21st Century’s Worst Failures – Jack and Jill (2011)
I’ve always started off my reviews (or rants) with my opinions on the director. In this case, the director is Dennis Dugan, but the real star of the show is Adam Sandler, and we really don’t need much of an introduction to him.
So the film stars Al Pacino as himself; Adam Sandler as Jack Sadelstein, a wealthy boss in an advertising firm, and Jill Sadelstein, his socially awkward and moronic sister. Katie Holmes is Jack’s wife, as well as a few child actors/actresses who play Jack’s kids.
Jack’s firm partners with Dunkin’ Donuts, who have made the “Dunkaccino drink”, and they want Al Pacino to star in their commercials because of the name similarity. Meanwhile, Jack’s annoying sister, Jill, arrives. The film shows us how Jack struggles to get Jill a date so she can be out of Jack’s hair. At a Laker’s game, Pacino instantly falls in love with Jill and attempts to impress her. Meanwhile, Felipe, some Mexican gardener for Jill, also tries to court her. Pacino eventually meets Jack, and he gives Jack the ultimatum: hook him up with Jill and he’ll do the commercial.
Longtime Adam Sandler fans and haters alike will wonder what differentiates this film from the rest. Indeed, this is the lowest-rated and most hated Sandler movie to date. So what makes this that one special snowflake? Well it’s simple: it’s boring. Yes, the cinematography is dull. Yeah, the acting is atrocious. Indeed, the script is shoddy. But when it all boils down, all of the other Sandler films are so embarrassingly inept and offensive that after all, they somehow manage to keep your attention. This one is simply incapable of such a feat. The jokes are trite and stale (frequented by Adam Sandler), but trite and stale in a way that just puts it one spot above the rest of Sandler’s filmography. The camera angles are flat and boring.
But by far the worst part is just the premise itself. You see, unlike the other Adam Sandler films, this movie needs us to actually care about the characters. Yes, that means the screenwriters must write lovable characters. For example, there’s this one scene in the movie where Jack disguises as Jill and goes on a date with Pacino so that Pacino does the commercial. Pacino tells Jack (disguised as Jill) how amazing Jill is. Then Jack realizes how terrible he’s been and rekindles his relationship with Jill, so the filmmakers throw in some sad music. The problem with this “heartfelt” moment is that the film hasn’t earned it. We don’t care about these characters, so there’s no way this film can coax us into feeling sorry for Jill or feeling happy when Jack redeems himself.
But that’s the worst part. Aspect. The worst scene, rather, is this part where Jack and Jill reconcile. Except Jill often talks in the made-up child language that the two siblings used to refer to each other as, often referring to Jack as Pagogo. So rather than actually talking in English, they talk in their made-up language, which sounds so outrageously insipid that I had to (I saw this at home) mute the sequence and shut my eyes.
This sort of intelligence (or lack therof) is the sole reason why Adam Sandler’s filmography (apart from some exceptions) is absolute garbage, but hey, money is money, so don’t expect any sort of dramatic change, where Adam Sandler says, “My god, what have I done?”, and begins producing cinematic art. It simply isn’t happening. Sandler’s garbage is here to stay.
