While
watching
an Adam Sandler movie, there are certain expectations met in each outing. You
can always count on a humble protagonist overcoming adversity by remaining true
to his ol‘ goofy nature, as well as a roster of quirkily demented characters
(from shopping-cart skating bums to hallucinatory penguins) spouting spontaneous
punch lines. It’s as reliable as James Bond thwarting evildoers’ plans for
world domination while bagging luscious women in each 007 installment. Ever
since fans transformed the lovable Saturday Night Live veteran into a
mega $20-million dollar check cashing Hollywood player, Mr. Happy
Gilmore has refused to retire the clumsy caterpillar turns butterfly shtick. Not
only that, he’s created Happy Madison, a production company titled after his
first two features, so friends like David Spade and Rob Schneider can have their
own starring vehicles in similarly outlined movies.
After
licking the wounds inflicted by 2000’s major dud Little Nicky, budgeted
at $90-million and grossing a mere $30-million, Sandler and crew lighten up on the
many self-indulgences evident in his previous flop (cameos by Rodney Dangerfield
and Ozzy Ozzbourne, a talking pitbull) to focus on gags without CG-effects. The
result is Mr. Deeds, a tendon-loose version of Frank Capra’s Mr.
Deeds Goes to Town. But then again, lack of fire-breathing demons will make little
difference to anyone who doesn’t enjoy the goodhearted yet adolescent brand of
humor displayed in such hits as 1999’s similarly themed Big Daddy.
Audiences who appreciate off-kilter characters such as Crazy Eyes (played by an
optically deformed Steve Buscemi) and his craving for peanut-butter &
gumball pizza toppings, should have no problem shooting soda out of both
nostrils with this latest Sandler screwball comedy.
Once
a billionaire media mogul dies trying to climb Mt. Everest during a fierce
blizzard, the press has a frenzy trying to identify the deceased’s heir, who
is set to receive $40-billion dollars. Adam Sandler’s Longfellow Deeds is,
naturally, the lucky recipient who hails from small-town Mandrake Falls - -
where everyone is friendlier than 1940’s television. Owner of Deeds’
Pizzeria, our hero is a local celebrity in his own right. Every week Deeds picks
a greeting card he‘s written to read for the locales, who gather around in anticipation as though Faulkner was
reading chapter one of The Great Gatsby. Upon getting word of his upgraded
wallet-size, Deeds is off to New York City to sign proper paper work and is told
to avoid the press at all cost, which is difficult when a sultry reporter
(Wynona Ryder) for a popular tabloid show is determined to crack the story.
Laugh-wise, Mr. Deeds is all hit and miss. Jokes work much better when they’re not deliberately cut into a scene, and out of place, simply to get a cheap rise out of the audience. The ones that work are usually verbal shots that are surprisingly funny due to their matter-of-fact delivery. Such as when Ryder’s reporter with a heart presents evidence to Peter Gallagher’s slick villain, telling him there are a lot of things he doesn‘t know...“Like plucking your eyebrows, for instance”. When gags turn physical, like an old man showing off his loose kneecap, the movie feels like it’s playing primarily for 12-year old boys.
As with every Sandler movie, modern day
laws are ridiculously altered to the extent that in one scene a private plane is
parked in a Wendy’s lot. Obviously, realism is the funnyman’s
least concern. So during one of the movie’s funniest sequences, where Deeds
climbs up a pole to rescue a woman and her trapped cats inside a burning
apartment, we’ll buy it, even after the saved felines bounce off trampolines
into safety.
GRADE:
B-
-Copyright 2002 by
Shaun
Sages