Just Go With It Review

Just Go With It is the latest film from Adam Sandler. While I do think that Sandler is genuinely funny, he’s past his hayday. Aside from Funny People, he hasn’t made a good movie in a long time. All his films have those few scenes that are laugh out loud funny but overall, films like Grown Ups, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, Bedtime Stories etc, these are bad movies. There’s really no other way to put it.

Surprisingly, Sandler’s latest film Just Go With It, falls somewhere in between. It’s not exactly a stinker, but it’s not a great film either. The easiest way to put it is that it’s watchable. There’s an abundance of cliches and the film reeks of predictability, but at the end of the day, it’s a somewhat enjoyable film and easy enough to sit through. Put it this way, it’s innocent enough to make it worth a one time watch.

Just Go With It follows Adam Sandler‘s Danny, a plastic surgeon who falls in love with a girl named Palmer (Brooklyn Decker). All goes well at first until he lies to her about having a wife and kids. He tells her that he used to be married but is currently getting a divorce. To help keep the charade up, he enlists the help of his assistant Katherine (Jennifer Aniston). Eventually he also drags her kids into the lie and to keep the gig up, they all travel to Hawaii, Palmer included. While in Hawaii, Danny realizes that he may be chasing the wrong woman, but is it too late? Has he made a terrible mistake?

So as you can probably tell, it’s one of those films. Predictable and pretty paint by the numbers, not much in the way of new here. Really, the apt title is all you need to know before walking in, it says it all. Just go with it and you’ll be somewhat pleased. Director Dennis Dugan returns for yet another outing with Sandler and if you’ve seen any of their previous films you should know exactly what this is all about. Think Grown Ups, a crummy film that still manages to be kind of funny. This is a Dugan/Sandler affair the whole way through.

Holding the film together are the strong performances. While the highlight does go to Aniston’s kids (Bailee Madison and Griffin Gluck), the rest of the cast fares pretty well. Adam Sandler does his usual shtick, giving the same performance we’ve come to expect from him, reliable and entertaining. Admittedly, he does seem to be coasting at times but like I said, I enjoy Sandler’s performances and despite making some awful movies, I think he’s always pretty entertaining. Just Go With It is no different. He carries the film adequately and brings to it both heart and humor.

Jennifer Aniston is also fairly good. She seems natural as ever, flaunting her beauty and coming off as energetic and somewhat happy to be there. She also has some strong chemistry with Sandler which makes their scenes pretty enjoyable to watch.

The other female lead, Brooklyn Decker, isn’t much more than eye candy but is that such a bad thing? Granted, her role is quite underwritten and this is her first part in a feature film. But still, she really doesn’t bring a whole lot to the film, aside from her body. But then again, is that such a bad thing?

Just Go With It plays it safe and stays familiar. With enough lowbrow jokes that hit, it makes for a fine watch. The silly story and crummy writing leave the film feeling a bit unfinished and never quite hitting the right level, like a haphazard hodgepodge of poor ideas. That being said, it’s not a terrible film and if you just go with it, you may enjoy what you see. It gets a bit dull at times but there are enough gags that hit the mark to make it somewhat enjoyable. Still, Adam Sandler has certainly done better and this is far from his finest outing. Then again, it’s not his worst and that’s got to count for something, right?