Film Reviews

Just Go With It

• Rating:
• Director: Dennis Dugan
• Starring: Adam Sandler
• Details: US / 116mins (12A).

Just Go With It is Adam Sandler and Dennis Dugan's sixth collaboration (a seventh, Jack And Jill, is already filming) but they still haven't topped their first - Happy Gilmore. A comedy that boasts big noses, silly accents, botched plastic surgery victims and Heimlich Manoeuvres performed on sheep, the best advice one can give to enjoy this remake of Cactus Flower is to pay heed to the title.
We first meet Sandler's Danny in the '80s where he learns that his fiancée is sleeping around. Distraught, Sandler hits the bar where his wedding ring, and exaggerated sob story, attracts a hottie. Fast forward to today and Danny, now a rich plastic surgeon, still uses the pulling power of the ring, complimented with the now-perfected broken-hearted yarns. Caught in a web of lies, Danny comes unstuck when he genuinely falls for Palmer (Decker) and needs assistant Katherine (Aniston) to pretend she's his bitchy soon-to-be ex-wife. One thing leads to another and Danny, Palmer, Katherine and her two kids - Maggie (Bailee Madison) and Michael (Griffin Gluck) - make for Hawaii on holiday where Danny pretends to be a loving father to Katherine's children.
There's a lot more effort put into this story than Sandler and Dugan's lazy, laugh-free outing Grown Ups, but once again there's a feeling that we're just paying for Sandler's holiday. Even though Sandler doesn't break a sweat in the hot Hawaiian sun Just Go With It can't be called lazy, but this broad and juvenile comedy is chock-full of bizarre plot turns that are too silly to get on board with. Would a new girlfriend demand to meet an ex-wife? Would she go on holidays with said ex and then have no problem with the ex going on a date with her new boyfriend? You have to just go with it, but the plot makes it increasingly difficult to do so.
At times Just Go With It looks like just an excuse to launch the career of the new belter-on-the-block Brooklyn Decker - there too many slo-mo, bouncing boob shots of Decker in her bikini to suggest otherwise. Aniston gets her slo-mo shots too, one of which sees her stride through a restaurant after a strenuous makeover session that has magically transformed her into... Well, Jennifer Aniston. Nick Swardson's turn as a German sheep seller (and Aniston's phoney love interest) grates moments after his fake German accent warbles out of the speakers, while Kidman has more fun than the audience in her cameo as Aniston's high school nemesis.

Review by Gavin Burke