Click

(2006)

Directed by

Frank Coraci

Review by Terry Plucknett

Adam Sandler for a long time found a niche in making the fun, dumb comedies that became huge successes with such films as Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, and The Waterboy.  In the last five years or so, his reign as the King of the Dumb Comedy has been stolen by such comedians as Will Ferrell, Jack Black, and everyone that is involved in the Judd Apatow Revolution.  This is partially because of how these actors have perfected what Adam Sandler started.  The other reason is Adam Sandler has stopped making good movies and has started making movies like Click.

Click is the third Sandler film directed by Frank Coraci (The Waterboy and The Wedding Singer were the first two), but by far the worst.  The story centers around Sandler’s Michael Newman, a workaholic architect that always puts work before his family in efforts to get promoted.  Newman is married to the gorgeous Kate Beckinsale, who supports his efforts but wants him home as well.  In an effort to make one part of his life a little simpler, Michael goes on a late night hunt for a universal remote for his TV, stereo, garage door opener, ceiling fan, etc.  The only store open is Bed, Bath, and Beyond where he stumbles across a crazy scientist played by Christopher Walken in the “Beyond” section of the store.  He gives Michael an experimental remote for free which he later discovers controls his entire life.  At first this function is great as he fast forwards through fights with his wife, mutes the dog, and pauses a game of catch between his son and the arrogant neighbor boy (whose last name is O’Doyle, possibly my favorite part of the movie) so the ball hits the neighbor in the face instead of the glove.  After awhile though, the remote goes on autopilot as he starts to skip entire years of his life, and Michael learns the moral of the story.  The jokes told along the way are not extremely funny, with the possible exception of some small scenes with the iconic David Hasselhoff.

Again, this movie has a good idea, but just doesn’t seem how to go about it.  I have no idea how it was nominated for Best Makeup at the Oscars because the makeup jobs, which were very few, were not very believable.  In one scene, Sandler’s double chin looks like Play-Doh.  It does the very unnecessary cliché of going supernatural in a lame rip-off of It’s a Wonderful Life by turning Christopher Walken into an angel of death.  The story is there, the comedy is there, but Michael Newman never seems to shine like Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, or Bobby Boucher do.  It just seems, sadly, that Adam Sandler has lost his edge.  Fair attempt, but definitely one of Sandler’s weaker efforts.

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