Blended (2014), PG-13, ★1/2

Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore at dinner entertained by Terry Crews?

Adam Sandler. I cannot believe I am going to start writing my review about his journey. He started out a promising and likable comic that maneuvered his path to stardom by appearing in sitcoms, for example, The Cosby Show. (Yes, the Cosby Show.) He also starred in Saturday Night Live. After his departure from SNL, he co-starred in a film called Airheads and made a name for himself in Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore. After watching the commercials and previews for the film, I was hoping to see a decent Sandler film because he has a good and charming chemistry with Drew Barrymore. This is one of Sandler's best films of the decade, but that does not say much because it is still a very bad movie.

Lauren Reynolds (Drew Barrymore) and Jim Friedman (Adam Sandler) are on a blind date at a Hooter's restaurant and the date is not going too well. Jim pays much more attention to the waitress and the television than Lauren and Jim consciously agrees that the date is boring. Jim offers Lauren some buffalo shrimp with hot sauce and she spits it out proving that it is much too spicy for her. Jim uses an emergency excuse to ditch his date.

Lauren is a divorced mother with two sons, Brendan (Braxton Beckham) and Tyler (Kyle Red Silverstein), who complains about the date to her best friend, Jen (Wendi McClendon-Covey from Bridesmaids). Jim works at a Dick's Sporting Goods store (more product placement) with his buddy Doug (Shaquille O'Neal) and also complains. He is a widowed father with three daughters, Hilary (aka "Larry"), because of her tomboyish looks, Espn (Emma Fuhrman), who claims to talk to their deceased mother and it is Jim's favorite channel, and Lou (Alyvia Alyn Lynd), a wild and cute young child.

When Jen breaks the news to Lauren that he broke up with her boyfriend, Dick, because he has five kids and he wanted her to meet them in Africa, Lauren asks Jen if she and her kids can take her best friend's place to go to Africa. Jim asks the same question to Dick since he is his boss, too. Both Jim and Lauren excitedly exclaim that they are going to Africa with their children. However, both vacations started awkwardly as neither Jim nor Lauren are happy to see each other. And, to make it more awkward, they are both put in a romantic suite. Africa may change both Lauren's and Jim's lives, but maybe not. But, again, it's a Sandler movie. Don't think too hard on what might happen to these two main characters.

One "blended" family. Duh, because it is the title.

First off, this is not a total disaster from Adam Sandler and company such as Grown Ups 2, That's My Boy, Jack and Jill, or You Don't Mess with the Zohan. What ticks me off was, despite the predictable romantic-comedy formula, that there was a good movie buried underneath the unnecessary contrivances and ridiculous unfunny humor about sex and looks. Thank God that there are not as many bathroom jokes as his other films. For example, when Sandler's character and Barrymore's character have a charming and nice moment together, it is ruined by a stupid joke. Some of the scenes' tones are wildly inconsistent that the scenes themselves do not matter if they pay off.

Adam Sandler is likable in this movie and shows a bit of a dramatic range from his films like Punch-Drunk Love and Funny People and has chemistry with Drew Barrymore. Barrymore is still charming and luminous on-screen. She never fails to make me smile with her amicable personality. The rest of the cast are a bit forgettable. Terry Crews plays a very excited African performer, which is a funny executed concept, but his character goes a long way. Covey is funny in the beginning and Kevin Nealon is just Kevin Nealon. All of the children are fine, especially Lynd, who has a good scene with Sandler.

I think the cast is fine and there are a few funny lines and jokes. The funniest joke for me is when Barrymore comes down for dinner, we see each character's point of view and the pop song that is played when we see their reactions. That's about all of the praise I can give. The movie is so predictable and every character has every different character trait that is a bit insensitive and offensive towards a few characters. The children are wild, the women get insulted, the African performers are always happy, it's just stereotypes everywhere. Again, most scenes try to pay off but get interfered with a last-minute or a last-second joke which looks like that a kid inserted that joke onto the movie.

The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates are good Sandler movies and I want to give some advice to Sandler to make good movies again. Mr. Sandler, watch your earlier films and see what made the movie funny and, then, look at your other recent films and compare and contrast. I think, he cannot cast most of his buddies in a movie again. The more buddies he has on film, the worse the movie it gets. It is May, and it is a long way to go to say if this is one of the worst movies of 2014. However, Blended has the great chemistry, but the script is contrived and there are caricatures all over the place. So, it is not an awful comedy and I'll give him that. But, third time is not the charm for both Sandler and Barrymore.

*1/2