Click

Directed by Frank Coraci, Click follows a stressed-out architect (Adam Sandler’s Michael Newman) as he’s gifted a magical remote that allows him to fast-forward through unpleasant occurrences within his life. It’s an appealing high-concept premise that’s employed to predominantly underwhelming and tedious effect by Coraci, as the filmmaker, armed with Steve Koren and Mark O’Keefe’s screenplay, delivers a sluggish comedy that’s been suffused with a whole host of misguided, unfunny elements – with the ongoing emphasis on eye-rollingly puerile jokes and gags certainly perpetuating the movie’s far-from-enthralling atmosphere. (This is, after all, a film that casts Rob Schneider as a wildly over-the-top and almost impressively offensive Middle Eastern businessman.) There’s little doubt, as well, that Click‘s arms-length vibe is exacerbated by Sandler’s ineffective, oddly grating performance and a second half rife with unearned bits of extreme sentimentality, and it’s clear, ultimately, that the picture’s palpable failure is especially disappointing given the obvious potential inherent in the thoroughly promising setup (ie it’s not difficult to envision the conclusion packing an emotional punch had everything preceding it worked in the slightest) – which does, in the final analysis, cement the movie’s place as a distressingly half-baked endeavor that could (and should) have been so much better.

*1/2 out of ****