In this one Adam Sandler is self-absorbed architect Michael Newman who is married to the sweet and supportive Donna played by the beautiful Kate Beckinsale, of the UNDERWORLD films. He has 2 beautiful kids, Ben and Samantha, who he doesn't get to see much because he's working lots of overtime in an attempt to be made a partner by David Hasselhoff, his ungrateful boss. One night, tired, frustrated, unable to even figure out which remote will turn on his TV, he sets out to find a "universal remote." In an embarrassing production of product placement that would make a NASCAR driver blush, he ends up at "Bed, Bath & Beyond," specifically the "Beyond" room. Here he finds the resident eccentric genius employed there, called Morty, chiefly because Sandler loves having Christopher Walken, who plays the part, say "Morty." Morty gives him an unique experimental device to get his life under "control." Michael is now able to turn on any & all appliances with the a single "click." He gradually learns of the device's other functions: It can "MUTE" the bark of the family dog, PAUSE everything and fast forward through an argument with the Mrs. he can adjust his HUE as well. Wanting to learn more he visits "the Beyond" and Morty again. Morty tells Michael that he got exactly what he asked for "a remote to control his universe." Morty further demonstrates more features, including one that lets him flip through his existence at varying speeds. Michael is soon corrupted absolutely by the sheer power of the control, literally losing control. Before long he can't stop the remote from selecting what and when he will fast-forward, causing him to miss events he wants to experience, eventually leading the obligatory " It's A WONDERFUL LIFE" epiphany when does realize all that he's missed and sometimes it is and sometimes isn't a wonderful life, but that's okay, he gets the message and all is forgiven.The film is light formula-fare with heart, like some of Sandler's weaker films, there are laughs to be found. Sandler is okay as the nice-guy with a crude streak. Hasselhoff is fun as the jerk boss. Some of the gags get repetitive and some aren't that funny the first time. Also an over-large amount of time is spent creating the progressively older Michael Newman.
Click is directed for Sandler's Happy Madison production company by Frank Coraci of the Wedding Singer, Waterboy and most recently Around the World in 80 Days (the Jackie Chan). And Sandler again uses Henry "the Fonz" Winkler (previously in the Happy Madison universe as Coach Klien, and as himself in Little Nicky) and Julie Kavner (best known as the voice of Marge Simpson) to play his unappreciated folks. If nothing else, Sandler is a loyal guy.
A guy who is down on his luck go to "Bed, Bath, and Beyond." There he goes to the way beyond section of the store, where he meets the creator of the universal remote control (played by Christopher Walkin) that is a remote control not just for electronics, but for everyday life. With this remote, one could mute sound entirely, skip a part of life (such as, let's say you are in high school. Every time it was test time, the remote would skip it for you. How it skipped it, I am not saying). All in all, it is about one lucky dude who found a very powerful remote (he got it for FREE).
So, get this film. You will not be disappointed, that is if you like Adam Sandler or if you just plain like comedy for comedy's sake. Hope I helped get you to laugh, because I sure did, as did the entire auditorium of the movie theatre I was at that day. Oh, and if you like this movie, check out "RV" with Robin Williams. Have fun and be ready to laugh out loud! The closest Adam Sandler has come to a great film to this point in his career is "50 First Dates." As far as I was concerned get rid of Rob Schneider as Ula and cut the vomiting Walrus and you would have a five star movie. "Click" is in the same mold in that it combines Sandler's romantic side with a unusual situation and still insists on adding raunchy humor (I suppose there could be worse things than your dog trying to have sex with a giant stuffed duck, but let us not go there). Consequently, "Click" is not an improvement on "50 First Dates," but I do not think that it constitutes a step backwards, which would be welcomed news.
Sandler plays Michael Newman, who has married beyond his reach the gorgeous Donna (Kate Beckinsale), and has two young kids who love him, his son Ben (Joseph Castanon) and his daughter (Tatum McCann), despite the fact that he is so busy trying to make partner at the architecture firm where he works that he is ignoring his family more and more each day. Every time he makes a promise to his family, he feels forced bo break it to satisfy John Ammer (David Hasselhoff) at work. Things are getting so bad that Michael suddenly decides that what he needs ia a universal remote, just like the O'Doyle's next door, so that at least he can turn on his TV instead of the overhead fan. So he heads off into the night and since Bed, Bath and Beyond is the only store opens, goes in to find his universal remote. What he finds instead in the Beyond part of the store is Morty (Christopher Walken), who indeed has a universal remote, and not just your ordinary universal remote, as I assume everybody knows from the previews.
I must say up front that I am pretty sure I could listen to Christopher Walken say anything, up to an including the instructions for using a universal remote or any other form of technology and be thoroughly entertained. I would also add that Morty is absolutely right about Donna's body. Anyway, with his amazing universal remote Michael quickly learns that he can use it to control his world and click away his problems, from muting his dog, fast-forwarding through fights with his wife, and pausing his boss so that he can slap the guy silly (although I think close-captioning would have been funnier for the scene with the Japanese businessmen at the restaurant). Then Michael discovers the catch.
It is not, as the trailer would lead you to believe, that the remote breaks. But rather, as Morty explains, that it functions like Tivo in that it pays attention to what he is doing with the remote and automatically does it again. So if you decide to fast-forward through an illness or foreplay with your wife, then that becomes the way it will be for the rest of your life. This is a fairly interesting idea given the premise of the film, and the only real flaw in it is that once you establish Michael is on "auto pilot" during the chapters of his life that are skipped, then I do not see how he could be so successful at his business given that he has to use the remote to save the bacon with the Japanese firm. But that is just because I pay attention to the rules of the game and like to take them to their logical extensions.
Sandler has gathered familiar faces for this film, with Henry Winkler playing Michael's father, Sean Astin as Ben's swim coach, and even a nice cameo by Schneider, whose understate performance encouraged my hopes for this film. Perhaps the biggest surprise here is that the raunchy humor got me to laugh out loud several times, even if a grown man striking back at the Eddie Haskell-wannabee who lives next door would be wrong, very wrong indeed (but still funny). However, my wife would like me to state in no uncertain terms that what I was laughing at was clearly guy humor, and I am pretty sure she rolled her eyes and shook her head more often than she joined in on the laughing (it was hard to tell, the theater was dark and I was trying to watch the movie).
Ultimately, the problem with the movie is the end, when Michael gets his second chance. That is because the screenplay by Steve Koren and Mark O'Keefe (the team who did "Bruce Almighty") invests so much in the big epiphany and final grace note at the end of the third act that they apparently have nothing much to come up with for the epilogue where we are assured Michael and his family will live happily ever after. "50 First Dates" had a great final payoff scene, and you can go all the way back to "It's a Wonderful Life" to see how well you can milk the return from Hell to the real world. Granted, you will not top the end of the Hell sequence, but then you are not supposed to. Still, there has to be a better payoff for what comes between that point and the start of the credits. I am still rounding up on this one, but I should have been in a position to round down. Final Note: Nice touch with getting Dolores O'Riordan from the Cranberries to show up to sing "Linger" live at the wedding.
Read Best Reviews of Click (2006) Here
What would you do if you could pause, rewind, fast-forward (basically all of the functions you can do with a DVD player) with your life? Would you rewind through prior events to relive the glory days? Or would you skip ahead to avoid waiting in traffic or enduring a fight, or would you pause or slow-down a moment to make it seemingly last forever. Wouldn't it be nice if we had such capabilities, just imagine what fun a person could have with that kind of power. In Sony Pictures hit comedy "Click" Adam Sandler gets to experience what would happen with that power first hand, and sometimes the outcome isn't exactly what he had in mind."Click" is the story of Michael Newman (Adam Sandler), a man without a lot of spare time on his hands. He has a hectic, very demanding job, a boss (David Hasselhoff) who is ungrateful for everything that he does, and a beautiful wife (Kate Beckinsale) and kids that deserve more attention than he is able to give. After feeling like life is going nowhere fast for himself, Michael visits a local store and meets a very odd man (Christopher Walken) who gives him what may be the greatest gift of all time, a universal remote. The difference between this universal remote and all others is that this one can not only control electronics, but everyday life as well. Soon, Michael is using the remote to skip arguments or boring conversations, speed up certain activities, even going back through his life to relieve the good times as a younger man. However, the remote begins to go haywire and Michael finds his life spinning out of his control, and the more he tries to fix things the worse they get. Now, he must try to regain what he's lost before it's too late.
"Click" is a movie that I wanted to see from the get-go. I thought it looked funny, it featured Adam Sandler, so I knew that was a safe bet, plus it had a great supporting cast, and what appeared to be a unique story that we all could relate to (meaning all of us that would like to have this type of control over certain aspects of life). When I finally got around to seeing the movie, I must say that it wasn't all that much like I expected. Sure, it was laugh out loud funny numerous times throughout the film, but there was seriousness to the story that was unexpected, yet a welcome addition at the same time. When the remote begins to mess with Michael's life, the movie shifts gears and becomes mostly a drama, revealing the consequences of rushing through life and how eventually it will just pass you by. It's not often that an Adam Sandler movie actually features a moral or message to the story, but this one did, and it didn't feel out of place at all.
I was really surprised that for an Adam Sandler comedy, it was actually very different from his standard fare, there were his typical off-color jokes and remarks, but his character also had a sincerity to him that was uncommon for him to play. Watching him mature over the course of the film was interesting, because it forced Sandler to play more of his dramatic side rather than his slapstick side that he relies on the most. I haven't seen Adam Sandler's more serious movies "Reign Over Me" and "Punch Drunk Love", so I wasn't too sure how all of the serious elements were going to end up playing out when I saw that was definitely where the story was heading, but he handled it remarkably well. The rest of the cast was a mixture of sweet and caring (Michael's wife and kids), to somewhat strange (Michael's parents), to downright kooky and possibly on the verge of insanity (Christopher Walken's character). Each actor/actress was equally entertaining, and delivered very fun, interesting characters that were always enjoyable when on the screen. My favorite supportive character had to have been Chris Walken's, and I was happy that the writers gave him more than just a cameo of screen time. I believe he literally stole every scene he was in, and he did it so effortlessly, which is how it should be done.
If you are a fan of Adam Sandler movies you should enjoy "Click", it does start out kind of slow, but after 10 minutes or so it really picks up, but there is some seriousness to it as well, so don't just expect to be laughing the entire time. But if you're not a fan of Sandler's films, and I know there are plenty of you out there, this is definitely one of his movies that I think you should see. It's a different type of Adam Sandler comedy, one with much more depth and originality than most of his efforts. Though not my favorite Adam Sandler movie, it definitely ranks up there around the top with "Big Daddy" and "The Longest Yard".
"Click" is rated PG-13 for language and sensuality.Click is an anomaly of sorts. It isn't quite a comedy, but it's got too many funny moments to be a drama. I guess it's a dramedy, which is important to know if you go into it expecting a lighthearted, fun, family movie. It is each of those things, but at different moments. Adam Sandler plays a workaholic architect who is so busy trying to get ahead at work that his family life begins to suffer. When he is offered a "universal remote that controls your universe," he jumps at the chance to have a sense of control in his chaotic life. The next thing he knows his life is a DVD complete with commentary from James Earl Jones that he can pause, rewind, and fast forward at his leisure.
The moral of the story is that you should be careful what you wish for because when you get it, you might not want it anymore. Overall, this movie was fine, but I didn't think it was stellar. It's along the same lines of Bruce Almighty and that movie about disappearing poop with Jack Black. If you liked those, or the general message therein, I think you'll like this one. I wasn't expecting the middle part of the movie to be such a downer, but if you go into it expecting the somber moments I think you'll enjoy it more.
Also, David Hasselhoff plays Sandler's boss, a completely self-absorbed misogynist. Seeing Mitch Buchanon on screen again makes this movie worth watching in and of itself.
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