A Night Out With the Boys: Enjoying 'Grown Ups 2'

The reason I hated being a critic is that I was often chastised for going against my fellow junketeers and actually liking movies that they all hated (and vice versa), which is why Jimmy Kimmel once made fun of me on his show for a whole week, reading my positive reviews of “Scooby-Doo” and others, and why I got universally blasted for giving a slightly positive review of  “Alexander.”

Well, here it goes again. I went to the screening on Wednesday night with my two nephews, 17 and 11, and thought “Grown-Ups 2” was very funny!

In fact, the first thing that we tried to show them when we got home is a burp-snart (a burp-sneeze-fart combo) that is featured in the film, and something that Adam Sandler ends the movie with while in bed with his wife, played by Salma Hayek

And wow, I even liked it better than the first “Grown Ups,” which three years ago made more than $271 million worldwide.

Maybe I’m just getting older, but I’m more forgiving about these growing-older films, especially when it’s from the “Saturday Night Live” alum (and yeah, they use a lot of them!) And, the guys in the younger generation of SNL is made fun of by relegating them to rubbing their crotches against a soapy windshield while washing cars.

I found myself saying, “I can’t believe this” and “OMG” a lot during the movie, because they did go over the top and they did constantly surprise me. The first scene has a deer in Sandler’s bedroom and when it gets startled, the deer pees in Sandler’s face. Shocking, ridiculous, but I laughed. Especially because my nephews on either side of me were also laughing.

It doesn’t really matter if you saw the first one or not, but the characters are followed through as Lenny (Sandler) and his family move back to their East Coast small town after he was a hot shot agent (and his friends call nickname him “Hollywood”). He has two boys that he calls “fugly” and points out that they can look at himself with a hot wife (Hayek), and isn’t that weird. “It only happens in Hollywood movies,” he says. Yes, indeed.

All the old childhood friends are there, played by the comic cast of Chris Rock, David Spade and Kevin James.

There are other brilliant cameos, playing characters like  James’s mother (Georgia Engel) from his wife (Maria Bello), a local cop played by  Shaquille O’Neal, and a driver’s ed instructor played by Steve Buscemi and his crazy wife Cheri Oteri, who always plays the scary lady you want to stay away from.

The werewolf of  “Twilight” Taylor Lautner  gets to show off some of his mixed martial arts moves by playing a frat jerk, who bullies the locals who go to their swimming hole in town.  He and his frat bros have a bit of a homoerotic kinship and they make the old guys jump off the cliff of the swimming hole naked. That conflict is the perfect set-up for a final confrontation of epic proportions.

Jon Lovitz, Tim Meadows and Colin Quinn show up in kooky parts, just like any Sandler film.

There’re some mannish women (Spade’s character falls for her), and feminine men (Goldie Hawn’s son Oliver Hudson plays the cute gay yoga instructor who one of the guys eventually falls for!)

There’s a 1980s party at the end, and yeah, it may be dated for some, but I got all the references.  Nick Swardson comes as Boy George, one of the kids is Tom Cruise in Risky Business, Sandler is in a T-shirt and jeans and his kids ask who he is going as. 

“Bruce Springsteen, The Boss!”

 “Who?” the kids ask in unison. That's a really sad part.

There’s some great new talent, most notably the tough guy Alex Ludwig, who plays Braden, the child of David Spade’s character that he knew nothing about, and scares even Spade.

This is mindless summer fun, much like the movie, and it’s enjoyable and get you talking. Isn’t that what movies are all about—even if it’s not biting and sarcastic movie criticism is all about?

OK, now I should probably defend “The Lone Ranger” too, but that’s another story . . .

 “Grown Ups 2” is rated PG-13. Bikinis and bodily functions.

* Also answer: What's Your Favorite Summer Memory? (Sponsored)