Grown Ups

Films

It’s a reunion.  A championship junior high school basketball team of 30 years ago gets together for their coach’s funeral.  Lenny Feder (Adam Sandler), Eric Lamonsoff (Kevin James), Kurt McKenzie (Chris Rock), Marcus Higgins (David Spade), and Rob Hilliard (Rob Schneider) are now in their 40s.  Most are married with children.  Feder is a successful entertainment agent married to an internationally known fashion designer (Salma Hayek).  Lamonsoff is in the garden furniture business; his spouse (Maria Bello) is stay at home mom.  McKenzie is a househusband with his wife (Maya Rudolph) being the bread winner.  Hilliard has the most interesting marital situation. He’s married to a woman (Joyce Van Patten) clearly old enough to be his mother.  Higgins is the bachelor of the group.

Grown Up is a truly fun, laugh out loud event. It gets a See It rating. I admit I didn’t expect much but you’d have to dead or nearly dead not to find yourself chucking away at this film. Each character has his or her own amusing quirk.  The humor is both slapstick and sophisticated, both physical and subtle. The characters are all very colorful.

Adam Sandler co wrote and produced this film.  And is not just a reunion of these fictional characters, it also brings together of seven Saturday Night Live alumni, in addition to Sandler, Rock, Spade, Schneider and Rudolph,  Tim Meadows and Colin Quinn star as members of the rival team that the guys played against for the championship back in the day.

Director Dennis Dugan wanted the basket scenes to appear authentic so he brought in former NBA player Pooh Richardson to work with the stars on their basketball skills. Dugan also deserves credit for keeping this high octane team of comedians together to tell this hilarious story.

Grown Ups is 96 minutes, rated PG-13 for crude material including suggestive references, language and some male rear nudity.  You should see Grown Ups.

- T.A Moreland