No love for Sandler's 'Boy'

That being said, there's something off in his latest film, "That's My Boy." The film still wallows in Sandler's trademark brand of lowbrow comedy, but there's no heart behind any of the mayhem. This time around, the characters don't seem like good people who are simply caught up in an outrageous situation. That's a critical flaw in a film that asks an audience to excuse the outrageous action up on the screen. More problematic, there's no creative spark behind any of the comedian's antics. He's on autopilot and that makes for an over-long, mean-spirited and unfunny film.

Part of the problem involves the story set up, which begins with a teenage boy who has an affair with his teacher (Eva Amurri Martino). She gets pregnant and is sent to jail while the boy grows up to be a staple of tabloid TV and the poster child for arrested adolescence. It's no surprise that the baby grows up in a less-than-optimal home environment and severs all ties to his father as soon as he turns eighteen.

Somehow the child does grow up to be a successful hedge fund manager. He's about to get married when dear old dad reappears, hoping to bond with the boy and score some quick cash. It's a typical comedy set up, with Sandler playing the beer-bloated lout whose crass antics somehow impress his son's high society friends. Samberg plays the son, and he spends most of the movie playing the mousey straight man to Sandler's boorish goon.

It's not a comedy team destined to be remembered throughout history.

"That's My Boy" has some fun moments that will please Sandler's fans, but not nearly enough of them to make the film into a winning comedy. For the most part, this is an overlong and unfunny slog of a movie that's based on such hilarious topics as statutory rape, alcoholism and child abuse. That's obviously distasteful stuff, but Sandler's had success with out-of-bounds topics before. The problem with "That's My Boy" is that he doesn't have anything new to say on the subjects and he seems to be on autopilot.

This isn't Sandler's worst film ever, but it is perhaps his saddest, because it shows a comedian well past his prime, desperately trying to make a few extra bucks by simply going through the motions. Even his teenage fan base will notice that this is not a good filmalthough it is still better than last year's "Jack and Jill."

"That's My Boy"
Columbia Pictures
Directed by Sean Anders
Starring Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Leighton Meester, Vanilla Ice, Tony Orlando, Will Forte, Milo Ventimiglia, Susan Sarandon and James Caan
Rated R

1 Star

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