Click

Click is 'œAdam Sandler's latest attempt to shoehorn his goofball-wiseacre persona into a movie ostensibly intended for grown-ups,' said Andrew O'Hehir in Salon.com. Overworked architect Michael Newman, frustrated with his lack of technological prowess, heads to Bed, Bath & Beyond for a universal remote control. He wanders into the creepy 'œBeyond' section, where mad scientist Christopher Walken hands him a device that allows Newman to fast-forward, pause, and mute his own life. Newman, drunk with power, uses his remote to skip fights with his wife, fart in his boss' face, and watch his dog have sex with a stuffed duck. It's obvious where the story goes from there, right? Wrong, said Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times. At this juncture, the movie turns from comedy to tragedy. As Newman loses control of the device and his life speeds away before his eyes, 'œit's not just sad, it's brutal.' Newman's wife leaves him, his children don't know him, he balloons to 400 pounds, and his parents die before he can say goodbye. That's when the movie starts hammering us over the head with its sappy stop-and-smell-the-roses message, said Eleanor Ringel Gillespie in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Thus we've seen the film go from idiot comedy to miserable drama to pure schmaltz in 97 minutes. Resorting to a squishy, sentimental resolution is 'œnever a good idea, but especially not if you're trying to graft that onto scatological jokes.'

Rating: PG-13

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