Click

Click
Directed by Frank Coraci
Written by Steve Koren and Mark O'Keefe
Sony

As Sandler has aged, so has his comedies. The goofy fun of Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison, critical a-bombs, are now just trace elements in the Sandler of now--The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates, Longest Yard, Anger Management Sandler is toned down, no longer doing as much of the schtick that Jimmy Fallon always made fun of on "SNL." The question is, does a little more emotional range make his comedies better, or does it make us long for the days when we could hope to see him get in a big fight with Bob Barker?

Really, though, if you look back on those earlier comedies, the laugh count is probably about the same--they're just more memorable for how completely insane they could be. And now, as Sandler approaches 40, we're seeing him be a dad and having responsibilities, he had to grow up--we probably wouldn't buy the old antics anymore, he'd have probably gone the way of Pauly Shore or some other one-note comedian.

So now, here comes Click, which continues Sandler's current track for attempting to balance the insane with sensitivity. Written by the Bruce Almighty team, Sandler plays Michael Newman, an architect with gorgeous wife Donna (Kate Beckinsale) and two kids (Joseph Castanon and Tatum McCann), trying to make partner in his firm run by Ammer (David Haselhoff). His work and family conflict, and he always feels inferior to others, and one late night he goes out to look for a remote control for his TV. That's all he wants in life, is to be able to turn on his TV. The only store open is a Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and beyond lies Morty (Christopher Walken) who gives him a remote that can actually control things in his life. Want the dog to stop barking? Press the volume down. Want to skip the argument with the wife? Fast forward.

It's much like A Christmas Carol meets Bruce Almighty. Michael gets to see his life from a Criterion Collection point-of-view, skipping the parts he doesn't want to see in favor of getting to the good stuff, but with major consequences, of course. The movie is mostly high concept, full of ideas that just about anyone with the premise thrust upon them would come up with, with an occasionally inspired gag here and there, usually tapping back into that insane Sandler of old. But truly insane is Walken, who continues to find a hundred different ways to say...anything. Walken is a true high point, even though many times in these kinds of movies he misses in his kooky experiments.

Lots of drama in this, too. You know, the comedy kind of drama--it's not too heavy but it tries to lightly sock you in the gut. It might be one of the better filmed comedies of Sandler's career, but it's not a complete success of comedic gold. It's above-average.