thehumanduvet

Having vowed never to see another Sandler film after the scarring experience of the execrable Billy Madison, I watched this with some trepidation. I was however more than a little surprised to find this one not nearly as objectionable, and even on occasion amusing.

Ben Stiller carries on the loser shtick, this time coming off slightly below his Flirting with Disaster high point but perhaps a nudge better than the more recent Meet the Parents. In this one he's got less of a leading man type role, letting some of the other players (Matt Dillon, Lee Evans) get the odd word in edgeways, which is nice, and also giving Cameron Diaz' Mary a fair bit of screen time. This central group of characters are pitch perfect, from the tight and hilarious script down to every face and gesture they make, and with a clever but not overcomplicated plot and plenty of top-notch gags there's plenty of fun to be had. It's a lot more reliant on wit and plot, and less on puerile toilet humour, than much of the Farrelly's output (and that of their recent successors/acolytes), which makes it a much more rounded and enjoyable comedy. Great fun.

OK so this didn't please a lot of kids of the seventies, but trying to look at it without the rosy eyewear of the old trilogy's massive influence it's not a bad film. Some of the 'keep the kids happy' stuff is a bit daft and the whole thing with Jar Jar Binks (and his entire race, especially Brian Blessed's ruler) is quite shockingly poorly judged, but the podrace sequences are awesome, the sabre-fighting scenes are stunning though far too few, the story is OK and looks like it could build into something even better in the next parts, and the CGI is pretty impressive too. Should be given a chance.