In the 1990s, Adam Sandler starred in three of the funniest, most juvenile comedies of all time: Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, and Big Daddy. Despite being destroyed by critics, all three of these movies went on to gain big cult followings and, in my opinion, hold up extremely well today. In the decade that followed, Sandler went on to produce films through Happy Madison Productions at a rapid rate, generally one or more a year. The quality of these varied, but the worst ones were those that simply tried to replicate either story beats or gags from his hits from the 90s. With this year's That's My Boy, Sandler went in a direction none of his previous Happy Madison Productions had gone before: a definitely not-for-the-kids, hard R-rated comedy. Even if this may have contributed to the poor box office performance of That's My Boy, it also made it the funniest movie of the year and Sandler's best work in over ten years. That's My Boy isn't rated R simply for a few F-bombs or a few crude comments, it's rated R for pretty much everything (except violence). This is an audaciously dirty flick, one that opens by pushing the envelope and never lets up. In the first ten minutes alone, the filmmakers basically declare war on good taste and do their best to go for the filthy at almost every opportunity from that point on. It's almost as if Sandler and friends kept a huge notebook of gags they knew were too out there for their previous PG-13 efforts and decided to put every single one of them into this. Had these jokes not been funny, this could have been terrible to sit through and indeed some people may not enjoy it at all, but I personally found most of it hilarious. While some may argue that this is more of a gross-out exercise than a legitimate piece of cinema, director Sean Anders at least tries to make the audience have a mild emotional connection to the main characters and, to me, is rather successful. These aren't complex characters, but they are fun and interesting even if they aren't 100% likable all the time. Sandler has never been funnier and despite talking in a typical goofy Sandler voice, makes Donny his most memorable character in quite some time (I love the open beer in almost every scene). What makes Sandler's performance really work is that no matter how absurd or mean the character may be at times, his love for his son is still believable within the context of the film and not something that is shoe-horned into the story to give it some heart. As his son, Andy Samberg is able to hold his own and gives his best comedic performance to date. The two have a really entertaining chemistry as father and son even though their age difference isn't that huge (it's explained). The inspired pairing of Sandler and Samberg, along with the excellent fast-paced direction from Anders, make this the funniest movie I've seen in years. The story can be picked apart if analyzed deep enough and everyone can attack it on the grounds that it is stupid, but I had a great time with it. There are few things better than being provided with solid laughs for a little bit and with that mindset, That's My Boy delivered for me. 9/10
Review of That's My Boy
