Review: Sandler vehicle ‘Click’ lacks laughs, sense

Aside from the rhyming scheme, the two movies have very little in common.

While "Brick" showed the filmmakers’ bravado, as well as imagination, "Click" is rather heavy on the "ick."

What makes the film all the more disappointing is that Adam Sandler, who had redeemed himself from his signature man-child characters in films such as “Punch Drunk Love” and “Anger Management,” has taken a step into territory that is more embarrassing than “Happy Gilmore” or “Billy Madison.”

With “Click,” Sandler and buddy/director Frank Coraci (“The Waterboy,” “The Wedding Singer”) have delusions of being the new Jimmy Stewart and Frank Capra.

If you’ve seen the previews for “Click,” you know that it appears to be a textbook example of a “high-concept” film that can easily be described in a sentence or two. “Jaws” is a perfect example: Giant shark terrorizes seaside village.

The high concept for “Click” is “Man gets remote control that works on reality.”

The previews touch on just a few aspects of the remote-controlling of everyday life. Adam Sandler’s character can put his wife on pause when she’s yelling at him or use slow motion to gawk at a top-heavy female jogger.

What the previews don’t show is the remote’s ability to fast forward. Sandler’s character, Michael Newman, uses this feature a couple of times and skips a total of 21 years of his life. One can only imagine how excruciatingly long “Click” would have been had we not skipped those two decades.

Newman is an overworked architect with a boss that is as annoying a character to appear on screen since Jar-Jar Binks. A scary-looking David Hasselhoff plays the boss. He’s not quite as scary looking as Henry Winkler and Julie Kavner as Newman’s parents.

Michael loves his wife (a beautiful Kate Beckinsale) and young son and daughter, but more and more often he has less time to spend with them. Like most typical households, the Newmans are overrun with remote controls. Realizing that wading through these “conveniences” takes more time than it’s worth, Michael decides to buy a universal remote.

The only place open at this time of night (for some reason) is a Bed, Bath and Beyond store. After going through the bed area and then the bath area, Michael comes to a door marked “Beyond.”

Here he finds a lone clerk named Morty. Christopher Walken – king of playing weirdoes – brings what he can to the character, but he’s not given a lot to work with. He takes Michael to another room, marked “Way Beyond,” and presents him with a truly universal remote. At first Michael thinks it’s a trick being played by some reality TV show, but he soon finds that the remote works all too well.

He manages to get work done he never would have time for. When dealing with his parents, he simply fast-forwards to the end of the conversation. He fast-forwards – for some reason – during foreplay in bed with his wife. Using picture-in-picture, he can even watch a ball game while people are yelling at him.

Things get complicated when Michael begins to get impatient. The boss has promised him a promotion. Rather than wait, he chooses to fast-forward what he assumes will be a few weeks, a month maybe. Fifteen years later is where he ends up.

This is also where the film’s premise goes even further awry. One can suspend disbelief, but only if the universe a film creates makes sense by its own rules. When Michael finds himself 15 years down the road and doesn’t know that it’s his daughter he’s staring at, people just tell him who she is – like it’s normal that one day a guy would just forget his family. Nothing has changed for the people around him; they’ve endured the 15 years and are unaware Michael hasn’t. Why wouldn’t they worry about his sudden strange behavior?

“Click” strives to teach a life lesson. It misses by a mile.

One hopes Sandler gets back to roles like he played in “Punch Drunk Love.” Even “Billy Madison” would be a step up from “Click.”

The film is doing well at the box office, and one only prays there isn’t even a “remote” chance for a sequel. I will fast forward over it, without a doubt.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.[[In-content Ad]]