Just Go with it (2011) Film Review

1 hr. 56 mins.

Starring: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Brooklyn Decker, Nicole Kidman, Nick Swardson, Dave Matthews

Directed by: Dennis Dugan

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Critic's Rating: * 1/2 stars (out of 4 stars)

There's not too much to be surprised about regarding the rancid and witless romantic comedy Just Go With It. Let's see...how about shaking down the usual suspects? Star Adam Sandler in another notoriously strained, simple-minded farce that painfully force feeds this contaminated comic down our collective throats with another pointlessly prancing laugher for the mindless masses. How about Ms. Movie Malaise herself...Jennifer Aniston...hopelessly bouncing around in another relentlessly bad film that she'll dismiss until the next scathing script comes calling (are you still trying to shake off the recent remnants of Aniston's detestable dud The Bounty Hunter?). Of course last...but certainly not least...is Sandler cinematic crony Dennis Duggan ("Big Daddy") performing the diminishing directorial honors for this ragged rom-com that has all the wagging wonderment of a tailless dog on three-day old cough syrup binge. How can we forget to include a woeful generically-titled movie that shows about as much considerable spunk as a spinster librarian's love life? Yeah...all too familiar lousy stuff and certainly everybody involved-the performers, moviegoers, critics, your incorrigible in-laws, prisoners on death row-deserves better than this clumsy, intrusive eye sore of a comedy.

Granted that telegraphing the mundane and mono-syllabic dreck in Just Go With It is mere food for thought given Sandler and Aniston's penchant for sludge cinema and Dugan's hack job treatment of another Sandler-minded putrid production. In all fairness, these artists do have their following thus explaining the multi-million dollar misfires that they are allowed to do whenever the mawkish moment strikes them. Unfortunately, Sandler and Aniston fanatics will do what this insipid film's title suggests and "just go with it". Geez, heaven help us all, right? Although promoted as a flippant fable, this unpleasant and unimaginative divisive kissy-feely concoction may be one of the worst comedies in recent memory.

The shocking tidbit about Just Go With It is unforgivable as its cockeyed conception and inspiration is loosely based on these sources-the 1964 French play "Fleur de Cactus" and of course the cheeky 1969 screwball comedy that starred Walter Matthau, Ingrid Bergman and Oscar-winner Goldie Hawn (for which this film garnered Hawn her golden statuette). How Duggan's denouncing direction, I.A.L. Diamond's disturbingly shotty screenplay and Sandler's/Aniston's empty-minded antics fouled up giddy memories of its original blueprint is beyond a mere head scratching. Utterly baseless with juvenile chuckles, crass situations, insulting and idiotic characterizations and overall contemptible chaos for the numbing sake of passing the tedious time, Just Go With It plods along to the point that one may want to shoot their watches on the adage that valuable time is being wasted watching this toothless three ring circus unfold.

Prominent plastic surgeon Danny (Sandler) had been "hurt" in the past courtesy of his riff raffish, opportunistic and insensitive bride on their wedding day. Feeling dejected and discouraged, Danny utilizes his fake wedding ring to score with countless hot-looking ladies that are intrigued by his seemingly "unavailable" status because they believe he is trapped in a loveless marriage that all the more challenges these bombshell bimbos to pursue the carnal-loving huckster. So out of pity (and yes...dumb-minded deception) the curvaceous cuties flock to Danny and provide him with the convenient trappings of a playboy lifestyle too infectious to ignore. Translation: Danny is getting laid primarily due to his inventive sob stories.

Enter knockout schoolteacher Palmer (Brooklyn Decker) whom Danny eventually meets and really wants to pursue distinctively unlike the crowd of cuties he's been exploiting like there is no tomorrow. When Palmer discovers Danny's wedding ring she understandably feels awkward, dismayed and betrayed. In order to keep up his twisted charade he needs to convince his prized Palmer that he's en route to a divorce from his "fake wife" and promises her to be patient until the pretend marriage is over. Still, the skeptical Palmer is not satisfied and wants to meet Danny's soon-to-be-ex wife so that she feels somewhat reassured.

Danny needs to think quickly and ends up recruiting his office assistant Katherine (Aniston), a good-natured single mother who reluctantly plays the part. Naturally, Katherine is fed up with her unctuous boss but realizes that telling Palmer the truth about Danny's honey-bunny head games may impact her deception as she needs Danny to be her fake husband in return for self-inflicted reasons she deems essential. Thus the phony husband-and-wife routine gets convoluted to the point that Katherine's insufferable kids are figured into the manufactured mess.

With all the bottom-feeding shenanigans in operation, the goofy-minded gang takes a vacation to Hawaii that was encouraged by Katherine's manipulative minions. Along for the ride includes Danny's obnoxious cousin (Nick Swardson) posing as Katherine's German boytoy "Dolphe". Soon the entourage runs into Katherine's collegiate rival Devlin (Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman) and her husband (Dave Matthews) as the lies and wacky events come to a nutty boil. The gimmick to the meager madness is that everybody seems to be living a tepid tall tale of what they are foolishly portraying and the entanglements are supposed to be inspired based on such revolving nonsense. And the obvious observation to the banal bandwagon of high jinks is this: Danny and Katherine should be the true twosome meant for one another.

Stretched out to its embarrassing limits, Just Go With It wears out its welcome from the get go. The material is undeniably hackneyed and artificially irreverent with its tiresome assortment of jokes that express being fat, gay, dense, self-absorbing, etc. Add to the batch Sandler's stand by ammunition with pratfalls, poop and crotch-oriented sight gags and you will have the same fill of farcical fodder that is hard to swallow in heaping gulps. Had the Duggan/Sandler combo aimed for a quieter, less exaggerated romp then Just Go With It could have benefited from a sly and level-headed silly showcase that actually could have resonated effectively. But Sandler wanted a wild and far-fetched dumbed-down ditty-a copout strategy to appease the wayward wonders that flock to his brand of fruitless frat boy frivolity.

The truth is that Sandler needs to evolve from the lamebrain laughers that made his big screen career. He is older now and the brainless selection of his middling movies may render him laughably impotent and creepy. The Emmy-award winning Aniston continues to seek safety in these forgettable flops which is inexcusable given her potential for comic spryness and ingenuity. In certain instances Sandler and Aniston click on screen which is a relief despite the faceless farce that they're confined in but the comic timing is transparent as they play backseat to the plethora of pointless idiocy being demonstrated in eye-rolling strides. Kidman, who enjoys her on-screen vanity as a self-indulgent spoiled queen of privilege, has a good time with the role and is game for challenging Aniston in their competitive kookiness (worth noting: their hula dance-off is a thankful, rare saving moment). Sandler's fellow SNL alumni Kevin Nealon and Rachel Dratch turn up as plastic surgery nightmares in hysterical cameos but the movie could have used more of this off-kilter hilarity than the blunt off-handed smuttiness that unfittingly persists.

Predictable cheap laughs and junky humor is the key to this potty-minded monstrosity. But if you are generously loyal to a lame lowbrow landscape of broad-minded boorishness then join Adam and Jennifer and "just go with it" as long as you don't forget to take it with you when you're done.