The Film:
Adam Sandler is one of those actors that you either love or you hate. Personally I can't stand the man, even though I have enjoyed several of his films. I love The Wedding Singer and Happy Gilmore also never fails to get a few laughs. However, two good films do not make a good actor and Big Daddy, Billy Madison, 50 First Dates and The Waterboy all fall straight into the very average formulaic film category. Then you have the stinkers like Little Nicky and Going Overboard which are both unbelievably bad. He seemed to make a small turn in his career though in 2002 when he played Barry Egan in Punch-Drunk Love, a film that was critically appraised and was a completely different change of pace for him. Personally though, when I finally got around to watch this film, I found it soaked in mediocrity and just didn't care for it as much as everyone else. Will Click be just another safe money maker? Read on...
Adam Sandler plays forty something architect Michael Newman who is working as hard as he can to climb up the corporate ladder and provide a better life for his wife Donna (Kate Beckinsdale), and their two kids Ben and Samantha. He gets more and more wound up by the fact his neighbours, the O'Doyle's (running joke from Billy Madison), seem to have everything and his boss, Mr. Ammer (The Hoff) seems to delay his promotion. He finally hits boiling point when he hears about the O'Doyle's universal remote control so he storms out the house and enters the only store that is open, goes through a door entitled The Beyond, and meets Morty (Christopher Walken). Morty gives Michael a remote control for free and it isn't long until Michael figures out that it controls time. When he presses mute, the sound around him goes off. When he presses fast forward, he skips time. Here is where the adventure lies.
After the first forty-five minutes, I was very surprised and found myself really enjoying this film, but then the last half, just sucked out all the fun by attempting to introduce 'morals' in one form or another chucking this film into the formulaic comedy that Sandler seems so comfortable making. The acting in the film is absolutely brilliant, especially by The Hoff and Walken, though Sandler just really irritates me and I can't pin my finger on why. The plot is reasonably good for the genre, but when they go the moral route, they also lose the funny moments. The make-up used in the film to make the cast members look older and fatter etc. are truly excellent and I really can't fault it, especially the scene where Sandler has excess fat. I guess this film will appeal to, and be enjoyed by, Sandler fans, otherwise it's probably only worth a rent.
The DVD:
Video:
Sony have given us an anamorphic transfer at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and it's exactly what you would expect for a big budget film from last year. Clarity is fine and colours distinguished and there are no scratches. However, I did notice some very minor edge enhancement aswell as some baely noticeable grain. Could be improved upon, and probably has been for the Blu-ray disc.
Audio:
Sony have given us several tracks for the film. We get an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track and a 2.0 Surround track in either Italian or Spanish. Also thrown in is an English audio decriptive track. For review purposes, I went for the obvious and listened to the English 5.1 track. As to be expected, the track is fine, with no noticeable damage and the surrounds and LFE were usedto good effect. A DTS track would've been a nice addition though. Subtitles are available in several languages including English.
Extras:
We start off the extras with an audio commentary with actor Adam Sandler, director Frank Coraci, executive producer Tim Herlihy and writer Steve Koren. They all seem to get on really well together and manage to produce a decent enough commentary with the right mix of technical information and stories from the set.
Next up are a selection of four deleted scenes:
- "Habeeboo Can Do It" (0:31)
- "Loser Guy Returns" (1:01)
- "Fatty Sandwich" (1:14)
- "Sp Sp Spit It Out" (0:45)
All four are instantly forgettable and are basically alternate and extended versions of scenes already in the film.
The next extra is a featurette called Make Me Old And Fat. This is a look at the different aspects of make-up and prosphetics used throughout the course of the film and runs for six minutes, 35 seconds.
Then we have the FX Of Click featurette which interviews several people about the various special effects used in the film. Interviewees include special effects supervisor John C. Hartigan and advisor Jim Rygiel. It runs for five minutes and ten seconds.
Next is another featurette entitled Design My Universe which takes a look at various sets for the future stages of Michaels life such as new technology that may be around. Running time is four minutes 47.
The Cars Of The Future featurette is next up and is pretty self explanatory. It looks at how they made cars for the scenes in the future and runs for a rather brief three minutes and ten seconds.
Then we have the most amusing extra which is a featurette called Humping Dogs in which we are informed about how they did the effects of the dogs humping the giant cuddly duck. It runs for a little over a minute.
Next featurette is entitled Director's Take which is basically various members of the cast and crew giving director Frank Coraci a good pat on the back and praise. It runs overlong by four minutes and 25 seconds.
The final featurette is called Fine Cookin' and I thought it was going to be about the food on set. Instead it is just Sandler messing around and being an unlikeable idiot.
We end the extras with a bunch of bonus trailers:
- "Facing The Giants" (2:07)
- "Marie Antoinette" (1:47)
- "Pursuit Of Happyness" (1:00)
- "Running With Scissors" (2:04)
- "Stranger Than Fiction" (2:28)
- "Talladega Nights" (2:01)
