Grown Ups

Love this movie
I loved this movie. The casting was great. All the characters were lovable and it reminded me of how I grew up as a kid. I thought it was definitely entertaining for people of all ages but especially those of us that grew up in a time where there were no computers, no cell phones, and we had to come up with our own games to entertain us. (without getting killed)It's an enjoyable, entertaining movie with a happy ending and it promotes spending time together as a family and the importance of good friends. What more could you ask for?? I highly recommend this movie. I saw it twice and I can't wait to see it again.

Funny, pleasant and enjoyable
I desperately wanted to enjoy Kevin James in Paul Blart: Mall Cop. I still believe it was only his lack of a strong supporting cast that kept it from being truly funny and was also what made it woefully thin on laughs. This is thankfully not the case with Grown Ups. Here Kevin James is well supported by an excellent comedy team and it works very well. My wife reluctantly went with me to see Grown Ups saying that she didn't like "slapstick comedies". Well, she laughed much more than I have heard laugh her in a very long time and she came away saying that she really enjoyed the film. The film has done very well at the box office despite many negative reviews (as did Paul Blart: Mall Cop) and it does seem to be much more popular with filmgoers than film critics. I personally think it is a much better and much funnier film than Couples Retreat. It is hard to think of Kevin James as any character other than his The King of Queens "Doug Heffernan" and David Spade really just seems to be...

uneven but with more positives than negatives
***1/2

When it comes to mainstream Hollywood comedies, we've all too often found that the quality of a cast is in inverse proportion to the quality of the film (i.e., "He's Just Not That Into You"). That being the case, I had expected "Grown Ups" - which features the likes of Adam Sandler, Salma Hayek, Kevin James, Maria Bello, Chris Rock, Maya Rudolph, David Spade and Steve Buscemi in starring roles - to be a real cinematic turkey. Imagine my shock, then, when the movie turned out to be, for the most part at least (and we'll get to the qualifiers in a moment), a surprisingly genial, laid-back and likable movie that generates a decent number of laughs without breaking too much of a sweat.

That is a particularly noteworthy achievement given that Sandler, not exactly known for either subtlety or restraint, is not only the star of the film but co-author of the screenplay as well (along with Fred Wolf). But somehow Sandler and company (the movie was directed by...

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