2002
Rated: PG-13 for language including sexual references, and some rear nudity.
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Directed By: Steve Briller
Running Time: 1:36
Review by: Felix Vasquez Jr.
Review Date:
DVD Features:
Audio Commentary - 1. Steven Brill - Director, Tim Herlihy - Screenwriter
Trailers
Featurettes - 1. CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN
2. FROM MANDRAKE FALLS TO MANHATTAN
3. SPARE NO EXPENSE
Deleted Scenes
Music Video - 1. "Where Are You Going?" - Dave Matthews
Outtakes Reel
Interactive Features:
Interactive Menus
Scene Selection
Text/Photo Galleries:
Deeds' Greeting Cards
Filmographies
DVD-Rom Features:
Web Link
If you like this, try: Tommy Boy, Happy Gilmore, Waterboy, Billy Madison, Mr. Deeds goes to town, The Beverly Hillbillies
MR. DEEDS

 

Billionaire Preston Blake, a rich man loved by all is frozen to death while climbing Mount Everest. Now, it seems his company and all of his fourty billion dollars is given to his long lost nephew; his heir Longfellow Deeds (SNL's Adam Sandler  Big Daddy, Happy Gilmore), a young small town boy who delivers pizza and hope to get his poems sold someday to Hallmark. Now, an evil millionaire plans to take back the corporation while distracting him and a brutal news network is spying on him with their star reporter Babe (Wynona Ryder  Little Women, Girl, Interrupted) who must pretend to like Deeds.
    There are only two movies out of the entire Adam Sandler film list that I like: Big Daddy, and Happy Gilmore. So, when this came out, I was curious to see what he might give audiences. There was nothing new to laugh at, but this movie was a hit. Why was it a hit? Because Adam Sandler is a likeable guy and always plays these likeable characters in every movie he stars in. He's a nice character in this movie as the impish shy Mr. Deeds, and he helps to keep this movie from being completely awful. There are also some very funny moments, mostly on the side of John Turturro who plays Deeds' butler Emilio, a very sneaky butler who can sneak up behind people without being seen. His parts in the movie were perhaps the funniest out of the entire film.

Let me tell ya something people, Hollywood has done it again. They have this stinkin' habit of taking classic movies and remaking them, except they don't follow the formula from the original film, except to use the title. So technically, it's not a remake, it just has the same name as a classic film. This takes the original formula and story from the classic film and throws it out the window and recycles the usual Adam Sandler movie storyline he uses over and over in every one of his movies: Average small town boy or slacker accidentally stumbles onto a situation larger than life and must rediscover himself by facing off against a conniving villain, falling in love with a hot girl, and winning out in the end. Oh, yeah, and when the comedy during the movie is running thin there's at least two or three senseless "Jack-ass" style beatings just for the sake of "comedy". It's been done in practically every Sandler starring movie, yet audiences keep flocking to them.
    This one is probably the worst of all his movies to come in a while. The movie has these oddball characters that aren't even likeable but just disgusting. Sandler enlists his usual cast of supporting players including Steve Buscemi, and Rob Schneider but we've seen it done over and over so it's worn thinner than Callista Flockhart on a diet. The movie also is just dumb, I mean it's really dumb. We're given these odd storylines that are meant to farce itself but just come off as moronic. For example, when Wynona Ryder's character makes up the story that she grew up in a town called "Winchestertonfieldville" and half way through the movie, he takes her there! I was there for ten minutes watching that scene screaming at the top of my lungs at the stupidity of that plot twist. Adam Sandler and Wynona Ryder have zero chemistry throughout the entire movie and it's barely believable when they fall in love which makes the movie even harder to watch. She's a completely obnoxious character in this movie and tries her best at slapstick comedy yet looks like she's memorizing a script; A b-a-a-d script. Throughout the movie there are also these derogatory and senseless acts of violence including at least three fist fights, and four or five scenes where people are being hit with something. The first beating at the beginning when Sandler beats up the pretend mugger, I admit, was hilarious, but then it just gets tiring. The beatings have no reason why it should be included in this, so it just looks tacked on like the writer ran out of ideas.

I wasn't expecting a masterpiece and I didn't get one as this movie is the usual Adam Sandler fare with a terrible plot, horrible characters, comedy that falls flat, and annoying violent beatings.