Adam Sandler has not made a good movie in many years and it’s sad to say The Do-Over propagates this trend.
Directed by Steven Brill, and starring Adam Sandler and David Spade in the titular roles, The Do-Over is an action and arguably comedy film that follows the adventures of pretend FBI agent Max Kessler (Sandler) and disgruntled bank manager Charlie McMillan (Spade). When Kessler fakes their deaths by blowing up his yacht, the men rejoice at the perks of their new life but soon find themselves facing death for real.
To be frank, the film does not have a lot going for it. The story in particular is full of elements that are simply not believable. Despite having not seen one another for twenty five years McMillan and Kessler are all ‘buddy buddy’ with one another as if they had never been apart. A few scenes later they’re faking their deaths and starting brand new lives together in Puerto Rico. From there things get only stranger as they are attacked by assassins led by a giant German gymnast who literally backflips to avoid bullets. Although by this point it seems that the film is really stretching for laughs.
Most of the main characters have no redeeming qualities while the rest are simply not likeable. McMillan’s wife Nikki (Natasha Leggero), the former school prom queen, treats him like dirt and shows no sympathy at his ‘funeral’. Then there is McMillan himself. While he is not a thoroughly nasty character like his wife, I found him bland and uninteresting. This was surprising considering Spade’s iconic comedy style of sarcasm and self-deprecation. I don’t know if there were many sarcastic comments from him, if any. It was certainly interesting to see him taking on a completely new kind of role, but in comparing him with Kessler who is all cool and confident I question how two such dynamically different people could ever have become friends in the first place.
Despite being a comedy, I did not do a lot of laughing which is as big an indictment as you need. Oh there were a few clever quips here and there but for the most part the jokes were obvious, boring and overused. There are so many gay jokes it seems to be a motif, of course the writers clearly and obviously choose to emphasize that there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Then there is the shameless Budweiser plug, it was so obvious that it was amusing. Definitely the best joke of the film in my opinion, still… I’ve seen funnier.
Still though, the Do-Over is leaps and bounds better than Sandler’s more recent films, The Ridiculous 6 or Pixels in particular, but I somehow doubt it will be winning any awards. Still if anything it is a sign that Sandler is stepping in the right direction…sort of.
