Today’s quick review: Grown Ups. Thirty years after they played middle school basketball together, Lenny (Adam Sandler), Eric (Kevin James), Kurt (Chris Rock), Marcus (David Spade), and Rob (Rob Schneider) get together at a lake house with their families. Over the course of the weekend, the five friends catch up with each other and rekindle their relationships with their wives (Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph, and Joyce Van Patten).
Grown Ups is a comedy starring an ensemble cast of comedians. The movie riffs on friendship, family, and middle age as five close friends spend the weekend relaxing with their families. Grown Ups takes a more laid-back approach than other comedies. There is almost nothing in the way of plot or conflict. Instead, the movie takes a step back and lets its cast take center stage, focusing on their friendship and their banter.
The upshot of this is that Grown Ups is a very comfortable movie. The cast is clearly at ease and having fun, and having five families full of quirky character gives them plenty of material to work with. The humor is a mixture of family jokes, the friends ribbing on each other, and slapstick. The jokes walk the line of mean-spirited in a few places, but the characters’ high tolerance for each other keeps the tone light and friendly.
The downside is an almost total lack of story. Grown Ups has a handful of subplots related to the friends and their families, but none of them act as the backbone of the movie. Instead, Grown Ups is made up of a series of incidents that are only loosely tied together. What progression there is comes from getting to know the characters and seeing them work through a few minor, individual problems, not from an overarching plot.
How much you get out of Grown Ups will vary wildly. Fans of the cast will enjoy the movie for what it is: a light comedy that gives its stars free reign. But the lack of plot makes the movie one-dimensional, and anyone who dislikes Sandler and his co-stars will have a rough time. Still, for the right viewer, Grown Ups is a feel-good movie that captures the joys of friendship and the freedom of summer.
For a classic ensemble comedy that also lets its stars shine, albeit in the context of a more elaborate plot, try It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. For a more modern ensemble comedy, try Rat Race. For an Adam Sandler movie with similar chemistry, try Just Go With It.
[6.0 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375670/). I give it a 6.5 to 7.0 for easygoing but hit-or-miss comedy with minimal story backing it.