This Valentine's Day, all I wanted was a hot, somewhat-slutty girl who I could seduce with food and wine. Instead, I had to settle for watching "50 First Dates" with Chip Hughey, who's not exactly my type.
Luckily, Drew Barrymore's performance more than made up for the fact that I had to spend the holiday with this giant weirdo.
Barrymore and Adam Sandler star in the romantic comedy, which aims to catch the attention of couples too poor to do anything better on this special day. In the movie, Henry Roth (Sandler) falls head over heels for Lucy Whitmore (Barrymore) and tries to win her affection. The only catch is that Lucy suffers from a brain injury that erases her short-term memory each night. Henry must therefore make Lucy fall in love with him every single day. Think of this movie as "Memento" on crack.
Surprisingly, Barrymore offers a very heartfelt and funny performance. For the movie to even have a chance to connect with an audience, moviegoers must believe Lucy is worth winning over on a daily basis. The actress uses her charm, comedic timing and hot body to win the audience over.
Paired with Barrymore, even Adam Sandler isn't god-awful...this is meant as a compliment. Sure his lame, played-out routine sucks as much as ever, but he does do some things right. Toward the end of the film, Sandler builds a strong chemistry with Barrymore, revealing the sensitive side of his character. The audience actually starts to care about these two ending up together. These scenes echo his past work in "Punch-Drunk Love" and "The Wedding Singer," another successful collaboration with Barrymore.
As for the other actors, a couple strike comedic success. Blake Clarke, who played the muttering Farmer Fran in "The Waterboy," turns in a memorable performance as Lucy's dad. He delivers several funny one-liners, which usually make fun of his son, Doug (Sean Astin).
Sean Astin definitely steals the show. He plays Lucy's meathead brother, who wears spandex shorts and has perpetual 'roid rage. Imagine his "Rudy" character got kicked out of Notre Dame for testing positive for PCP and then moved to Hawaii. This gives you the basics of what's going on here. Astin's demented performance is a change of pace for the dramatic actor and is a real bright spot in the film.
All in all, "50 First Dates" was well... not that great. But let's look at it in comparison to the rest of my day. I woke up hung over at 3 p.m. and ate cold pizza for breakfast. Next, I went to Clemons and asked the librarian if she had any plans for the night, but she told me she had to wash her hair. Tramp! Finally, I went to dinner and a movie with a guy and not some bimbo like I had hoped. Therefore, relatively speaking, this movie was incredible!
Comments, criticism, or love letters should be directed to grumpy@cavalierdaily.com
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