MOVIE REVIEW: Men, Women & Children - 'What is RL?'

Director: Jason Reitman
Starring: Ansel Elgort, Adam Sandler, Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer
Release Date: October 1, 2014

If you've been living in a cave for the past decade or so, let me tell you about the biggest thing in the world - the internet. The original purpose for the internet was for researchers to exchange data between one another without needing to be physically next to each other. Today, exchanging data is only one of the thousands of things that can be done on the World Wide Web. The internet has revolutionized communication to the point where it would be almost alien to meet someone who hasn't used the internet, let alone on a daily basis, since it is accessible on your smart phone. The internet has millions of benefits for civilization but its greatest harm is what Jason Reitman's addresses in his film Men, Women & Children. This message alone makes Men, Women & Children a must watch for future parents, aging adolescents and anybody who uses the internet on a daily basis.

Jason Reitman's ensemble comedy-drama Men, Women & Children details the various ways social media and the internet has affected the relationships of a number of characters. Based on the novel of the same name by Chad Kultgen, the movie features Adam Sandler and Rosemarie DeWitt as a married couple who each use the internet to find lovers, Judy Greer as a failed actress who spends much of her time pushing her daughter's career through a website, and Jennifer Garner as a mother who takes every precaution to make sure she knows what her daughter does online.

"That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives." Men, Women & Children is framed around the concept from Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" and begins with our narrator (Emma Thompson) informing the viewers about Carl Sagan's Voyager 1 project which launched in 1977. The film starts off in space but is very grounded with the characters here on Earth.

Don (Adam Sandler) and Helen Truby (Rosemarie DeWitt) lay by each other in bed while playing a game on their own individual tablet, they have forgotten what it felt to be desired, and how intimacy feels between one another. This little night game on their tablet is the most intimate moment they cherish now. As a result of Tim Mooney's (Ansel Elgort) mother walking out of his and his father's life, he dropped out of football despite being the star of his high school team. He then finds comfort in living in a virtual world in which all his current friends, that he has never met, live in as well. Allison Doss (Elena Kampouris) is struggling with her inner-beauty and believes that not eating to lose weight is the best way to go, and users on a website entitled 'prettybitchesdonteat.com' help her along the way. Joan Clint, who failed in becoming an actress, now lives through her daughter, Hannah Clint (Olivia Crocicchia), and publishes inappropriate pictures of her daughter on the internet for middle-aged men to buy in hopes that her daughter may become a successful actress one day. Lastly, Patricia Beltmeyer (Jennifer Garner) is making sure to the best of her ability that her daughter avoids exposure to the situations listed above.

As I stated earlier, the internet was meant to help make communication easier among people but ironically all the internet has done is harm communication. Reitman beautifully displays how communication happens via the internet in 2014. Communication in the film is via text message between individuals who are walking distance from each other, internet chat groups among strangers, or characters typing a paragraph filled with feelings and thoughts but is deleted as they send a mere emotionless sentence instead. It is a scary but perfect representation of the barrier that the internet has created for communication. 

The film lacks a traditional narrative and Reitman uses each character to bounce off each other and curtains the viewers to their lives. Something Reitman never does, which I praise him for, is shed judgment on his characters as he tackles all these very sensitive topics with such grace and elegance. If done wrong, viewers could have easily been upset with the end result of each character. Each character does their best to justify their actions, not to the viewers, not to other characters but to themselves and every action Reitman shows his characters make is important and plays as an important tool to the character's development even when we disagree with them.

This isn't a happy go lucky film, it actually can be quite depressing, especially when you begin to hear sniffling throughout the theater. But this film is very important to this generation and generations to come as long as the internet plays this huge role in everybody's day-to-day lives. It is a film I will for sure show my future children as I introduce them to technology and I will re-watch as I enter parenthood to remind me of the dangers that the internet plays on adolescents. Men, Women & Children does not give the viewers much closure and neither does most of the characters at the film's end but maybe that's exactly what Reitman's message was: life goes on. We do not know if the characters have fully learned their lesson or how their lives will play out but it wasn't necessarily needed to get the message across.

When bringing it back to the concept of "Pale Blue Dot", it isn't only the characters who need to realize that almost everything that happens, all the fighting, all the desires, all the love, is very very trivial when compared to the vastness of space but the viewers as well. We all need to think on a grander scale and remember these computers and smart phones are just as trivial. 

MOVIE REVIEW: Blended - 'Welcome to Africa'

Director: Frank Coraci
Starring: Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Wendi McLendon-Covey
Release Date: May 23, 2014

Grown Ups 2, Adam Sandler's last film, was a huge bust despite raking in over $130 million in the box office, receiving a disgusting 7% on the Tomatometer from Rotten Tomatoes. You actually have to go back all the way to 2009 for a live action film of Sandler's that got over 20% which was Funny People that got a score of 68%. In Blended, Adam Sandler puts aside his "Grown Up" pals and teams up with Drew Barrymore again. This duo has brought us some of my favorite Sandler films such as The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates, but can they give us another hit or will Sandler deliver another bust?

Lauren (Drew Barrymore) and Jim (Adam Sandler) are two single parents looking to rekindle their love life after 20 years of marriage. Lauren and Jim end up going on a blind date with each other at Hooters and things couldn't go any worse, leaving them both to believe that they are just better off single. The two never want to see each other again but unfortunately for them, that is not how fate works out. Turns out, both families end up going on the same African safari resort for spring break. Will their African journey make the two families kill each other or will it unite them?

Blended is a romantic comedy in which Adam Sandler hopes he can take a step in the right direction when it comes to making hits again. Two single parents with a combined five children makes it seem a little Brady Bunch-esque, but unlike Mike and Carol Brady these parents are dysfunctional and not the best at parenting in general. Adam Sandler has proven himself to be a successful romantic comedy lead but has also shown us he can be that shouting, immature man-child. Which happens to be the films biggest problem; it doesn't know which Sandler they want to give us. Despite giving us two different Sandlers at times, we see the chemistry we love in his past films with Drew Barrymore. There's just something about Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler on the big screen together that just creates magic. In the middle of the film, the two actors meet up accidentally for a morning cup of coffee. Not much is said besides them talking about their respective children and gazing at the scenery. Words are at a minimum but the chemistry is at a high. Really makes you wonder, why it has been ten years since the duo has teamed up to make another film? The scene ends with two rhinos having intercourse - que in the second Sandler.


Usually the cameos in Adam Sandler's films are highlights but this time around most of them are just duds. Joel McHale, Kevin Nealon, Shaquille O’Neal and Terry Crews all make cameos but the only one worth talking about is Crews. But then after his fifth musical number it gets tiring. Sandler does pay homage to his past films with Barrymore by throwing in two character cameos from their past films. Shockingly, even with all the negatives that Blended consists of, the film isn't all that bad. Yes, the acting from the children was not the best, Sandler's goof ball comedy ruins scenes at times and some moments that happen to be too silly, but there are jokes, believe it or not, that are actually laugh out loud funny. Try your hardest to hold it in, but you will laugh. Perhaps if Sandler just stayed with the successful romantic comedy lead side instead of his comedian side, the film could have been better, but the end result is quite charming. I wouldn't recommend going to theaters to see this film, it's best that you wait until the film hits Netflix or On Demand to have a family movie night just to see this one. Be cautious when you do decide to see this film with your young ones as there is an overload of masturbation and sex jokes.