50 First Dates Review
by John Ulmer (johnulmer2003 AT msn DOT com)June 30th, 2004
50 FIRST DATES (2004)
Rating: 2.5/5
REVIEW BY JOHN ULMER (Copyright, 2004)
"50 First Dates" is an OK movie that has some funny parts, but as a whole fails to leave any sort of impact. Theday after I saw the film I didn't particularly remember anything noteworthy and found that it's the sort of comedy -- unlike "Groundhog Day" (which basically uses a similar premise) -- I wouldn't want to watch more than once, or perhaps every few years.
Lucy (Drew Barrymore) lives in Hawaii with her father and brother. Roughly a year ago she was involved in a near-fatal car crash that damaged her "temporal lobe," meaning that her short-term memory process is disabled, i.e. every day she wakes up thinking it's the day of her car crash.
Henry Roth (Adam Sandler) is a "fish person" (marine biologist I suppose, although he never really specifies) who works at a zoo with a walrus and a penguin. He is a playboy, enticing woman who visit the island of Hawaii to have one-night stands. He then leaves them the next day and escapes. He is afraid of commitment, but when he sees Lucy eating breakfast at a local restaurant, he is unable to resist her charm. Of course, the comedy of it all is that the next day -- when he meets her for waffles a second time -- she doesn't remember him at all. "I've never even met you" are the words she yells at him -- and he doesn't understand what's going on.
Soon he finds out, and decides to help Lucy against the wishes of her family. Her brother, a fitness freak played by Sean Astin, is all-too-eager to beat up Henry (and he fails repeatedly). Meanwhile, Henry's best friend (Rob Schneider in another Sandler-comedy supporting role) helps his pal out in a number of ways.
Sean Astin's scenes were all quite good (and unexpected -- from Hobbit to steroid-taking, swearing, lisp-talking loser) -- but Sandler just muttered through his lines again and Barrymore is doing her usual sweet girl routine.
Overall this is fairly enjoyable but I think I agree with the majority of bad reviews it received upon release -- I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. It's just not anything special.
However Dan Aykroyd's (surprisingly credited) cameo as the doctor was funny. "Was your head always shaped like an egg?"
Sandler and Barrymore fans will find enough to like here but as a comedy it's only sporadically funny. A good film for Valentine's Day but not something I'd want to own or watch very often.
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