domestic partner so his if he dies, Chuck could take care of his kids. After a patent reluctance, Chuck agrees. Soon after they become domestic partners, a special investigator - Clint Fitzer - is dispatched to look into the partnership, alleging fraud. Chuck moves in with Larry, their boss finds out about the partnership and subsequent marriage and soon all of the firehouse is disturbed by Chuck and Larry being "out." As the two men work to save themselves from jail, Chuck finds himself attracted to their lawyer, Alex, who is eager to defend the two men and their right to their marriage.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry is a pretty standard Adam Sandler vehicle, including appearances by Sandler's Saturday Night Live alums Rob Schneider - in an utterly insulting role as the Asian priest who marries Chuck and Larry in Canada - and David Spade. This means that Adam Sandler plays yet another generally mild-mannered guy who speaks abrasively with a sense of innocence about him. Sandler as the womanizing Chuck has little real difference from his character in Mr. Deeds (reviewed here!), save that Chuck is smarter. As is his (apparent) trademark, there is also the requisite scene of extreme violence where Sandler beats the crap out of someone with a supposedly comedic flair. Sandler's characters almost always have an angry outburst and Chuck is no exception. This is disturbing more for what the screenwriters are apparently saying about women - virtually everyone who looks at Chuck and Larry as a couple suspects Chuck takes a traditionally feminine role in their relationship - than it does about gays.

Kevin James plays Larry and this might be the first role I've actually seen James play that is a major film role. He seems pretty much like he appears in the few clips of King Of Queens I've caught which suggests that his presence as a good, generally happy guy is the result of good casting as opposed to any form of inspired acting. The problem here is that Larry has moments when he has a melancholy that James seems unable to play. He does not carry the emotional resonance of a man pining for his wife who has been dead for two years. Instead, he slouches through the role alternating the comedic and dramatic moments with little differentiation in his performance.

Supporting roles by Jessica Biel, Ving Rhames and Dan Aykroyd all outshine Sandler and certainly James. Biel plays the lawyer, Alex, and while she and Sandler might have only minimal on-screen chemistry, she plays the role with an earnest innocence that makes her part funny and believable. She plays Alex as educated in her field, but somewhat ignorant outside it, which works. Similarly, Aykroyd's supporting role has him as a believable gruff leader and he pulls the part off quite well.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry is alternately funny and offensive and this is a movie where it largely gets away with its gay jokes because Chuck's use of an anti-gay slur change by the end of the movie. As well, the ultimate message of the film is one of tolerance, that homosexuality ought not to be a limiting factor to one's quality of life or experiences and as a result, there is still some social value to the movie.

Realistically, that value is somewhat limited and there are much better movies about actual gay or lesbian love, like The Incredibly True Adventure Of Two Girls In Love whereas this explores a legal loophole in domestic partnership law which few gay and lesbian activists care about (i.e. we'd rather have domestic partnership and actual marriage laws that heterosexual couples might abuse as opposed to being denied them entirely). The plot is entirely predictable, as are the character arcs. Because the "rightness" of freedom and the rights of all people to be married and be happy are so strong, the viewer knows that Chuck and Larry will not get away with their deception (it's that kind of movie where an absolute right must be preserved for any suspension of disbelief to be maintained). As well, because Chuck is a womanizer, the viewer pretty much figures that he will grow by the end and lo and behold, he does.

The DVD presentation of I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry includes about ten minutes of deleted scenes, one of which answers the question of how a guy like Chuck manages to go so long without having sex with a woman once he is married to Larry. There is a commentary track and a featurette and these are pretty much standard for a comedy of this type. They are not bad, but they are hardly exceptional.

But that is pretty much how best to define I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry; it is remarkably average, but not superlative in any way.

For other works with Nick Swardson, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Jack And Jill
30 Minutes Or Less
Just Go With It
Bolt

6/10

For other movie reviews, be sure to visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the films I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Wildly Erratic, Just Go With It Was Not All It Was Cracked Up To Be.

The Good: Moments of fun, Good beginning and end, Moments of acting.
The Bad: Very weak middle, Predictable plot, Much of the acting
The Basics: For all the hype, Just Go With It is an awkward mix of predictable, cluttered and delightfully surprising.


Lately, I've been catching up on movies I missed in their theatrical release that I think my wife or I might like. Last night, that took the form of us getting in the Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston comedy Just Go With It, which both of us had heard very good things about. While my wife is a big fan of Adam Sandler's works, I've enjoyed many of Jennifer Aniston's works more. Even when Aniston is in a movie that does not wow me as much, she tends to illustrate fairly impressive range, as she did in Horrible Bosses (reviewed here!). So, I was not unenthusiastic about watching Just Go With It.

To be fair to Just Go With It, the movie starts well enough. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how fast it got to its own point. In that way, Just Go With It is a very direct movie. And it lands the ending. Just Go With It arrives at a sensible, if obvious, conclusion where one feels like the characters have reached an end that is fairly fulfilling. But in between, Just Go With It is a convoluted farce that is just a mess. I love Frasier (reviewed here!) and when the show started doing farce episodes, it was a real treat. They were funny, clever and oftentimes some of the most memorable episodes of the series. But they also were not protracted and Just Go With It is. Dragging the farcical elements out makes Just Go With It tedious and surprisingly not funny in the middle portion of the movie.

Danny Maccabee is heartbroken when, on the eve of his wedding, he discovers his fiance has been cheating on him and does not truly think much of him. Ditching her, he gets plastic surgery to correct his nose and he discovers there is an entire class of young, datable women who go for married guys. So, he trolls for women by going to bars, wearing his wedding ring and letting himself get picked up by one night stands. For almost twenty years, he does this while he watches his assistant, Katherine, deal with divorce and children. But one night, Danny goes to a party and without trying finds himself in an engaging conversation with a woman, Palmer. The two hit it off, spend the night together talking on the beach and it looks like they have all the elements for a substantial relationship.

Unfortunately for Danny, when he suggests Palmer take one of his business cards for his phone number, Palmer discovers the fake wedding ring in his pocket. When Palmer storms off, Danny laments to Katherine how he thinks he has blown something that could actually be wonderful. In conversing with Katherine, Danny decides that the way out of the situation is to lie to Palmer about how he and his wife are getting a divorce. That ruse comes close to working . . . until Palmer insists on meeting Danny's soon to be ex-wife. Danny has Katherine impersonate his wife, which she does in exchange for a pretty fabulous shopping spree, and the arrangement goes off without a hitch until Katherine takes a call from the babysitting and Danny is forced to lie about having children! Things spiral out of control for Danny and his lies when, during a meeting between the kids and Palmer, Katherine's son, Michael, manipulates Palmer and Danny into a Hawaiian vacation. Forced together on vacation, Danny tries to keep all of his lies from unraveling and Palmer in love with him while circumstances out of his control pull him in supposedly unexpected directions.

One of the main problems with Just Go With It is that, because it is working in a film comedy medium where virtually everything has to be squeezed into the (in this case) two hour running time, certain elements quickly become obvious to a seasoned moviegoer. As the film turns toward being a farce - arguably the moment that Danny's brother Eddie, as Dolph the man Katherine (as Devlin) allegedly had an affair with, in effect ruining the Danny/Devlin marriage - it becomes obvious that writers Allan Loeb, Timothy Dowling and I.A.L. Diamond are going with a very traditional mentality of the farce. To me, that meant that every lie would become much more complicated through the addition of more information that has the potential to complicate a lie already in play. So, for example, when Katherine tells the story about Devlin and Danny uses the name Devlin for his soon-to-be-ex-wife, I knew it was a waiting game for the actual Devlin to enter the movie. And, in Hawaii, there she is! The "magic" of the farce is in seeing how the convoluted lies are maintained or how they all fall apart. In the case of Just Go With It, there is an amusing moment when "Dolph" throws Palmer in the water to prevent her from outing "Devlin" to Devlin, but after the initial shock and humor, the scene become uncomfortable and unfunny as Dolph almost drowns Palmer!

The formulaic elements are not limited to the farce elements in Just Go With It, either. The moment Danny begins illustrating any real empathy for Katherine's children, Just Go With It becomes a weird character trivia formula story. In other words, every randomly mentioned factoid about the peripheral characters comes into play as a chance for the main protagonists to grow. So, when "Bart" (Michael's assumed identity for his interactions with Palmer) mentions that he is sad because his father is never around and that he does not know how to swim, Katherine gets a chance to be wowed by Danny actually bonding with the kids and teaching Michael to swim.

Despite the predictability and moments when Adam Sandler is recycling his performances from prior works - we get that his schtick is that high-pitched mumbling thing, but performances like in Punch-Drunk Love illustrate that he actually has exceptional range - Just Go With It actually does have some very positive elements. The opening to Just Go With It is very funny and the end has charm coming out of all orifices. The middle - especially the parts with Nicole Kidman as Devlin and a disturbingly bland Dave Matthews - go for more obvious jokes and linger annoyingly long on Eddie, Palmer's body and setting up less successful jokes that are played out in the end. Added to that, Just Go With It has one of the best flirtation scenes I have ever seen in all of film. In that scene, set in a hotel hallway, Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler deliver some great dialogue in the most convincing performances I have seen from either in quite some time. I would be even more impressed were I to learn that they actually could not stand one another, the chemistry was just that good!

Jennifer Aniston and the absolutely ridiculous Bailee Madison are the shining stars of Just Go With It. Madison, who plays Katherine's daughter Maggie (Kiki D in the deceptions), is incredibly good with the cockney accent and, to her credit, she never slips from it at any inappropriate time, putting to shame many actresses who do work with accents! While not much humor is put on her plate to dispense, she gives a decent performance. Similarly, Jennifer Aniston convincingly plays a hard-working assistant who develops through the course of the film to a reasonable epiphany. Her character does not simply feel like a reworking of Rachel or her Love Happens protagonist. Instead, Just Go With It gives her a chance to have fun and create a viable parent character put in a ridiculous situation.

Ultimately, Just Go With It had moments of amusement, but the middle was too chaotic, predictable and just not funny for me to recommend.

For other works with Nick Swardson, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Jack And Jill
30 Minutes Or Less
Bolt

4/10

For other movies, check out my organized listing on the Movie Review Index Page!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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