Had to go into Manhattan early today, at the ungodly hour of 9:30, to be filmed for yet another Green Day documentary (who still watches these things anyway?) and was shocked to find the subway crammed with people headed in the same direction, also apparently with the intention of conducting some sort of business or work. Who knew? This sort of thing apparently goes on every morning, and I will have to remind myself of that next time I catch myself agonizing about not having a job like normal people. Apparently the world of the abnormal is not without its compensations.
Filming wrapped up by noon or so, and since I was in the area, I tried to track down the illustrious Chadd Derkins, who works nearby, to see if we could set up an inpromptu lunch appointment, but no luck. Tried another job-having crony on the West Side, with similar non-results. By this time it was getting toward 1:30 and I found myself in front of the Clearview cinema on W 23 St. Hmmm, I mused, wasn't I just complaining about not having seen a movie in ages? Did I have to be anywhere else for the next two hours? Yes and no, respectively, and I bought a ticket for Click, the new Adam Sandler film.
Now I don't know whether it's respectable to admit this, but I've always had a soft spot for Adam Sandler. True, much of his humor is obnoxious and infantile, but then so is much of mine. Even the fact that he makes millions of dollars from his and I mostly just annoy people with mine hasn't been enough to put me off, and I think that's because Sandler so clearly enjoys what he's doing, and I in turn enjoy seeing that. For all I know, he may be impossible to deal with in real life, but in his film persona, at least, he comes across like a man who's managed to blend many of the best qualities of childhood into his adult life.
All I was looking for this afternoon was a little laughter and escapism, but I got much more than I bargained for. The first half of the film was hilarious, often in the usual juvenile, slapstick way (Sandler tormenting the neighborhood brat was hilarious, and the row of kids behind me laughed just as loud as I did), but then it unexpectedly slipped into serious drama, and I don't mean that in a bad way at all. There were still lots of funny bits to keep it lively and flowing, but before you knew it, you'd been led into an examination of some of life's (and death's) Big Questions.
The premise of the film is that Sandler acquires a device enabling him to fast forward through life's difficult, boring or unpleasant bits; the fairly predictable catch is that without them, there's not much left to life. There's an angel involved, too, and if this is beginning to sound like It's A Wonderful Life, that's probably not coincidental. If, of course, you hated It's A Wonderful Life, you might as well stop reading now, but I loved that film, I loved this one, and Click, in my opinion, is a worthy successor. I laughed, I cried, I felt re-invigorated and uplifted, and in my book, that's my money's worth gotten, even at $10.50 (for an afternoon matinee, though?). And whether you want to believe it or not, that Adam Sandler can actually act. It's good to see my faith in the boy wasn't misplaced.
Filming wrapped up by noon or so, and since I was in the area, I tried to track down the illustrious Chadd Derkins, who works nearby, to see if we could set up an inpromptu lunch appointment, but no luck. Tried another job-having crony on the West Side, with similar non-results. By this time it was getting toward 1:30 and I found myself in front of the Clearview cinema on W 23 St. Hmmm, I mused, wasn't I just complaining about not having seen a movie in ages? Did I have to be anywhere else for the next two hours? Yes and no, respectively, and I bought a ticket for Click, the new Adam Sandler film.
Now I don't know whether it's respectable to admit this, but I've always had a soft spot for Adam Sandler. True, much of his humor is obnoxious and infantile, but then so is much of mine. Even the fact that he makes millions of dollars from his and I mostly just annoy people with mine hasn't been enough to put me off, and I think that's because Sandler so clearly enjoys what he's doing, and I in turn enjoy seeing that. For all I know, he may be impossible to deal with in real life, but in his film persona, at least, he comes across like a man who's managed to blend many of the best qualities of childhood into his adult life.
All I was looking for this afternoon was a little laughter and escapism, but I got much more than I bargained for. The first half of the film was hilarious, often in the usual juvenile, slapstick way (Sandler tormenting the neighborhood brat was hilarious, and the row of kids behind me laughed just as loud as I did), but then it unexpectedly slipped into serious drama, and I don't mean that in a bad way at all. There were still lots of funny bits to keep it lively and flowing, but before you knew it, you'd been led into an examination of some of life's (and death's) Big Questions.
The premise of the film is that Sandler acquires a device enabling him to fast forward through life's difficult, boring or unpleasant bits; the fairly predictable catch is that without them, there's not much left to life. There's an angel involved, too, and if this is beginning to sound like It's A Wonderful Life, that's probably not coincidental. If, of course, you hated It's A Wonderful Life, you might as well stop reading now, but I loved that film, I loved this one, and Click, in my opinion, is a worthy successor. I laughed, I cried, I felt re-invigorated and uplifted, and in my book, that's my money's worth gotten, even at $10.50 (for an afternoon matinee, though?). And whether you want to believe it or not, that Adam Sandler can actually act. It's good to see my faith in the boy wasn't misplaced.
1 comment:
God, was it one of those godawful Green Day DVD thing you were beng interviewed for, do you really need that money? Only Kidding. Love the blog. I wanna hear more stories of Lookout Past, i was reading one of your aboslutly zippo columns from a while back, the one about growing up in detroit, from like 1989. It really touched me, it was great, you know, in that way its not supposed to be great. Anyway, have fun.
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