That’s My Boy (2012)
Certified: 18
Duration: 114 minutes
Directed by: Sean Anders
Starring: Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Leighton Meester, Susan Sarandon, Eva Amurri Martino, Ciara, Milo Ventimiglia, Rex Ryan, Luenell Peggy Stewart, Tony Orlando, James Caan, Vanilla Ice
KRS release
Adam Sandler is really pushing hard to undermine his career.
After successful films such as Wedding Singer, Happy Gilmore, Punch Drunk Love and You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, the actor seems to be paving his way to oblivion.
Last year he won multiple Razzies for his silly double role in Jack and Jill. Now comes That’s My Boy, an endless tirade of tired-out gross-out moments and absurd jokes that seem to perennially fall flat on their behind.
Donny Burger (Adam Sandler) once had the world at his feet but has wasted it all.
Back in 1984, when still in high school, he had become romantically involved with his teacher, Ms McGarricle (Eva Amurri Martino – Susan Sarandon’s daughter).
The case had become a national controversy, especially because Ms McGarricle got pregnant and was sent to prison for statutory rape.
Donny thus became a rich celebrity but he also had to raise a son whom he named Han Solo (Andy Samberg).
At one point Han Solo had had enough of the way Donny treated him, left home, changed his name and started a life of his own.
Today Donny is waist-deep in debt and needs $43,000 within a week or else he will end up in prison. That is when he sees his son, now called Todd, on the cover of a social elite magazine.
The latter has become a high-flying financial adviser under the wings of financial wizard Steve Spirou and is about to get married to the beautiful but controlling Jamie (Leighton Meester).
Todd has always said his parents died in a car crash. Donny thus decides to reconcile with his son in front of the cameras which would earn him the sum needed to escape imprisonment.
He soon gatecrashes the party. Thrown in the mix are also Chad (Milo Ventimiglia), Jamie’s Marine brother; modern-day Ms McGarricle (Susan Sarandon); Vanilla Ice who is also a downfallen celebrity; and James Caan as a swinging and fist-punching minister.
One of the most annoying things about this picture is Sandler’s nasal tone of voice that is excruciating to hear. The film is juvenile and crude in its execution and director Sean Anders seems to have no real control over his actors.
Some of the jokes are dragged on for far too long, a case in point being the scene of Leighton Meester checking the stains on her wedding dress.
Samberg has some funny moments but the way he is made fun of because of his addiction to chicken nuggets is not that digestible.
Vanilla Ice as Uncle Vanny, a down-on-his-luck family friend, is a hoot and upstages Sandler through and through.
Meanwhile, Caan is lost in the proceedings while Sarandon and her daughter provide the movie with sexy charm that is way over and above the standards set in this picture.
Sleazy, at times bizarre and overblown, That’s My Boy seems to glorify itself in one sick joke after another and by the end of the film, all this extreme vulgar behaviour seems too calculated to be really funny.