Adam Sandler brings a heartwarming family comedy to theaters with his new feature film Jack and Jill, released Nov. 11. In true Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy style, Sandler plays both leading roles – the successful and sarcastic Jack Sadelstein and his “homely” identical twin sister, Jill.
Keeping in time with the holiday season, the insecure, shamelessly awkward Jill arrives in Los Angeles to spend Hanukkah with her twin brother, Jack, much to his chagrin. Jill’s gracelessness and ridiculous antics annoy Jack to no end as Jill finagles Jack into allowing her to stay longer. The movie handles family values, friendship and ironic romance all with that Sandler hokeyness that has withstood the test of time. Aside from that, there’s not much else to it.
Jack and Jill is exactly what you would expect – nothing less, nothing more. The film is a story of adult twins who learn to reconcile their differences and to understand the importance of family. Even though the movie leans entirely on that idea of “family,” it fails to evoke anything close to the enduring sentimentality of some of Sandler’s other films.
If only for the fact that Adam Sandler is attached, Jack and Jill will do well this holiday season. After the holiday stretch though, Jack and Jill will probably go unremembered.
I’d like to say though before delving into particulars that Jack and Jill is actually an okay film. Sandler is funny, even funny in a dress and wig, and even though any Sandler movie is worth some of your time, you won’t remember much about this one.
You will, however, remember Al Pacino. Al Pacino’s over-the-top performance as himself complements Adam Sandler’s reimagined female self in a wig. Personally, just Pacino’s presence on the cast list alongside Sandler was reason enough for me to give this movie a try. I wasn’t disappointed either because Pacino added to the bizarre situational comedy on which Sandler makes nickels and dimes. Pacino delivers the goods with classic “Godfather” impressions coupled with the inherent derangement from Scarface. What more could you ask of Al Pacino in a family comedy?
The movie is not good. It’s okay, or maybe even all right. The biggest flaw that I find with the movie is that there’s the corny family resolution in the end and – that the plotline was so flat that I saw the end coming from the five-minute mark. I wish Sandler would’ve pulled through to make this funnier so that when an adopted Indian child punches a cross-dressed Adam Sandler, it wouldn’t be the best laugh of the movie. I like my Sandler witty, with a side of sardonic vinegar. What can I say?
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