Adam Sandler's box office track record completely astounds me. He is undoubtedly one of the most commercially successful and bankable stars in Hollywood, despite his output becoming more and more reminiscent of the character he played in Judd Apatow's Funny People. After the critical mauling of Jack and Jill and box office disappointment of That's My Boy, it seemed as though audiences were beginning to tire of Sandler's schtick. Then came Grown Ups 2, which despite being a thoroughly terrible movie, took $133m domestically and a worldwide total just shy of $250m. Setting the tone in the opening scene when a deer urinates in his house, Grown Ups 2 is 100 minutes of lazy comedy, lurching from one uninspired gross-out set piece to the next, all while the cast spend a lot more time onscreen laughing than audiences surely did. The term 'comedy' should not be used in conjunction with this painfully unfunny movie, and it makes me sad to think that Grown Ups is now a half-billion dollar franchise. Cinema audiences everywhere should hang their heads in shame. In a year filled with box office disappointments, its a crying shame that this steaming turd was a hit movie. Runner-Up: Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters The latest fad for revisionist fairy tales continued with Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, which wasted the talents of Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton in a muddled movie that couldn't decide if it was an action-comedy, a genre parody or an anachronistic horror movie. Director Tommy Wirkola provides some inventive set-pieces and a couple of great ideas (Hansel being a diabetic, for one) , but the CGI is unforgivably poor at times, the dialogue terrible and the editing sloppy for a movie that clocks in at under 90 minutes. Despite only taking $55m domestically, the movie was a hit overseas and ended up with a worldwide gross of over $225m. It's not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but kick back with a couple of beers and turn off your brain and you might just have a good time.
I don't do social media, so like or follow me in person but please maintain a safe distance or the authorities will be notified. Don't snap me though, I'll probably break. I was once labelled a misogynist on this very site in a twenty paragraph-long rant for daring to speak ill of the Twilight franchise. I stand by what I said, it's crap.
