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MOVIE REVIEW

Grown Ups 2

MPA Rating: PG-13-Rating (MPA) for crude and suggestive content, language and some male rear nudity.
Moral Rating: Offensive
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Adults
Genre: Comedy Sequel
Length: 1 hr. 41 min.
Year of Release: 2013
USA Release: July 12, 2013 (wide—3,000+ theaters)
DVD: November 5, 2013
Copyright, Columbia Pictures (Sony Pictures)click photos to ENLARGE Copyright, Columbia Pictures (Sony Pictures) Copyright, Columbia Pictures (Sony Pictures) Copyright, Columbia Pictures (Sony Pictures) Copyright, Columbia Pictures (Sony Pictures) Copyright, Columbia Pictures (Sony Pictures)
Relevant Issues
Copyright, Columbia Pictures (Sony Pictures)

uplanned pregancy in a marriage

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bullying

maintaining friendships

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Featuring Adam SandlerLenny Feder
Kevin JamesEric Lamonsoff
Chris RockKurt McKenzie
Salma HayekRoxanne Chase-Feder
David Spade … Marcus Higgins
Maya RudolphDeanne McKenzie
Maria BelloSally Lamonsoff
Nick Swardson … Nick
Steve BuscemiWiley
See all »
Director Dennis Dugan
Producer Columbia Pictures
Happy Madison Productions
See all »
Distributor Distributor: Columbia Pictures. Trademark logo.Columbia Pictures, a division of Sony Pictures

“Just because they’re a little older doesn’t mean they’ve grown up.”

Prequel to this movie: Grown Ups (2010)

Why is it that the Grown Ups franchise continues to do so well despite its lackluster performance and overwhelmingly negative reviews? There are different answers to this, but I have one answer: most Adam Sandler movies perform excellently despite the quality of the film. Sandler is one of a few actors out there where people cannot get enough of him, despite his (or the film’s) terrible performance.

“Grown Ups 2” is a sequel to the fan-favorite film released a few years prior about a group of best friends who get together for a weekend after being apart for years. This new film is about the same friends (minus Rob Schneider) getting together after going back to their hometown after Adam Sandler’s character Lenny Feder relocates his family from the big city back to their hometown in Connecticut. The film follows the characters’ going back to roots, and facing the challenges that come with change over the years they were gone. The film also deals with the discovery that Lenny Feder’s wife Roxanne is pregnant and how Lenny deals with this revelation, while fighting an angry group of jock teenagers that ruin the peaceful environment of the town.

This film made me laugh much more than once (as many Adam Sandler movies do), mainly due to its use of slapstick and clever use of inappropriate comedy; this does, however, get out of hand. The reason for this may be because the film does not have a well constructed plot and script, and relies heavily on one-liners, racist and sexual stereotypes, and bathroom jokes (though I do admit that I am a sucker for bathroom jokes).

What is well done in the film is the progression of the pregnancy subplot, especially near the end of the film, which I will discuss later.

Offensive content

Violence: The film’s violence is more slapstick than anything else, as there are many scenes with people getting hit in the head, fighting with animals (a moose to be exact), animals fighting people (near the film’s end), and people falling over things and landing flat. Though much of the violence is rather comedic, it increases near the film’s end. There is a big brawl, with much punching, throwing, kicking, and grappling.

Language: Coarse language is typical in Sandler movies, especially in this one, as words like “d*ck” (2), “a**” (used many times), “a**h**e,” “d*mn” (at least 3 times), and “hell” (2), are used. There are also sexual slang terms used, and God’s name is used in vain at least once. There is also name-calling in the film, such as “loser,” “nitwits,” “fart-heads,” “moron,” and other names. Someone also compares another person to Satan.

Sex/Nudity: There are plenty of sexual moments, and a little bit of nudity. Women’s cleavage is shown, with men ogling it; a mailman high-fives Lenny after seeing his wife’s bra hanging from a moose’s head; women in a yoga class make sexual passes at their yoga teacher, not knowing that he is gay (and then grow greatly disappointed after this revelation); the men in town ogle a dance teacher during a school recital. A number of sex and/or masturbation jokes are made. Lenny feels threatened by his wife’s yoga instructor before finding out he is gay. Talk of “hooking up” is made, and there are scenes with many people (male and female) dress in swimwear, bikinis, and underwear. There is also a rather disturbing scene where the main male characters are forced by the jocks to jump off a rock face naked into the water below; one of the characters lands on his friend in the water.

Positive content

Though there is not a whole lot to take out of this film, one thing people can note is the emphasis on family and friendship. Upon finding out about his wife’s pregnancy and reflecting on it, Lenny decides that family is the most important thing and decides he wants this child in his life.

Life Before BirthHave questions about pregnancy, the baby’s life before birth, Handy Pregnancy Calculator, and more. Visit this beautiful online presentation. Ask questions; get reliable answers.

This reminds me of a verse from Psalms:

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate” (Psalm 127:3-5).

Also, the friendship between the main characters is a good example to others, even though they continuously taunt each other.

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)!

Overall, this film is not for everyone, specifically because of its lackluster storytelling and many sexual and profane moments. However, those that are fans of Adam Sandler’s work may enjoy it; I do caution Christians if they choose to view it.

Violence: Moderate / Profanity: Heavy / Sex/Nudity: Heavy

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.


Viewer CommentsSend your comments
Positive

none

Negative
Negative—I’m the Pastor of a church that owns and operates a movie theatre. My wife and I went out of town to preview this movie. It was good we did. The movie was terrible. It seemed like they just thought up everything crude that they could and put it all together. I would not recommend it for anyone.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 5
John Neal, age 52 (USA)
Negative—I’m absolutely disgusted with myself for taking boys to see this and sitting through the whole thing. There was sexual content, both homosexual and heterosexual, violence (lots of fighting), language, drinking, and very crude behavior. To start with, there was lots more language than the first, including two uses of “I Swear to God” that weren’t mentioned above.

Secondly, the sexual content was heavy. There were homosexual and heterosexual references a like, with everything from talk of a man with a banana, to knowing a boy was ejaculating in the shower, to tons of cleavage and body parts sticking out and shaking, including men’s privates rubbing against a car cleaning it. I knew that there would be this part from watching the previews, but I wasn’t ready for how much I saw. Their tight white shorts left absolutely nothing to the imagination. The sexual theme was everywhere.

Among the usual crude humor of farting and burping, which I can handle, there was puking, pooping, and a man walking around in peed underwear during the party. This man had been under the influence of some strange drugs the whole movie. The crude humor was all over the place. It was disgusting. There was even a scene with a young man getting 5 points marked off his driver’s license for supposedly drinking while driving, “which was a lie to look cool to friends in a car beside him,” and then later the Driver’s Ed teacher was drinking a beer while the kid drove, and they were at the car wash having the car cleaned by the scantly clad cheerleaders. Of course, it appeared that the boy passed his driving test because of the beer and women, and for no other reason.

The film was a disgrace. Yes, there was a tiny bit of a theme of the importance of family, but it was severely overshadowed by the bad. I wouldn’t recommend this movie to anyone, no matter what their age.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: ½
Elisabeth, age 37 (USA)
Comments from young people
Negative—This is one of the most unfunny comedies I have ever seen in my life. I didn’t laugh one time. It had no plot. It was crude and gross at some parts. It was pathetic.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: ½
C, age 15 (USA)
Movie Critics
Among the slackest, laziest, least movie-like movies released by a major studio in the last decade. …
Andrew Barker, Variety
…For humor, there is flatulence and urination (favored motifs from the first installment), belching, vomiting, simulated defecation, abundant leering and jokes about mannish women and feminine men. This is pap, plain and simple: scattered raunch-lite devoid of emotional resonance. …
Andy Webster, The New York Times
…It's doubtful if even adolescents will find humor in lazy comedy sequel… I can't even talk about plot because there isn't one. …
Chris Hewitt, St. Paul Pioneer Press
…It would be dishonest to call “Grown Ups 2” the most repellent high-profile comedy in recent memory. But that’s largely because few moviegoers have memories kind enough to have already erased 2010's “Grown Ups”—which offered almost every loathsome quality of this installment…
John DeFore, Variety
…lazy, unfunny… The jokes are for 12-year-old boys, including plenty of freaking out over the male body. Labeling it juvenile doesn't do it justice. …
Paul Doro, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
…groan-inducingly bad… lowbrow, laugh-free, plotless sequel…
Claudia Puig, USA Today
… a silly, raunchy, reckless mess of a movie—a conflicted blend of sweet sentiment and sour humor. …
Paul Asay, Plugged In
…After stops along the way to watch Swardson defecating in a Kmart display toilet, the school principal eating his own belly button lint, Spade projectile vomiting, Quinn in a poop-themed soft-serve gag, …The movie ends with Sandler literally farting on Hayek…
Sara Stewart, New York Post
Comments from non-viewers
Negative—There is no way I’m going to see this movie! I read the reviews on this page, and I’ve already gotten what the theme is all about: just tons of gross out gags all thrown into one film. I don’t see anything funny about the jokes: one of the characters actually goes to the bathroom in a store’s display toilet, another character throws up, a man eats his belly button lint, and a person sits on top of someone else and breaks wind.

Why was this movie even made if pretty much all of the jokes are going to be disgusting and offensive? It’s not relatable or humorous, because no one in their right mind would have friends like that, even if they were guys. Until Hollywood starts making films that are truly funny and worthwhile then I’ll be at the theater or I’ll purchase the DVD, but until then I’m not dishing out my money.
T., age 20 (USA)

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