That’s My Boy

A typically terrible Adam Sandler comedy, That’s My Boy opens with a long, tedious prologue revolving around a teenager’s (Justin Weaver’s Donny) illicit affair with his fetching teacher (Eva Amurri’s Mary) – with the union ultimately sending Mary to prison and leaving Donny forced to raise the resulting baby. Decades later, Donny (Sandler) attempts to raise some quick cash by agreeing to participate in a televised reunion with Mary and his now adult son (Andy Samberg’s Todd) – although, as becomes clear, Todd wants absolutely nothing to do with his irresponsible father. Right from the get-go, with its statutory-rape opening, That’s My Boy establishes itself as a misguided and aggressively unfunny endeavor that boasts few attributes designed to capture and sustain the viewer’s interest – with Sandler’s grating performance (ie what’s the deal with that voice?) merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of the movie’s deficiencies. Far more problematic is the film’s almost total lack of laughs, as director Sean Anders, working from David Caspe’s screenplay, places a consistent emphasis on jokes and gags of a misguided, hopelessly unfunny nature. (It is, for example, impossible not to wonder just what’s supposed to be hilarious about Todd’s boss’ casual racism towards his Asian employees.) Even if one were willing to overlook That’s My Boy‘s atmosphere of grim humorlessness, the viewer would still be forced to contend with the decidedly lifeless pace and padded-out running time (eg there’s a bachelor-party sequence that just feels endless). By the time the eye-rollingly melodramatic and predictable final stretch rolls around, That’s My Boy has established itself as just another disastrous example of Sandler’s now total irrelevance – with, admittedly, the inclusion of a few chuckle-worthy Vanilla Ice references (eg the 5.0 from the “Ice Ice Baby” video makes an amusing appearance) preventing the movie from reaching Jack and Jill levels of incompetence.

*1/2 out of ****