Blended
Starring: Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Kevin Nealon, Terry Crews
Directed By: Frank Coraci
Reviewed by Alexandra Donald

[rating: 1.5/5]

It would be foolish, to say the least, to approach any film starring Adam Sandler expecting a great piece of cinema. (Except if you’re watching Punch Drunk Love – it’s the only exception.) So while Blended is an incredibly poor excuse for a trip to the cinema, it achieves a shred of success thanks to the winning combination of Sandler and Drew Barrymore, and the occasional joke that’s not completely terrible.

Single parents Jim (Adam Sandler) and Lauren (Drew Barrymore) are both struggling with their respective children and are set up on an ill-fated blind date. Through a convoluted and illogical series of events, their makeshift blended family ends up on an African getaway that, of course, ends happily ever after.

It’s a run of the mill family film that has all the hallmarks of a Sandler comedy – humour involving vomit, racism, the elderly being injured, and large animals copulating. It’s The Brady Bunch for kids who aren’t old enough to know better.

However – and maybe it’s just because I watched the truly execrable Grown Ups a few weekends ago, but – Blended isn’t that bad. It’s bad, but it’s preferable to the questionable milk you just found in your fridge or the latest resurgence of fluorescent clothing. There were moments when I forgot what I was watching and almost enjoyed myself – that is, until Terry Crews periodically showed up as some kind of horribly un-PC African minstrel. The scenes that don’t involve discussion of bodily functions actually work fairly well – Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore are a fantastic on screen couple, but they’re far better than the material they’re given to play with here.

I can’t bring myself to devote any more thought to this. Blended is not a good film, but if you were intending to see it – you probably wouldn’t have expected otherwise.