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Review: Blended

By Christine Petralia

Image courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures

May 26, 2014

 

Some may call them the Megan Ryan and Tom Hanks of this generation. Others may say Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler just keep making cheesy, family films to pay the bills. Either way, Blended could have been a bit more funny and a little less cheesy. But, it’s not horrible to bring the kids to.

 

The film starts off on a blind date between Lauren (Barrymore) and Jim (Sandler). He takes her to Hooters, and it doesn’t really end well for either of them. Lauren is just getting back into the dating world after a divorce, while Jim is starting to date again after his wife passed of cancer. He has three daughters, who he is basically raising as boys because he doesn’t know any better. She has three boys and her ex isn’t really the ideal father, always skipping Little League games.

 

Lauren’s friend happens to be dating Jim’s boss, who also has kids. When she finds this out, she breaks up with him, but that leaves a trip to South Africa paid for with no one to take it. Bring in Lauren and Jim, both somehow finagling their way onto the trip. How convenient that her friend’s ex had five kids….just the right amount of Lauren and Jim combined. Little do they know but it was a romantic trip for blended families to bond and learn to love each other. With Lauren starting to bond with Jim’s daughters, because she has all boys and vice versa, the two start to fall for each other in typical romantic comedy fashion. And even after a blip in the blooming relationship with Lauren’s ex gets jealous, they still manage to end up together.

 

Some of my favorite scenes included the dinner scenes at the resort, the transformation of Lauren and Jim’s daughter Hillary and the last Little League game. I was a bit confused by Terry Crews’ character, who sang random songs throughout the film with his group at the resort. While it was funny at first, it got to be irritating. I also found Barrymore’s acting to be a little off, almost forced. And since I love Sandler, he was charming throughout.

 

This was definitely not their best film together, but they still have chemistry, which is good. For a movie season that lacks comedies, it isn’t horrible. But you may want to wait until it hits cable of Netflix.

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