50 First Dates
Release Date: February 13, 2004
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for crude sexual humor and drug references
Directed by: Peter Segal
Starring: Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Rob Schneider, Dan Akroyd, Sean Astin, Blake Clark
Plot:
Henry Roth (Sandler), a veterinarian at an aquarium in Hawaii, falls in love with a girl, Lucy (Barrymore), with short-term memory loss, but he has to keep getting her to fall in love with him every time they meet in order for them to have a relationship, since she never remembers the last time she met him.
Review:
Not anyone on earth is perfect, that is practically not just my opinion, but a fact. In one way or another we have each experienced problems or have had some difficult burden to break through in our life. Just like Barrymore has short term memory loss in 50 First Dates, there is nothing she can do about that, but fight it. She fights it, by writing down what occurs in her everyday life and with the favor of Sandler, he records the important moments between them.
With that said, 50 First Dates made me realize many different things. When a man feels so strongly for woman and if it truly is love that he feels than he will never stop until that woman is his and his only. No matter what malfunction they have or whatever disability they have if it is true love, than by all means a true man won't give up. Adam Sandler demonstrates this to all of us.
Adam Sandler stars in this romantic comedy in the return with the same actress in The Wedding Singer, Drew Barrymore. Both deliver a good performance and the chemistry they have with one another is truly unbelievable. Nearly half of what works in this film is the fact that Barrymore and Sandler act so well when their together and they act is if they are a everyday normal guy and girl trying to get together.
I'm not one to usually compare, but while The Wedding Singer had more laughs than 50 First Dates, it never had the romance and strong characters that both actors played in 50 First Dates. I am not necessarily saying one movie is better than the other, but what I am saying is that the approach of playing a normal character for once, Adam Sandler does just fine. To add to that, Barrymore's character was very good and original in this film and its hard to picture someone else replacing her. It just fit her everyday personality as well.
Besides the two main actors, we have Sean Astin in this film and he provides us with a handful of laughs too. He stars as Doug Whitmore a young man who mostly works out a lot and helps his father out with Barrymore's problems. Astin's character has lisp and when he speaks, well it highers his tone of voice and its quite humorous. One of the things that 50 First Dates does do is give each character a chance. They really put time into developing how each person is and how they change throughout the film. If some get teary eyed after this film, that is very well respected. The Director did well enough that when it comes down to it, you feel strongly about Barrymore's and Sandler's character. That is also one of the things many romantic comedies lack, good character development.
As I mentioned earlier, the screenplay was extremely clever in this film and it was written by George Wing who has never written a screenplay. 50 First Dates is his very first screenplay and not a bad one to start with at all.
I cannot end this without mentioning Rob Schneider who in some way or another is in a film with Adam Sandler. He plays quite a slob character in this film, but it almost seems like they could have done better with him. Schneider was a bit unfunny at times and the word silly and pointless could be used to fit him. He did play an odd character, but it actually fitted him perfectly.
Either way, its refreshing to have a few laughs especially on Valentines Day. And if you don't have someone special to share Valentine's Day with, its even more of a reason to go watch 50 First Dates. 50 First Dates succeeded where Along Came Polly failed. This is the first entertaining romantic comedy of the year.
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