The Do-Over

Let's make one thing very, very clear.

The Do-Over is not a good movie. It is not the movie that is going to revitalize Adam Sandler's career, and it is not going to make me believe that Adam Sandler is funny again.

However... it is a pretty big improvement over this piece of garbage...

Like my god... The Ridiculous 6 was really just down right awful.

The Do-Over stars David Spade as Charles McMillan. Charlie is a loser. He lives in the past, in the same town where his same life is the same complete mess it was in high school. He drives the same car, has the same job, and is going after the same girl he had a crush on in high school and everything is going wrong.

But don't worry, we're not focusing on that at all as, and this is true, 8 minutes in, he meets Adam Sandler's character Max Kessler at a high school reunion and lets it slide that he wants to start over and have a new life after he sees how successful Max was after high school.

Soon after, the two are hanging out on Max's yacht and Max drugs Charlie and fakes their deaths. He explains that his life is crap as well and he gives Charlie the chance to have a Do-Over and start a new life as two dead guys whose identities Max stole. The two of them steal thousands of dollars and escape to a tropical paradise in Puerto Rico.

Of course Charlie is apprehensive to the idea at first but he begins to warm up to it. However, once he warms up to the idea of starting a new life, the two of them are hunted down by a group of assassins and of course, a case of mistaken identity happens as the two men whose identities they stole were in more trouble then they expected.

On the run, Charlie and Max go on a journey to discover the circumstances behind the murder of the two men whose identities they stole and discover why they are being hunted down by assassins. Of course it wouldn't be an Adam Sandler without a woman who is definitely out of the heroes league and that woman is Paula Patton, playing the widow of one of the men whose identity they stole.

Apparently, Adam Sandler is in a deal with Netflix to produce 4 movies on the streaming site and this is the second of that deal. Now you would think that this would be Sandler's golden opportunity to produce some really funny movies, and if they're not going to be funny, why not make some real quality movies?

The reason I ask this is because Adam Sandler looks really bored in this movie. Like really bored. Max Kessler is a guy who lives at the edge and is really a wild card. You never really know how he's going to act. And unfortunately, instead of expanding himself, Sandler decides to play it like he smoked a lot of weed before a take and is fighting to be even harder not to be engaged. Now to be fair, the times where Sandler is trying to be his most genuine is when he looks bored as hell. He did it in Funny People and it kind of worked. The problem is, this movie is so over the top that the straight man seriousness that Sandler pulls sometimes doesn't totally make sense at times. I'll talk more about the seriousness and the "heart" of this film later, but my point is, Sandler gives an okay performance but it doesn't exactly fit and he looks bored.

And then there's David Spade. Poor David Spade. The guy didn't have much of a career before Chris Farley died but at least he was the skinny smart ass to Farley's fat bozo routine. Since then he's been

wandering Hollywood trying to find a group he can fit in with and he fell into the wrong crowd when he joined Adam Sandler's circus, and of course he joined it when it was careening off a cliff. In fact, this movie is probably a good representation of what happens in this movie. The nerdy loser of high school (or in this case, probably the SNL reunion) meets the guy who seems like he is doing so much more with his life but in reality he isn't and they go on some wacky hijinx together... (or make the Grown Up films). The good thing is, David Spade is a decently funny guy and while he's still not a great part in the film, there were actually some moments I did enjoy from him in this film. Not a lot, but some.

And Paula Patton. I don't really understand some of the choices she makes. Paula Patton is a decent
actress and I have liked a lot of the movies that she has done. But at the same time, she has made some really weird choices. She hasn't had enough movies to really make her own choices yet, but I thought she was popular enough to not have to do movies like this where the only reason she is brought in is so she can wear a conveniently low cut shirt... the entire time. I mean yeah, there's a lot

to show Paula, but you're better than this. You can tell she's kind of phoning this performance in because let's be honest, who really cares about an Adam Sandler movie on Netflix?

The weird thing is, somebody must have. Unlike The Ridiculous 6, where the humor derived from poop jokes and really racist jokes, The Do-Over seemed to really try to derive the humor from Spade and Sandler themselves. Yeah, their humor does include a lot of dick and sex jokes, but at least they really lay off the racist jokes in this one. The weird thing is, it seems like someone was really trying to make a funny movie. That doesn't mean it was, but it seemed like someone was trying.

Furthermore, its not the worst written movie I've ever seen. Yes its predictable and yes it is simple, but as predictable as it is, there are a couple of twists and story changes that I did not expect. There is a turn near the end of the movie where things suddenly get really serious and it wasn't the worst twist I've ever seen. The problem is, this turn happens near the end of a movie that has been a black comedy with a bunch of dick and sex jokes leading up to this point. So when it suddenly gets serious, it just seems weird.

The other problems with the movie is it doesn't really stay consistent. I won't say all the character inconsistencies just because the twist at the end is somewhat clever. But I will say it doesn't totally make sense in the master plan that Max has from the beginning. Even the jokes don't fully come to fruition the way that you'd think they want them to. For example, Nick Swardson shows up a couple times. The role that he has is actually kind of funny the 2nd or third time he shows up. Unfortunately, it really doesn't go the full length and it doesn't stay consistent when he shows up. And on a side note, Nick Swardson is a funny guy, why wouldn't they utilize him more than just a role where he looks bored the entire time. And you would think that the jokes wouldn't be consistent, but the thing is they are, but not the way you'd want them to. Knowing that, the jokes just don't land the way they should, and therefore aren't funny.

I'm not totally sure how I want to phrase this movie. On one hand, some effort was put into this movie. There seemed to be someone who at the very least started a script, or gave a barebones script that had some heart into it while still having some dark humor inserted in. But I don't know if it was the writing or the actors just not really caring enough to give it the effort it needed, but it just falls flat. On one hand, it is a vast improvement over The Ridiculous 6... but that's not saying much.

I think the main takeaway from this film is that there were long moments in this movie where I sat in silence even though I knew they wanted me to laugh. I just didn't enjoy this movie the way I think I was meant to and it just wasn't that great. This movie is by no means a resurrection of Adam Sandler being funny, but it was a small step in the right direction... I think.

But those are my thoughts on The Do-Over. What did you think of it? Better? Worse? Or the same as The Ridiculous 6? Let me know, comment and discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for movies I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. Again... poor David Spade. He's never been able to carry his own film and always been on the coattails of someone else. Unfortunately that person is Adam Sandler... Sigh. Enjoy!