50 First Dates : Movie Review


50 First Kisses (2004) - Movie PosterIt’s the old story of boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl forgets boy due to short-term memory loss, boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl forgets boy due to short-term memory loss.

50 First Dates appears to have been influenced by two films that would make my top 100: Groundhog Day and Memento. Here however the high-concept is mostly a guise for the film’s lowbrow comedy.

And Adam Sandler, although likeable, is no Bill Murray, not even when he played it straight in Punch Drunk Love.

Sandler and Drew Barrymore’s performances are good, but not great. And they fail to recapture the chemistry and intensity that made The Wedding Singer so charming. Overall 50 First Dates simply doesn’t reach that standard, but it’s still a good film.

To its detriment the set up is slow and the plot is a little creaky. The philanderer turned monogamist is a woefully overused plot device and the supporting cast are, at best, mildly repulsive, hideously stereotypical, or both. Almost certainly this is to make Sandler, who is not in the best physical shape of his career, credible in the role.

But stick with it, it’s in the second half that this film really gets going and there are a few scenes in particular that are worth waiting for.

The humour is plentiful, but also hit and miss, shifting from laugh-out-loud to gross-out and to the occasionally frankly inappropriate.

With The Butterfly Effect on current release and Eternal Sunshine Of A Spotless Mind due to hit our screens later this month the sub-genre of time travel / memory loss quite simply hasn’t been this popular since Michael J Fox was last seen riding a skateboard.

My tip is with Eternal Sunshine Of A Spotless Mind. But in the meantime I certainly wouldn’t discourage you from making a date with Sandler and Barrymore.

Kevin Stanley

3.5 stars out of 5

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Author : Kevin Stanley