Click
Movie Review: Click
Stars (Out of 10): 5.5
One Word Summary: Tone-deaf Movie Details: MPAA RATING: PG-13 for language, crude and sex-related humor, and some drug references Starring Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale, Christopher Walken, David Hasselhoff, Henry Winkler, Julie Kavner, Sean Astin, and Jennifer Coolidge GENRE(S): Comedy | Drama | Fantasy WRITTEN BY: Steve Koren DIRECTED BY: Frank Coraci RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: June 23, 2006 RUNNING TIME: 98 minutes Relevant Sites: Shopping: "Click" Review: Adam Sandler usually plays a schmuck, but in 'Click” he plays a gigantic schmuck. Michael Newman is a workaholic architect with a wife who is too beautiful and too understanding, two kids who are too adorable, and a career that's always a piece away from falling into place. When he wanders into the Beyond section at Bed, Bath & Beyond, he meets Morty, a weirdo mad scientist with a universal remote control that he promises will change Michael's life. When Newman figures out that the remote can fast forward through all the moments in his life he'd rather live without (fights, showers, traffic, etc.) he's ecstatic, but when the remote starts fast forwarding on its own, he begins to wish there was a panic button. At one point in the movie Sandler is sitting in his car playing with the remote when he realizes he can change the tone of his skin. He turns himself into the Hulk for a minute, but then decides he'd be better off with simply a tan. Why am I mentioning what would seem like such a benign scene? Because in it Sandler fingers the film's entire problem: tone. Before we go any further I have a very important distinction to make. Adam Sandler is in two different kinds of movies: Adam Sandler movies and movies with Adam Sandler. It might sound like semantics, but the disparity is important. 'Happy Gilmore” is an Adam Sandler movie. 'Waterboy” is an Adam Sandler movie. 'Spanglish” is a movie with Adam Sandler. Get it? Good. The problem with 'Click” is that it attempts to be both. It has the fart jokes and kicked-in-the-gonad humor of an Adam Sandler movie with the raw emotions of a movie with Adam Sandler. Because of this inherent problem, it lacks a unified tone. You couldn't tell it from the trailer, but for a good part of 'Click” is really really sad! The first half is funny, the second half is painful, and even though the ending is what you want, it leaves you feeling cheated. (It rings of a certain `80s sitcom.) In the first half, Sandler is his usual self. You feel like you're too mature to be laughing at his jokes, but you find you just can't resist. Yeah, a guy farting in another guy's face shouldn't be funny, but with Sandler it somehow is. Beckinsale is the perfect actress to play his wife because if he didn't seem like a moron to begin with, he seems like a moron for treating her like anything less than a queen. Unfortunately, 'Click” doesn't keep up this tone. It quickly switches to drama and then ultimately to melodrama. At some points it's almost unbearable. The only constant is Sandler, the most lovable schmuck in the business. What upsets me most about 'Click” is that it would have been great as an Adam Sandler movie and it would have been great as a movie with Adam Sandler… it just isn't great as both. The concept is superb, and even with a faulty tone the moral is still intact. You walk away with a deeper appreciation of family and a renewed vow to live every day to the fullest. With that being said, I guess, how bad a movie could it be? The Bottom Line is that if you fuse 'The Family Man,” 'Pleasantville,” and 'Happy Gilmore,” BOOM, you have 'Click.” Those are three good movies, but ketchup, ice cream, and lasagna all taste good… just not together. Give Sandler credit for finding an interesting concept and one that will bring people to the theatre. Fault him though for not making it the best movie it could be, cause isn't that his whole point to begin with?
Mark O'Keefe 
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