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By
WAYNE KLEIN
One night stands with
tourists are as close as commitment phobic Henry
Roth (Adam Sandler). The morning after consists of
lies about being a secret agent or gay. Roth's a
vet that works at Sea Life Park in Hawaii. He
meets the woman of his dreams in a breakfast joint
building a castle out her waffles. Ironically,
while all he wants is to remember his one night
stands, Lucy (Drew Barrymore) can't remember any
of her dates—she's had a head injury that has
damaged her short term memory. While this could be
a recipe for disaster, Henry takes it as a
challenge. He wants her to remember him. It must
be love.
While the plot sounds like a recipe for disaster
(making fun of those with head injuries and a
vomiting sea mammals), Sandler and Barrymore make
this funny, gross and sweet comedy fly. "50 First
Dates" comes across as a crossbreed of "The
Wedding Singer" and more typical Sandler fare.
Surprisingly, this mix of traditional Sandler
quirks and a touching romantic comedy works. The
outstanding supporting cast including Rob
Schneider, Sean Astin and Dan Aykroyd help keep
the proceedings on track.
Hawaii never looked more beautifully in this
nicely detailed and sharp presentation of the
film. The rich, colorful vistas of Hawaii are
reproduced with great image quality on this DVD.
The soundtrack has a busy mix of classic rock
songs (Paul McCartney's "Another Day") and more
recent artists covering older material (The
Thompson Twins' "Hold Me Now" covered by Wayne
Wonder and a remake of The Cure's "Love Song" by
311 among others) and they sound very good
throughout the movie courtesy of a very clear 5.1
transfer.
The Waterboy himself made sure that the film had
quite a few extras for his fans. The film features
a "Making of" featurette as well as one that
focuses on Hawaiian slang. The latter is
particularly funny. We also get a blooper reel.
It's always nice to see high paid actors screwing
up just like you and I. There's also a number of
very funny deleted scenes that got cut for time
considerable or pacing. Featuring a running
commentary from director Peter Segal we get a
pretty good understanding as to why some scenes
make it into movies vs. others. We get a peak into
the mechanics and compromises that film directors
must make to bring a movie in on time and on
budget.
Director Peter Segal and Drew Barrymore make the
commentary track both charming and informative.
There's also quite a bit of banter back and forth
between the two of them. It's nice to have one of
the stars of the film giving their perspective
about the making of the movie. Segal and Barrymore
have quite a bit of fun during the commentary
track. We get a peak also into the writing process
on a comedy. Sandler and his writing partner
(along with director Segal) add material
throughout the shoot to try different material and
try to improve the comedy elements of the film.
Evidently the original script by writer George
Wing was more dramatic in tone than the finished
film allowing for the film director and Sandler to
make the film much more of a Sandler vehicle.
A funny mix of the cruder elements of Sandler's
other films with the charming chemistry that made
"The Wedding Singer" work so well, "50 First
Dates" also manages to be surprisingly touching.
It's unusual for a Sandler comedy to delve below
the gags and actually create characters of
substance and a film that actually reach an
audience beyond the typical Sandler comedy
material. |
