Here is the main difference between "Blended" and his other output over the past several years, slapped-together efforts like "Just Go With It," "Jack and Jill," "That’s My Boy" and the "Grown Ups" movies: There’s a vague sense of tonal consistency. Whereas so many of his films are just unabashed raunchfests until the very end, when they shoehorn in some false, gooey sentimentality, there exists in "Blended" a genuine through-line of familial suffering and perseverance. A decent movie might actually be buried here somewhere deep, deep down. The world will never know.
Another element that makes "Blended" tolerable is Sandler’s easy chemistry with Drew Barrymore, his co-star in 1998’s "The Wedding Singer" and 2004’s "50 First Dates." After all these years, Barrymore still has an unflappably sunny on-screen presence, and she and Sandler banter with each other comfortably. ("Blended" director Frank Coraci also directed them together in "The Wedding Singer.") Again, the glimmers of possibility are evident, and they are frustrating.
Essentially, though, this is yet another example of Sandler using the excuse of making a movie to go on a lavish vacation with his friends. In "Just Go With It," the characters visited Hawaii. In "Jack and Jill," the escapades took place on a cruise ship. Here, Sandler, Barrymore & Co. travel to the luxurious Sun City resort in South Africa for a trip tailored to new families coming together. We get no sense of what Africa (or Africans) are actually like; instead, we see overly amorous, CGI rhinos cavorting to provide a punch line.
How they all get to Africa is the result of a series of plot contrivances in the script from Ivan Menchell and Clare Sera. Barrymore and Sandler have the opposite of a meet-cute over a terrible blind date. Barrymore’s Lauren is the uptight, divorced mother of two boys; Sandler’s Jim is the schlumpy widower father of three girls. They keep running into each other in their quiet, suburban town—and bickering—until they eventually end up at the same African resort, sharing the same suites with all five of their kids. What are the odds?!
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