Big Daddy Review
by John Sylva (dewyngale AT aol DOT com)July 2nd, 1999
BIG DADDY by DeWyNGaLe Rating: C+
In famed comedian Adam Sandler's latest film, he portrays Sonny Koufax, a thirty some year old law school graduate, unemployed, and care free man. Sonny lives with apartment roommate Kevin, (Jon Stewart) who is departing to China on a business trip, leaving Sonny by himself, but not for long. The day after Kevin's departure, a child is left at Sonny's doorstep, Julian. (Cole and Dylan Sprouse) Hoping to impress girlfriend Vanessa (Kristy Swanson), Sonny adopts Julian, only to find out his girlfriend has fallen for an elderly man. Along the hour and a half the movie takes place, Sonny teaches Julian to express himself in every way, and not worry what others think. This is usually a good moral, but when Sonny is teaching Julian how to spit and urinate on walls, the moral becomes not so positive. After meeting lawyer Layla, (Joey Lauren Adams) whose sister is Kevin's fiancee Corinne, (Leslie Mann) Julian has a ‘mother' figure, due to her often presence at Sonny's apartment. After an agency threatens to take possession of the five year old Julian, Sonny calls in Layla to help fight for the best interest of Julian in a court room scene, as the screenplay falls to a common, unrealistic trial in which the outcome is predictable.
The relationship between Corinne and Sonny works well, as Sonny continuously cracks on her about past jobs, and her life, while she riffs on him back about his unemployment and his life, which seems to be headed towards a black hole. Leslie Mann deserves more screen time, as her character's personality was humorous and her character delivers funny dialogue, but unfortunately Mann was only able to show off her acting abilities sporadically. Joey Lauren Adams' character was in drastic need of development, whose only past facts are that she is a lawyer and Corinne's sister. Joey Lauren Adams isn't to blame that the screenplay, written by first time writer Steve Franks, had her going around smiling rather than saying anything.
Big Daddy is an enjoyable movie, reaching beyond Adam Sandler's The Waterboy (1998), which was Sandler's career lowpoint, as the humorous scenes were shown in their entirety on trailers and advertisements for the film, and even those weren't anything special. Adam Sandler is at the height of his career with Big Daddy, winning various people's choice awards, releasing films every few months. After Big Daddy, I think America will move on from Sandler, and look back to Jim Carrey, who has ruled the comedy industry for almost the entire decade, as he is scheduled to appear in more than three movies in the next year or so.
Adam Sandler is likable in Big Daddy, but his dialogue is repetitive, becoming unfunny after about twenty minutes. I doubted that Sandler would be able to make any more successful movies after the low quality, The Waterboy, but Sandler pulls it off.
Big Daddy is powered by an all star soundtrack, featuring the talents of Sheryl Crow and Garbage. The use of the song "Sweet Child of Mine" by Sheryl Crow during Sonny's heartbreak when Julian may be taken from his possession was intelligent, as the scenes and the emotional song make for the film's best sequences.
Big Daddy tries to be funny, using comedy cliches, such as gay jokes, or hurting people, but these repetitive jokes aren't funny anymore. The frequent sequences in which Sandler and Julian are taking pleasure in that of collapsing roller blader's pain, laughs are forced, but die down as the pain of the roller blader's becomes stronger, and I begin to question if injuring people is humorous . With Big Daddy, Sandler travels back around four years ago to his Happy Gilmore days where he was an amateur comedian, fresh from Saturday Night Live, defining his own genre. Your own comedy genre should be something to applaud, but Adam Sandler hit the same chords in each of his films, trying to be funny by yelling and hurting people. In 1998's The Wedding Singer, Sandler got a boost from Drew Barrymore, mixing his trademark comedy with romantic comedy, creating a beyond satisfactory product. Sandler's previous films have been dawned with hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, being subject of many teenager's video collections, and have put Sandler in a position where he is one of today's most loved comedians. Sandler is very likable and funny, but his films need to cover a larger variety of genres, exploring other types of comedy, and possibly someday drama.
The Bottom Line- A feel good comedy, which couldn't come at a better time for Sandler, the busy box office season that is the summer, and the high point of his career. Unfortunately, Big Daddy falls to Sandler's other movie's cliches. Director Dennis Dugan (Happy Gilmore, Problem Child) and writer Steve Franks are to blame, not Sandler.
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