Grown Ups: My thoughts on the movie.

My wife and I don't get out as much as we would like to these days, However this 4th of July weekend, We went on our first double date since last years 4th of July. We had a good time and laughed - Alot... To achieve this, we had to forget that we were adults for a minute and bring out the kids inside of us. We went to see "Grown Ups" - Adam Sandlers new movie. The movie is a far stretch from the classic humor found in Happy Gilmore and in my opinion, Sandler has yet to make a movie I have enjoyed as much as Gilmore... I did however enjoy watching Grown Ups considering the way that I grew up with my small close group of friends and looking to what we might actually be like when we are all nearing 40 years of age...

I'll try to do this without spoiling the movie for anyone who wants to watch it. Grown Ups is a story about
five friends who reunite after 30 years for a fourth of July holiday weekend and pick up where they left off. It is a comedy starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, and David Spade.

The movie begins with a scene of 5 kids who ended up winning a basketball championship together as a team, Collectively they all have a high degree of respect for their coach. After years have passed they all receive a phone call that their coach has died and they attend his funeral then head to a lake house where they share lots of their own childhood memories, dragging their wives and families with them. Each of the kids has a problem that they are presented with that ranges from obesity to being so spoiled that they don't know how to do things for themselves. During their time at the lake house these 5 friends are reunited with their inner kids and reminded of what it means to have close friends and family.

Adam Sander's character is an extremely successful Hollywood agent with snobby kids who don't want to do anything but play video games, Going to the lake house was his idea as a chance to catch up, play and hopefully bring some peace to his spoiled family. Chris Rock’s character is a stay at home father who's mother-in-law has huge unsightly bunions, farts a lot and is unsatisfied with his life as a father and provider. Rob Schneiders character is a hippie like guy who is married to an old woman who chooses to drink laxatives while the rest drink beers, She is filled with wisdom and is the sight of many scoffs and jokes towards the elderly. Kevin James also plays a father who feels the need to portray financial success to his friends only to find out later that he's struggling in this economy like many of the rest of us. He is also the recipient of several fat jokes. David Spade plays the guy who just wants to get wasted and sleep with different girls; A typical character for him.

During their stay at the lake these 5 friends re establish the relationships they had as kids and find themselves getting into all kinds of trouble while showing their kids how to have a good time. They find a rope swing near the lake and Kevin James' character goes out for a swing while failing to drop into the water and coming back only to smack into a tree, I'll admit, I laughed, Hard... I have done that myself.. My friends and I used to go swimming both during the day and at night all the time and I couldn't help but recall the time we drove about 50 miles south one night to find a swimming hole that we'd only heard about up until that point which included a rope swing that I failed to properly swing on leaving me with bruises and a few small scars after smacking into the tree... Jame's also spends plenty of time eating KFC and walking around with a chicken bucket over his head with holes cut out for his eyes; Reminds me of a time when my friends and I regrettably stole a bucket of KFC from a family who was out for a picnic of their own (Read that story as written first hand by one of my best friends here)  http://thistoolslife.blogspot.com/2009/05/teacher-regrets-stealing-bucket-of.html

Arrow Roulette is a good name for a game where they shoot an arrow into the sky and run away laughing as the last person standing in the circle wins the game, They fall into piles of poop and every one of them takes at least some kind of spill... Reminds me of when my Dad gave me my first bow and arrow set, I think I lost more arrows shooting them straight up and watching where they'd land than I did shooting into the giant target he'd build for me out of stacked cardboard. What kid didn't shoot an arrow into the sky?

They take a day and head to the local water park where they all have fun with their kids but the kids get tired of waiting in line, so they teach their kids how to sneak past the line and go straight to the front, Again, I'll admit that I laughed at the thought because it reminded me of the times when my friends and I would go to the movies downtown and we would send one person in to open the back door and let the rest of us into the theater; Not exactly something that I'm going to teach my children to do, but nevertheless, a memory that made me crack a smile, My friends and I tried to pull that kind of stuff all the time.

The movie seems like a great excuse for Adam and his comedic friends to hang out and have a good time while filming, I can only imagine how much fun they actually had offset. I was happy to see that in the end the message of the movie was to realize that winning isn't always important and to see that Family and Friends are the most important thing they have, I left with a smile on my face wondering just where me and my friends will be 20 years from now, what kind of life experiences we will have to share with each other and if we will still have the kind of friendships we have now.

Despite all the negative reviews I read online, I'd recommend this movie to any one of my friends, This one is going into my DVD collection, and I'll probably end up watching is with my friends!