“…exploits childish humour, but alienates the “family audience” by having very adult themes as well as unnecessary nudity”

Last night i decided to watch The Do-Over and it is a decision that I will always regret having made. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you’re an optimist) there is really no way for me to discuss this movie without spoiling the plot. If you are upset by this fact please direct all of your anger at Adam Sandler for making a film that relies very heavily on plot twists. While you are getting mad at him for that, also get mad at him for making a terrible movie.

I don’t hate Adam Sandler, in fact I admire him. Adam Sandler has found a way to follow his dreams by making movies with his friends. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t wish i was him. Sure, his movies aren’t for everyone but who cares? Definitely not Adam Sandler (at least he shouldn’t). He makes a shitload of money producing movies with the same characters, the same actors (his friends), and locations that act as vacations for the cast and crew. Adam Sandler is living the life, and is probably the only person I can truly admit to idolizing. But when I say his movies aren’t for everyone, I mean it. And unfortunately his latest movies just haven’t been for me, including The Do-Over.

For those who don’t know, Adam Sandler signed a deal with Netflix providing them with exclusive rights to the next four Adam Sandler movies. Unfortunately for us, they didn’t buy the rights to burn the movies so they would never be seen by anyone on this earth. Actually, what they did was very smart, but I’m not going to talk about business here. The first of these four movies was The Ridiculous 6, the second was The Do-Over (that’s where I come in). the Do-Over follows Adam Sandler and David Spade as two men who meet up at their high school reunion. Adam Sandler reveals he is an FBI agent and convinces David Spade to come and hang out with him. Adam Sandler then drugs David Spade, fakes both of their deaths, and they assume the identities of two recently deceased men. Of course, something goes wrong because otherwise there would be no conflict.

I want to start by saying that The Do-Over is a really fucking boring movie, That little synopsis I gave was like the first 30 minutes, and it was only down hill from there. The movie fails to pick up until half way through with the advent of a gunfight, but then it promptly falls flat on its face again. The film relies on “plot twists” to engage the audience, but really they just point out that Adam Sandler must think that his audience is brain dead. The entire narrative of the film is propelled by Adam Sandler’s character, and it doesn’t make sense until the end. First, he reveals himself as an FBI agent, but admits that was a ploy to impress his friend. Then he admits to working in a morgue, which is where he found the two dead bodies who’s identity he stole. He then admits to lying about that and says he is a guidance counsellor (wherever the fuck that came from), but they aren’t done yet. See, these “reveals” are treated as big news. Something bad happens, David Spade freaks out, Adam Sandler “comes clean” to try and keep David Spade around. AND HE FUCKING BELIEVES HIM EVERY TIME! This is why I said Adam Sandler must think his audience has the intelligence of a grape, because he keeps setting things up just to say “gotcha!”, and then he expects us to stay engaged in the story. So anyway, throughout all of these lies Adam Sandler treats everything like he is a detective. David Spade just wants people to stop shooting at him, but Adam Sandler wants to “get to the bottom of this”. This is why the “plot twists” don’t work. It’s really sad too because the actual reveal would have made an interesting story had we not been faked out five times prior.  It is finally revealed that Adam Sandler has cancer, and the people who’s identities him and David Spade stole were two people who were working on a promising cure. Of course this reveal takes place at the end of the movie, so by that point I have already mentally checked out.

The reason I hate this movie is because it makes me mad. I didn’t expect to watch an Adam Sandler movie and be blown away by plot reveals, but he just couldn’t help himself from structuring his movie that way. Of course The Do-Over isn’t a movie where the plot is held in high regard, because it is a comedy. The problem here lies in the fact that the movie isn’t funny. I can count how many times I chuckled throughout The Do-Over and the number is under ten. Of course, me laughing isn’t the baseline because I know at least one person who enjoyed the film: Adam Sandler. Yes, throughout The Do-Over Adam Sandler’s character makes a point to laugh at any joke that is made. He’s like his own live studio audience. You never have to be worried that a joke will go over your head because Adam Sandler is there to save the day by pointing out every attempt to make you laugh. I’m not even going to talk about the acting in this movie, because if you have seen one Adam Sandler movie you can just use that to come to your own conclusions. One thing that surprised me was the staggering number of blatant advertisements in the movie. I have to give it to Netflix, they really got the better end of this deal. On top of everything else the music choices were all over the fucking place. Usually there is some sort of rhyme or rhythm to the style or genre of songs picked, but it seems that Adam Sandler just threw darts at the top 50 chart. You have your “country”, your club music, your rock, pretty much anything you can think of. The Do-over exploits childish humour, but alienates the “family audience” by having very adult themes as well as unnecessary nudity. Every single piece of The Do-Over is a mess.

Overall The Do-Over is movie that is best to watch when you have watched literally every other movie on the planet from now until the end of time.

I give the Do-Over a D