Maybe Adam Sandler should work with Drew Barrymore all the time. No joke.
The generally lethargic Sandler appears to actually give a damn whenever he's working with Barrymore, with whom he paired up 16 years ago in The Wedding Singer and six years after that in 50 First Dates. He certainly keeps the half-assed bathroom humor, sycophantic supporting turns from old SNL buddies and other cronies, and general lack of effort he usually displays in his movies to a minimum.
The pair once again goes through the romance rigamarole in Blended, this time as polar-opposite single parents. The movie starts off with Sandler's widowed sporting-goods store manager and Barrymore's divorced closet organizer having a hellish blind date at a Hooters, with their snappy animosity continuing whenever they bump into each other. Coincidentally, his boss is dating her business partner (Wendi McLendon-Covey), who plans to steal away with him to an African resort until she gets cold feet about dealing with his kids. In typical convoluted movie-setup fashion, Sandler's character buys his boss's ticket while Barrymore's character buys her partner's ticket, neither aware that they'll soon be bunking together along with each other's kids.
I don't have to really tell you what happens next, do I? Eventually, the distaste this pair has for each other starts to die down once their broken families become one, as Sandler's well-meaning dad becomes a father figure to Barrymore's two bratty boys while she brings some femininity to the lives of his mannish trio of daughters.
As predictable and schmaltzy as this movie is — and lengthy (nearly two hours — seriously?) — Blended is the most enjoyable thing Sandler has done in years, after the hellish disasters that were Grown Ups 2 and That's My Boy and Jack and Jill and Just Go With It. Instead of getting go-to director Dennis Dugan to just hit record whenever he starts mugging, Sandler reunites with The Wedding Singer director Frank Coraci, perhaps the only director in the Happy Madison stable of shooters who actually tries to get some genuine pathos out of the man. (Remember the emotional roller coaster Sandler went on when Coraci directed him in Click?)
But Blended is still all about getting Sandler and Barrymore back together so they can get together. Even though they're now middle-aged and have kids of their own, their on-screen chemistry hasn't wavered. Not to mention that Barrymore is apparently the only co-star who can get Sandler to do his damn job and make a decent movie.
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