That’s My Boy
Famous
for fathering a child with a teacher at age 13, Donny (Sandler) is deep in IRS
debt and needs to track down his son “Todd” (Samberg) for a made-for-TV event
to get the money to get out of debt.
This is
a Sandler movie that is actually funny for a long stretch of time but still has
all the little Sandler ticks. Like the
trend these days, the humor veers into the raunchy realm, especially in the
very funny second act. The second act,
obviously inspired by The Hangover, revolves around “Todd’s” (there is a reason
for the quotation marks) bachelor party with guests including Will Forte, Nick
Swardson & Vanilla Ice. Yes, that Vanilla
Ice.
Unfortunately,
the movie isn’t 40 minutes long. There
are another 75 minutes buffering it that range from insomnia-curing to nearly
offensive. Most of Sandler’s trademarks
are there: his annoying voice, this time for the entire movie; the deliberate
commercialism (count the Budweiser cans & signs); old ladies saying or
doing un-ladylike things; the sentimental story with a fake moral; and
cringeworthy moments waiting for a laugh.
Add in more cameos than usual plus making the plot a MacGuffin, That’s
My Boy is a slightly funnier version of every Sandler movie thus far.
** (out of 5 stars)
Rock of Ages
Set in
an alternative universe where most hair-bands don’t (technically) exist, an
aspiring young singer (Hough) meets and falls for and aspiring rocker (Boneta)
in 1987 L.A. They work at a bar run by best
friends (Brand & Baldwin).
Meanwhile, the wife of the mayor of L.A. (Zeta-Jones) leads a group of
concerned mothers looking to end the evils of rock ‘n roll. Finally, Arsenal, the biggest band in the
world, is playing their last gig at the club before Stacee Jaxx (Cruise) goes
solo.
Director
Adam Shankman, most famous for the surprising remake of Hairspray five summers
ago, tries with this material, adapted by Justin Theroux, who continues to show
me he isn’t funny, but fails miserably.
Shankman tries to go campy but isn’t talented enough on a technical
level to do so. The leads are totally uninteresting
and the story is a laboring mess.
The big
names, however, do their best to save this as much as they can. Balwin & Brand are solid with one
fantastic sequence to start the third act.
But the real star is Tom Cruise as the (undiagnosed) legally insane
rocker. There are times where you’d
swear Cruise was born to play Jaxx.
Cruise & Malin Akerman, who is wonderful in her small role as well, share
one of the most wonderful and steamy scenes you will see in this or any summer.
Regardless,
Rock of Ages is a disaster with the boring leads and messy musical numbers
despite the flashes of awesome. In the
end, to quote the closing number, “Oh the movie never ends/it goes on and on
and on and on.”
*1/2 (out of 5 stars)
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