Guest Review: That’s My Boy

“While in his teens, Donny fathered a son, Todd, and raised him as a single parent up until Todd’s 18th birthday. Now, after not seeing each other for years, Todd’s world comes crashing down when Donny resurfaces just before Todd’s wedding.”
Directed by: Sean Anders Rated: R, 116 mins

This post was originally written by Page Marie. Find her @PageMarieH

After carrying on a highly inappropriate relationship with her student, Ms. McGarricle (Eva Amurri Martino and Susan Sarandon) finds herself facing jail time with a bun in the oven. The child’s father, eighth grader Donny Berger (Adam Sandler) is forced to raise their son, Todd (Andy Samberg) alone. Donny becomes infamous for the scandal and his story is optioned for a TV movie, making him a celebrity teen dad. He makes a small fortune, but squanders it while neglecting his son. Todd moves away as soon as he turns 18 and cuts off all communication with his father. Years later, Donny finds himself in debt to the IRS and facing jail time of his own if he is unable to pay up. He decides to reunite with his son on a reality TV show to make some quick cash. But when Donny finally tracks down Todd, he realizes that his son isn’t the chubby child he remembered.

This film is… interesting. I’ve always been on the fence about Adam Sandler. He’s certainly no artistic genius, but classics like Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, The Wedding Singer and Big Daddy always put a smile on my face. Then there’s stuff like Spanglish, Jack and Jill, and You Don’t Mess With the Zohan that make me want to gouge my eyeballs out with a crappy plastic spork. That’s My Boy definitely belongs in the latter category. I wouldn’t call it Sandler’s worst film ever, but it has none of the charm of his late 90’s films and ten times more inappropriate and/or offensive jokes.

Donny, the picture of fatherly perfection, is never pictured without a beer permanently glued to his hand.

Let’s start there. Let me just say, I’m no prude when it comes to raunchy or offensive humor. I love a Judd Apatow or Kevin Smith comedy as much as the next person. But the first 15 minutes of That’s My Boy were extremely uncomfortable. Something about the portrayal of a 13 year old humping his teacher is… just wrong in so many ways, none of them humorous. If you can make it through the intro, however, there are some laughs in store. Don’t get too excited. At one point, my dog turned the TV off by stepping on the remote and I considered not even turning it back on.

Laugh if your resume can withstand a 70 million dollar blemish!

Aside from the sex scandal, this film has all the usual Sandler fare: a weird lisp/accent, fart jokes, age-inappropriate one-liners, and a healthy dose of sexism. There’s even a plot twist in the end that could rival the cringe-worthy scenes at the opening of the film, but in the interest of being spoiler free, I’ll leave it at that. I was interested to see how Samberg would perform outside of his SNL characters, and like the rest of the film, I found him pretty meh. His character is eager to please his boss and fiance’s wealthy family in the days leading up to his wedding. It’s obvious he is supposed to be a stick in the mud, but I felt that Samberg came off as too dry and stiff, especially when compared to his days on the SNL stage. On the other hand, there are a few hilarious punch lines waiting for anyone who is willing to slosh through the trash to get there. Eventually, Vanilla Ice has a cameo and the film takes a slight turn for the better. It was also nice to see Leighton Meester in a comedy. It’s a shame that it was this comedy, but she played the bitchy fiancé role pretty well and I’d like to see her do other comedic roles. The plot is so-so for a Sandler film and of course, ends on a sentimental note.

Think Vanilla Ice ever thought one day he would be the highlight of a big budget comedy? Me neither.

That’s My Boy will probably only be a hit with die hard Adam Sandler fans, and even some of them will hate it. The rest of us will just have to live knowing that we will never get those 2 hours back and feel bad about the fact that Andy Samberg quit SNL for this.

Overall: 4/10