Big Daddy
A lazy guy adopts a kid to take on more responsibility in his life.
Adam Sandler has built a foundation of heartfelt and irreverent classic comedies, and now the former SNL star adds Big Daddy to the list. Sandler reprises a questionably similar role that he has assembled and designated as an archetype for his movies – the careless and in some facet unsuccessful guy who needs a good kick in the rear for motivation.
Sandler is Sonny Koufax, a toll booth worker who, in a case of mistaken identity for his best friend, Kevin Gerrity (Jon Stewart), takes in a child in an attempt to take on some responsibility and resurrect his loser lifestyle in his girlfriend’s eyes. When she dumps him for an elder with a claimed five year plan, everything goes haywire and Koufax is straddled with the responsibility of being a foster father.
This would be one of the more tender and dear works of Sandler, who as of late has strung together eight years of crap. Aside from the puppy love he slobbers over with his costar Joey Lauren Adams and the love gooey predictable ending, there’s a hint of genuine sweetness wrapped in his romantic comedy. Injected into the lifeblood of Big Daddy is the insatiable Sandler humor except toned down a hair not to reduce the humor to an elementary level like in Billy Madison.
Big Daddy, in Sandler’s body of work, acts as a bridge between his infantile toilet humored comedies to the more dramatic pieces he tried to take on such as Reign Over Me and Punch Drunk Love. Big Daddy is light hearted and earnest as it’s very likeable. The familiar faces in all of his romps are back in sync here and provide an excellent backdrop of laughter that envelopes Sandler’s fatherly interactions with the adopted kid.
Big Daddy is a sure pleaser as it’s sweet, but not in a revolting and disgusting over the top sort of way that makes love unappealing or repulsive. Sandler and everyone hit their mark here and this is clearly one of the better and more memorable of the Sandler collection. These were the days where embroidered into Sandler’s work was the evident witted humor that has disintegrated as of late.
Written by: John Berkowitz
Reviewers Rating: 6.5
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
Added: 7-Sep-2008
Talk to other readers about this story.
|
