Starring: Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale, Christopher Walken and David Hasselhoff
Director: Frank Coraci
Rated: M
IN Click, Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) wants his family to have opportunities and financial security he never had.
He works so hard as a senior architect in a Manhattan firm that his family rarely see him, or if they do he is always distracted.
When his wife Donna (Kate Beckinsale) and the two children Ben and Sam (Joseph Castanon and Tatum McCann) make him aware of the gravity of the situation, he goes out and buys a universal remote control for the multiple appliances he has in his house.
At the shop he meets an eccentric scientist Morty (Christopher Walken), who gives him a new product that enables him to control his own universe.
Later Michael discovers that this device can let him review his life, freeze frame, mute his world, and fast forward into the future – all at the click of a button.
As he asserts his new found control over his destiny, he discovers that being in charge is not everything it is alleged to be.
Adam Sandler is one of the most highly paid actors in Hollywood, receiving US$25 million a picture. He is also one of the hardest working people in Tinsel Town, averaging three films a year in recent times.
His last five films each grossed an average of US$51 million. So he is a hot property at present. This means that some people will go and see his films just because he’s in it.
His earlier films like Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer demonstrated his real comic talent.
Maybe it’s the heavy output, but his franchise, while not losing money, has been losing credibility with every new picture since anger Management in 2003.
With the writers of Bruce Almighty in charge of the script, Click should have been a much better film.
There are interesting themes like the original sin of wanting to be in charge of one’s life and destiny, recovered memory (Why doesn’t anyone ever recover happy memories?), and the consequences of living an unreflective and unintentional life.
But these get lost in a tedious sequence of slapstick comedy, unnecessarily crass and crude behaviour and adult themes that will shock some parents who might misjudge this to be a movie to see with the kids.
At best, you might wait for Click to come out on DVD.
At least then, when you see how appalling it actually is, you will have the power to click stop and eject.
