Just Go With It

Just Go With It


The movie is set in current day Long Island, NY. “Just Go With It” is a romantic comedy, as are many Adam Sandler films. Sandler fills the role of Dr. Danny Macaby, Jennifer Aniston is his assistant/crush Katherine, Nicole Kidman is Devlin Adams, Nick Swardson is Danny’s cousin Eddie, Brooklyn Decker is Danny’s ‘young’ girlfriend Palmer, and the star roles are filled out by Dave Matthews as Ian Maxtone Jones the alleged lover of Devlin.

Viewers are given the standard set up characters. There is the decade old relationship throwback to show where the characters come from and how they get to the spot they are in today. Katherine is Danny’s assistant in his plastic surgery office. They compliment each other well. The chemistry is visible from the start, but they have polar opposite lifestyles. The dilemma they face is distinguishing and reading everybody’s true feelings compared to their “acted out” feelings. The humor of the plastic surgery mishaps Danny has to fix with the help of Katherine get the audience rolling for the first part of the film. It is perfect Sandler comedy and followed up with sheep Heimlich maneuver, a flamboyant hairstylist, and the Coconut Smoochy (perfected by Ian) brings us full circle.

It is difficult to tell how much of the humor is improvised compared to the scripted portions of the movie. Adam Sandler is getting older and his humor is a bit more mature in “Just Go With It,” leaving some disappointed this isn’t another “Happy Gilmore” or “Big Daddy.” Sandler fans will love this film like his others. Why? Because it is Adam Sandler! He always gets the girl. He always gets into sticky situations. Plus, we always get a few great wonderful laughs as Danny abuses the kids and cuts their dreams short. Unfortunately it wasn’t Sandler who carried this film; it was Nick Swardson as Eddie and “Dolph”.

The audience sat mute for about half of this film. The middle half of “Just Go With It” had few ROFL moments. We were not sitting on the edge of our seats; we were sitting with our hand in the popcorn bucket, enjoying the empty carbohydrates more than the empty movie. There were so many twists, and trying to follow the scripted lies in the movie got so distracting (almost as much so as with “Black Swan”) that I got discouraged and found myself wanting to text people to sort out my own life as opposed to watch the movie.

“Just Go With It” was terribly wonderful. Nobody left unhappy, yet they were all glad it was free. I didn’t mind the two hours for the movie (it felt long!) but I enjoy the comedians in the movie. If you like Adam Sandler films, “Reno 9-1-1,” or “Scary Movie” then spend the time watching “Just Go With It.” Teens and adults appeared to have a similar response to the movie. It has a PG-13 rating, and is appropriate for 13 year-olds to enjoy unaccompanied. As for a rating, 2 out of 5 Cyclones is all I can give up.