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16 April 2011

JUST GO WITH IT: stinks worse than a sack of angry, frightened, sweaty skunks

I never ever give up on a film. No matter how bad or boring I make it a rule to stick with it to the end. How else can I offer an honest assessment if I haven't seen it through to the bitter end?  If I switch off early I might miss the miraculous, cinematic equivalent of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.
I made an exception to this golden rule for JUST GO WITH IT.
I stoically bore the pain for 52 minutes before pulling the plug. To put it plainly Adam Sandler's latest romantic comedy is unwatchable crap.
In truth I knew this from 2 minutes in. Right from the opening shots it's clear there's not going to be the digital equivalent of a single frame of originality in the ensuing two hours. This cookie cutter rom-com is the cinematic equivalent of a paint by numbers picture of an empty cardboard box. Director Dennis Dugan and his screenwriters have packed the witless script with every tired convention and overused cliche of the genre, chucked in some blatant product placements (I spotted Pizza Hut, Pepsi, Hilton Honors and Barney's New York without even trying) and then wound up the clockwork key in the back of stars Sandler and Jennifer Aniston and pushed them in front of the camera to lifelessly regurgitate the witless dialogue.
I've never been a fan of Sandler's brand of manchild humour but even that would have been welcome in place of the characterless performance he offers here. Both he and Aniston go through the motions with an evident and understandable lack of enthusiasm for the material. Aniston's inability (or is it unwillingness?) to pick material that's something more than third rate is one of Hollywood's abiding mysteries, although some of the dross she's put her name to in the past looks like 'Citizen Kane' compared to JUST GO WITH IT.
This is not just rubbish, it's rubbish that insults our intelligence after picking our pocket, taking ticket money from us under the false pretense of offering entertainment in return. And now I've got that off my chest I will not waste any more of my time or energy on getting angry about it.This is already considerably more attention than it deserves.

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