Blended

Better then expected... and I expected nothing

Our story begins with two single adults, Jim and Lauren (Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore) on a date for the first time in a long time for both of them. The date goes horribly and we see the two back to their respective lives. Jim has three daughters; Hilary (AKA Larry played by Bella Thorne) is a teenager coming into her own as a woman. Espn (Emma Fuhrmann) is the middle child who has a heart breaking imaginary friend. Lou is the little, cute one who is the apple of her father's eye. On Lauren's side we have two boys, the wild child Tyler (Kyle Red Silverstein) and Brandan (Braxton Beckham) the horny little kid, with a crush on his babysitter. Both of the boys just wanting their mother and father (Joel McHale) to get back together, while the girls and their father cope with the aftermath of losing their mother to cancer. Our two families find themselves crossing paths in Africa, after Lauren and Jim both try to do something nice for their kids.

So the story line here is not great (shocker), it's not bad by any since but a little too contrived. It has this bad air looming over it like we have seen this a million times before. Guy X and girl Y despise each other but have to make the most of it for the kids. The name of this movie actually threw me for a loop before I saw it, but now all is clear. "Blended" infers to blended family, clever and actually a little new for Happy Madison productions. That was about the most clever thing I got see from this movie, sadly. The jokes were very Sandler styled jokes. Rhinos humping in the wild, pain related humor, awkward comedy. If you are familiar with the comedy in "Grown Ups 2" you will see the same style here, except less shitty. This also has a more coherent and relate-able story line than that travesty against humanity.  Not that the story line here was good, it was just better then crap. It was completely standard and unremarkable, while still being something you can take your kids to go see safely without wanting to look for the nearest noose. Especially if you are a blended family. It's kind of like the production company was trying to find their footing again after coming out with so many bad movies, it was a descent attempt but we are still quite far away from movies like "Big Daddy" and "The Longest Yard" remake.

I try to be in Sandler's corner for a lot of these movies that I know other critics and viewers are going to hate. Sometimes it is easier when he stars in movies like "Little Nicky" and "Funny People," other times it is damn near impossible when he stars in movies like "Jack and Jill" and "Grown Ups 2." He has just become so predictable lately, and he is an actor I never thought I would say that about. He seems to be taking the safest route, and following the money. I mean he was good in this, but only because he is playing the same father character he plays in all of his recent family movies. I think he was trying to recapture the audience by putting Barrymore in this, since "50 First Dates" was so well received. Little does he know the world doesn't care about Barrymore anymore, just like the world is starting to not care about him. It is sad really. He is funny, I know this, I've seen him be funny before, but here we are again looking at the same crap he has been peddling since "Jack and Jill," which remarkably makes "Funny People" even more depressing since these types of movies are all he seems to be doing lately. We have a couple of actors that always like to tag along Sandler's coat tails. Terry Crews is still the "Funny-because-he-is-so-fit" guy, Kevin Nealon is still the awkward guy (who is actually a little more profound this time around since he got a good line), Shaquille O' Neal shows up as someone who is not just used because he is a damn giant. Finally we have Joel McHale playing a deadbeat dad, doing the thing he seems to know how to do best which is "be a dick" (glad the art of typecasting is still alive and well).

The kids absolutely saved this movie, and have made this one of my guilty pleasures (very, very guilty). The kids are the most relate-able people in this movie, and it is amazing that the casting director could find such great acting talent at such a young age. Of course these kid's characters are all interchangeable with a thousand other kid characters form hundred's of other movies, but the delivery here is quite remarkable. We have your standard "girl-is-starting-to-become-a-woman" character, cute as a button character, wild child character, horny, little deviant character, and depressing kid character. These are all characters we have seen in some fasion before, but here they seem more human. Bella Thorne sold me more than any other awkward girl before her,  Emma Fuhrmann actually got me a little choked up, Alyvia Alyn Lind made me want to pinch her cheeks, Kyle Red Silverstein had me thinking of wild child kids I see at the mall, and Braxton Beckham had me thinking of my sexual deviant days. I hope we get to see these kids in more movies, and I hope they don't learn anything from Sandler about where their career should head to next.

Since this movie is now a guilty pleasure of mine (as stated above), I hate myself for saying that I kind of enjoyed it. I know it is bad writing, I know it is generic and uninspired; but the theme touched me somehow. If the trailers didn't sell this as "the next big PG-13" comedy I think you could actually have a good, generic family romp on your hands here.  It won't bring in the 18-30 year old crowd, but might just be something age groups above and below can enjoy.

Final Verdict: Netflix it It won't be knocking anyone's socks off, but it might just keep you entertained for a few hours. Don't go into it for the romance, or the comedy, go into it for the family togetherness. It also helps if you are expectations for this movie are the lowest they have ever been for a movie, like mine were.