Opening 28 Sep 2006
Directed by:
Frank Coraci
Writing credits:
Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe
Principal actors:
Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale, Christopher Walken, David Hasselhoff, Henry Winkler
Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) balances a demanding life between being an architect, toadying to his playboy boss (David Hasselhoff) listening to his wife (Kate Beckinsale) and taking the kids on vacation. His head is full; his nerves are raw. He wanders into the local Bed, Bath & Beyond to buy a remote for his TV, having accidentally almost poked out his eye via toy helicopter through using the wrong remote. In the “Beyond” department he meets Morty (Christopher Walken) who sells him a magic remote control. One click and he can turn off the sounds of his wife and dog, two clicks and he can fast forward from home to work without wasting time on shave, shower and traffic jams; three clicks and he can rewind to fill in the gaps from fast-forwarding. What begins as a relief and bit of fun becomes serious when he realizes that he has fast-forwarded and, therefore, missed his life. He is rich, successful, fat and old with no notion of how it happened. Sandler fans will not be disappointed; their man is in good form, flailing away as usual. I enjoyed the first 30 minutes but by the end, the jokes were repetitious (the dog and the toy duck), not funny (sleeping with multiple spouses’ brothers) and primitive (farting in the face of a comatose man). Also, it seems to have borrowed mightily from such films as Back to theFuture and Michael. The moral of the story, “to experience life consciously” is valid, but the film becomes slow and syrupy when trying to make this point in the end. (Becky Tan)
