"Nice parenting..."      

BIG DADDY (PG-13)

Reviewed June 26, 1999 - Check out the Big Daddy Website.

Oh, what trash! 

As someone who has actually enjoyed Adam Sandler's sophomoric brand of humor in such films as The Wedding Singer, Happy Gilmore and The Waterboy, the experience of sitting through his latest film turned out to be an incredibly painful one.  In Big Daddy, Sandler plays Sonny Koufax, a law school graduate turned loafer whose life appears to be going nowhere.  Working a very part-time job as a tollbooth operator in New York, Koufax is your quintessential screw-up, a fact which sorely irritates his long-time girlfriend (Kristy Swanson).  As she contemplates leaving Sonny and his adolescent ways, a series of events unfold which drops a five-year old boy named Julian (Dylan and Cole Sprouse) to Sonny's door.  Yes, Sonny is highly unfit to be a father, but what better way to show his girlfriend that he's finally "growing up" than to adopt a boy, right?  Wrong...

What follows (and I don't think I'm being too harsh here) is a moronic sequence of misadventures surrounding Sonny's introduction into parenthood.  Julian wets his bed, Sonny covers the bed with newspapers; Julian spills milk on the floor, Sonny covers the floor with newspapers; Julian wants to watch a children's video, Sonny wants to watch a hockey game, Julian starts crying, Sonny puts the video on; Julian throws up all over the floor, Sonny covers the floor with newspapers...and so on and so on...

It didn't take me very long to figure out that I wasn't going to like either Sonny or his five-year-old protege Julian in this film.  Between all the shouting, the swearing, the crying, the whining, the drooling and the peeing, both Sonny and Julian come off as two very annoying characters, and this film comes off as one extremely annoying movie.  Indeed, by the time this film switches gears and moves into a sentimental "Sonny and Julian are good for each other and truly belong together" stage (about halfway through its runtime), I'd lost all interest in this pair and this film.  Sorry folks, but this movie just ain't funny, and was (at least for me) a waste of both time and money.  Of course, only time will tell whether Sandler's legion of fans will turn Big Daddy into box office gold (as they did for The Wedding Singer and The Waterboy), but somehow I really doubt it.  Despite some decent supporting performances by Joey Lauren Adams, Joe Bologna, Steve Buscemi and Rob Schneider, this film has neither the humor nor the energy to keep itself entertaining.  I hate to say it, but this Adam Sandler production has got "turkey" written all over it...

Responses from cyberspace--thanks for writing!

rfksecond2@cs.com gives this movie  stars: "Very funny film." (6/17/00)

David Rogers gives this movie  stars: "This didn't blow, it SUCKED. The worst comedy in a long time! Unfunney. Forget this, rent Happy Gilmore." (4/27/00)

xpac324@hotmail.com gives this movie  stars: "this movie kick's beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!" (1/22/00)

gillianlover@hotmail.com gives this movie  stars: "Not a bad film, and actually standard fare for Sandler. Some certain moments of the film were funny (such as Sandler being hit by a car) while the courtroom sequence was just plain appalling. Thankfully, the ending was realistic, while the rest of the film was typical Sandler. I couldn't see any critical difference between this and "Happy Gilmore". Yes it was corny, obvious and predictable, but it's not like we didn't expect this from an Adam Sandler movie. " (9/2/99)

jessfrogy@prodigy.net gives this movie  stars: "I thought this was a very funny movie. The little kid was so cool and adam was again very funny, it was no waterboy though I know it wasnt the greatest movie but it deserves more then 1&1/2 stars.It was cool because it had a happy ending" (8/31/99)

David gives this movie  stars: "Very good. The good thing about this film is that it had a very warm heart. I thought the kid in it was great !" (8/6/99)

anonymous entry gives this movie  stars: "I thought that it was a great movie. It made me laugh and cry, it was a diffent Adam Sandler though...maybe you are just used to the one that it is in "Happy Gilmore" or "Billy Madison" or whatever. Go see the movie and judge it for yourself because I thought it was great." (8/2/99)

ashakis@yahoo.com gives this movie  stars: "Big Daddy is no "Waterboy" or "Happy Gilmore" it stands on its on. This movie is very funny! Can you say funny boys and girls. To me this movie shows that anyone can be a partent! No matter how abd your life is missed up." (7/29/99)

Mike gives this movie  star. (7/20/99)

nickblaskowski@limpbizkit.com gives this movie  stars: "Big Daddy was a good movie and you may say that it was nothing like Happy Gilmore but it was funny!Personally,I think Adam Sandler's best movie was Bulletproof and that is not one of the movies that Adam Sandler is known for." (7/11/99)