Blended Review

rating:2.5

A couple nervously chat over breakfast, awkward but recognising a spark of familiarity and a spark of something else - something more magical - as they order coffee. They order the same, naturally, and a fleeting glimpse of affection breaks across both faces. And then they turn and look across the lake, where two rhinos are f*cking. So reads Blended, the latest rom-com reuniting Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, which boasts a concept that would leave even the most open-minded romantic cinephile slack-jawed and a wider cast of characters that appear to have escaped from somewhere. Somewhere that probably isn't looking too hard for them. The familial comedy - reimagining the Brady Bunch with more dysfunction and less good parenting - is actually a step in the right direction for Sandler, who has slummed it way too much even by his standards, but even then it's only a single step. After all, how great could a romantic comedy aimed at children, with masturbation jokes and rhino sex really be? Therein lies the major problem: the film doesn't know what it wants to be, and there are moments where it feels like the two Sandlers (the accomplished rom-com lead, and the shouting, gooning man-child) are actually fighting each other for screen time. When the film is great is when it pits Sandler and Barrymore together, and their charm is allowed to blossom as it did in The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates: they are a genuinely irresistible film couple, even with the spectre of the worst parts of Sandler's goofball routine looming large. But when it's bad, it feels most like Sandler has been in charge of the comedy, congratulating himself on the tampax jokes and hyper-extended Greek name gag, and you just wish he'd reigned it in a bit more. It's a curious affair at the end of the day: it feels like Sandler was committed to recapturing the magic with Barrymore, and adding an intriguing familial element that survives some poor kid acting, but also like he could never quite give up the silly Happy Madison elements. But somewhat tragically it feels like even his old friends have deserted him: the only remainders were drips and left-overs, like Kevin Nealon, Shaquille O'Neal and Steve Buscemi's brother, and while there are two good cameos harking back to the other Sandler/Barrymore films, the over-riding feeling is that Sandler isn't even able to make a film-bubble to protect himself in. Incredibly, for all of the poor elements, the result is not terrible: it's just not all that great. There are supremely silly moments, but there are enough pleasantly cornball moments to forgive them, and by the sixth time Terry Crews (basically playing the same musical role as the mice in Babe) turns up, it's actually quite charming in an idiot family member sort of way. And try as you might to resist, some of the jokes are genuinely funny. In the end, Blended has reminders of greatness, and some touching emotional moments, but almost all of them are ruined by Sandler's goofing around, which probably says more about his career than he would have intended. Blended is released in the UK on Friday 23rd May.