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DOWN IN FRONT: Mr. Deeds
| DAN’S GRADE: C A: MUST SEE B: WORTH WATCHING C: RENT IT D: POOR F: WICKED BAD |
In “Mr. Deeds” Sandler plays small-town yokel Longfellow Deeds who inherits $40 billion worth of stock and control of a fortune 500 company that employs 50,000 people. He comes to New York City where he has access to every conceivable luxury but soon finds that his small town ways make him the target of ridicule and sarcasm from the media and a group of obnoxious rich guys. In the end, it is up to him to keep the company from being destroyed by greedy investors.
Winona Ryder plays a tabloid reporter who starts a relationship with him in order to get a story for her TV show. She is meant to play a hard-nosed cynic whose heart melts in the warmth projected by Sandler, but instead she seems as fragile and unstable as she did in “Girl Interrupted.”
There are a few laughs, but most of the movie is too predictable to be really funny. I found myself wishing Sandler would take a couple years off and generate a heap of good material instead of cranking out another movie every year with only one or two laughs.
I also wonder when he is going to pick up his guitar again and use his considerable musical ability as he did so effectively in “Wedding Singer.”
However, Sandler’s weaknesses may also be his strengths. On the one hand, his movies follow a predictable formula. On the other, he is consistent. He can be counted on to deliver exactly what his true fans want every time.
Sandler also provides a fairly clean show — a PG-13 you could actually take a 13 year old to. The jokes are a lot funnier at that age.