That’s My Boy (2012)

Before you completely turn off your brain or wonder if I’ve gone insane for watching this movie, you gotta hear me out… Andy Samberg is hilarious. I don’t expect great things from this movie, in fact, this is a movie I am fairly sure got throttled on Rotten Tomatoes… but Andy Samberg is hilarious!!! I wasn’t a huge fan at the time, so I basically just ignored this one based on the trailer alone. It was pretty clear this was going to be intellectually damaging showing by Sandler, and from what I heard from other reviews, it seems I was right. I’m only watching this one now because I saw “Palm Springs” a few weeks ago and thought it was hysterical, which set me on a binge of all things Lonely Island-related. So, what I know about this one…

As far as I can tell, Adam Sandler plays a man-boy who got an attractive teacher of his pregnant when he was in middle school. The teacher went to prison, leaving Sandler alone to raise his kid while being treated like a rock star in reality TV circles. Fast forward 20-25 years (or however long its supposed to be), and now Andy Samberg plays Sandler’s adult kid who happens to be getting married, but hasn’t invited Sandler because he was a horrible father. So, Sandler comes back and messes up the wedding. There, that’s what I know, and that’s all from a trailer I dont think I’ve seen in years. Here it is, but be warned… its pretty clear from this that the movie isn’t gonna be great.

First things first, just to get it out of the way… This movie is not good. I was only half-way paying attention through the entire runtime, and even then it was pretty grating on the psyche. Even moreso, where most Sandler films are generally PG-13, this one went WAY overboard on the raunchy comedy, which I feel was pretty unnecessary. I feel like “raunchiness” is something you get into if you are still establishing your brand, but doesnt quite work with someone who has the middle-school style of inappropriate humor tied to his 20 year career.

This is as good a time as any to jump back into the general “Adam Sandler” of it all. He truly is an enigma for me, as he has proven himself to be at least a moderately capable actor in films. I stand by his performance in “Reign Over Me” as quality despite that films flaws, and I think both “Punch Drunk Love” and “Spanglish” show that he can definitely break out of the roles he’s called home for 2 decades now. “Funny People” is another great example of him flexing some solid acting chops. Heck, i think you could even point to his performance in “The Longest Yard” as an indication that the man could elevate his game; that movie as a whole is far better than the credit its been given, and Sandler actually plays an adult as opposed to the overgrown man-child.

But, here is the thing… Each of the aforementioned films were quality performances, but nobody in the greater film industry took notice. So, since his security blanket style of middle-school humor was still bankable, you get a slew of what essentially amounts to crap like “That’s My Boy”. And with this one, he decided to try and drag Andy Samberg down with him. That the craziest part of this movie… Andy Samberg plays the non-crazy one by comparison. Watch ANYTHING the guy has done. Samberg cannot play the straight arrow. He needs to be “Detective Peralta” or Lonely Island guy; making him the straight laced son of a crazy 80’s has-been doesn’t play to the guy’s strengths.

I don’t want to go into the plot on this one. It’s pretty formulaic, the only difference being the fact they decided to go far beyond the standard Sandler restraint by over-sexualizing the humor. It almost seems like Sandler & Co, thinking that they should “age” his offerings to match his audience from the mid-90s, decided to do so in a way that didn’t really improve the “funny” factor.

So, final wrap up. Not a good movie, even with the normally hysterical Andy Samberg. Definitely a true to form Adam Sandler, especially for this era of his films. I might suggest this to a really immature college student; one who still goes for the Sandler man-child routine but also thinks “adult” humor requires some T&A.