Grown Ups 2 is a 2013 American buddy comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan. Other-wise known for Happy Gilmore, I Now Pronounce You Chucky and Larry, Jack and Jill, and of course, the first Grown Ups. As established, the film follows where the first left off, bringing together the ensemble cast of Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Nick Swardson, and Salma Hayek. Produced by Happy Madison and distributed by Columbia Pictures, anybody that knows about Happy Madison knows that we are in for something special.
Whenever I write a review, I like to tell the readers why I wanted to watch this film. If nothing else, I can maybe tell them a certain keynote that make them want to ‘give it a try’ or ‘avoid it,’ but I really don’t know what to say. I didn’t want to watch this film, I watched it because I saw the first one, and if you are as out-of-it as I am, you believe that if you watch the first of something, you have to finish it. (Mortal Instruments 2 … FUCK!)
I didn’t expect anything at all whatsoever from this film. The first one wasn’t anything special, and Adam Sandler (who hasn’t released a movie that I enjoyed since Funny People.) and his bunch seem content dishing out one lazily put-together film after the next.
The film was critically panned by critics, and was nominated for nine 2014 Golden Raspberry Awards. Still, the film managed to make $247 million off of an $80 million budget.
Thus, Grown Ups 3 seems like a lock at this point.
Grown Ups 2 happens three years after the events of the first film, and since then, Lenny Feder has relocated his family back to his Connecticut hometown amongst all his childhood friends. While it doesn’t have a consistent theme as far as the story goes, it deals with them fighting against some frat boys that force them to jump naked into a quarry. Meanwhile, there’s also some stuff about David Spade’s character meeting a son that he didn’t know he had, and, uh, really it doesn’t have anything as far as real coherent narrative is concerned.
In-fact, that is something of an understatement, it feels like there are so many themes invested into the film, and either because they forgot about them or because they didn’t care, nothing really worthwhile comes from any of them. Like Grown Ups, the characters don’t have too much in the way of actual depth, and it tries to tackle the differences between yesterday’s youth and today’s.
While it indefinitely fails, the theme isn’t too important this time around, but thankfully, we have the characters to keep us entertained. They do so by letting us have one bad joke after the next. Grown Ups 2 isn’t really much of a family-film. The film is highly sexualized and filled with one badly done perverted moment after the next. At the same time, it isn’t for adults because it has scenes that seem to find the idea of a burp-sneeze-fart combo as funny. So, what is it then? It’s not kids, and it’s not for adults? Why does it exist? Good question. I don’t have the answer.
The humor isn’t funny because of its subject-matter filled with low-brow, gross-out humor, and other-wise desperate attempts at a laugh. However, even more than that, it seems so excessive, like they tried to squeeze so many bad jokes into one film that it feels damn-near intoxicating.
It’s difficult to breathe with it all. Before one gag has time to be built-to, another has already been delivered. I have sincerely never seen a film have so much going on and … yet have absolutely nothing going on. There is nothing that really happens from a storyline perspective, it’s just one scene after the next with the characters only working to loosely connect it all.
Nobody seems to care at all in this film. If the first one really was an excuse for Adam Sandler to take a vacation, than this one was for him to pursue a career in medicine, particularly in sleep-aid. Oh, and by the way, Nick Swardson continues to put himself in the most nerve-racking roles conceivably possible. Meanwhile, the females aren’t there for any reason other than for their cleavage to express itself.
Whatever… forget it.
In conclusion, Grown Up 2 does the unthinkable of being even worse than the first film. I don’t think I have anything else to offer except that. The jokes suck, nobody cares, … and it shows.
Thanks for reading…