Blended

To set the record straight, this is Frank Coraci’s 2^nd movie with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore.  The first time was The Wedding Singer.  This is the 3^rd time Sandler and Barrymore are coming together.  50 First Dates was directed by Peter Segal and not by Coraci. So all of you who are saying 3^rd time lucky for Coraci, Sandler and Barrymore, have more reason to be convinced otherwise.

First of all, Blended is nowhere close to being as good as The Wedding Singer and definitely not in the same planet as 50 First Dates.  Let me assure you that it has nothing much to do with the fact that Barrymore pewks out a bowl of soup on herself and makes a disgusting sight of it.  That was just the initial point where I all but switched off. Why is it important for all Sandler movies to have such disgusting stuff in it?

After the first date between Jim (Sandler) and Lauren (Barrymore) goes all but right (now what can you expect from a date at Hooters?), they hope and pray that they never meet again.  Unfortunately for them, it takes less than 24 hours for the obsessive organizer Lauren to meet the happy go lucky Jim because their credit cards get exchanged.  A few more chance meetings follow eventually taking them to Africa.

Lauren and Jim capitalize on the misfortune of his boss and her best friend Jen (Wendi McLendon-Covey) and unfortunately find themselves in the Serengeti with their 5 children – Lauren’s 2 boys & Jims 3 girls.  The trip is specifically meant for families in 2^nd or 3^rd or 4^th or whatever number of marriages trying to cope with their step relatives – “Blending”.  The only difference with our couple is that they aren’t one to begin with.

Blended is a like every other Sandler movie with all the horrid stunts that make a Sandler movie.  In addition to that, it is also slow and has very little to offer in terms of dialogue or screenplay or narration or even comedy.  The acts are all forced except for the one with Terry Crews who plays the lead singer of an African Band and an MC.  Supporting Crews is Abdoulaye NGom as the host – Mfana.

But for Crews and NGom, Blended would have been even more of a drag that what it actually landed up being.  There is definitely a market out there for cheap slapstick comedy but if you want slapstick then go the whole hog.  Don’t leave it hanging in the middle of nowhere.  Definitely avoidable and not worth the big screen.  4 on 10.

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1503898905/?ref_=tt_ov_vi