VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Grown Ups 2 (2013)
Clint: 4/5 stars, 8/10.
Carolyn: 3/5 stars, 7/10.
Native ratings: 3.8/5 stars Netflix, /10 IMDB.
Clint’s thoughts: I don’t know why the fuck this became a franchise, but look! They took something not so good and greatly improved upon it. Much better than the original. Less family stuff, and more jokes.
Carolyn’s thoughts: This was funnier than the original. It wasn’t made up of them just razzing each other the whole entire time. The jokes were better and more structured. It was a pleasant surprise that this was better, as we were expecting a lot worse since sequels generally don’t live up to the originals. I see they added another writer who had worked on more of Adam Sandler’s older movies, so maybe that contributed to the improvement.
Directed by Dennis Dugan (You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, Problem Child, Just Go With It, Jack And Jill). Written by Adam Sandler & Fred Wolf (Without A Paddle, SNL) & Tim Herlihy (SNL, Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy, Big Daddy, Little Nicky, Mr. Deeds). Maybe the addition of that last writer made the difference between how much better this movie was than the first…
Starring the same people from the previous movie:
Adam Sandler as Lenny Feder.
Salma Hayek as Roxanne Chase-Feder.
Chris Rock as Kurt McKenzie.
David Spade as Marcus Higgins.
Rob Schneider as Rob Hilliard.
Steve Buscemi as Wiley.
Kevin James (50 First Dates, uncredited in You Don’t Mess With The Zohan) as Eric Lamonsoff.
Maria Bello (Thank You For Smoking, Coyote Ugly, Shattered) as Sally Lamonsoff.
Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live, Shrek 3, Idiocracy, 50 First Dates, Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie, Gattaca, 1 ep of The Simpsons) as Deanne McKenzie.
Ebony Jo-Ann (Kate & Leopold) as Mama Ronzoni.
Colin Quinn (Saturday Night Live, 1 ep of The Larry Sanders Show, 3 Men & A Baby) as Dickie Bailey, the enemy rival.
Tim Meadows (Saturday Night Live, Mean Girls 2, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Coneheads, 5 eps of Bob’s Burgers, 2 eps of The Life & Times Of Tim, 1 ep of The Venture Bros. as Malcolm, the rival black guy.
New faces:
Jon Lovitz as Squats Fitness Janitor.
Taylor Lautner (Jacob from the Twilight movies) Frat Boy Andy (uncredited). He seemed to have a pretty big part for someone who was uncredited…. Oh, someone in the imdb forum said he did this movie for free…
Nick Swardson (Grandma’s Boy, Just Go With It, The House Bunny, Blades Of Glory, Click, 1 ep of The Human Giant) as Nick.
Shaquille O’Neal (the basketball player, Scary Movie 4, Smurfs 2) as Officer Fluzoo.
Alexander Ludwig (The Hunger Games) as Braden, David Spade’s son.
Georgia Engel (Mary Tyler Moore, 14 eps of Everybody Loves Raymond, 4 eps of The Love Boat, 2 eps of The Office, 2 eps of Mork & Mindy, 1 ep of Unsupervised) as Mrs. Lamonsoff, Eric’s mom.
Peter Dante (Just Go With It, Grandma’s Boy, Mr. Deeds, Big Daddy, The Waterboy, Little Nicky, The Wedding Singer, 3 eps of The Larry Sanders Show) as Officer Dante.
Oliver Hudson (100 eps of Rules Of Engagement) as Kyle.
Allen Covert (Soul Patch in Just Go With It, Grandma’s Boy, 50 First Dates, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy, Airheads) as Hippie Teacher.
Steve Austin (the wrestler, Celebrity Deathmatch) as Tommy Cavanaugh.
Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Petrelli in Heroes, Wolverine in the English version of Wolverine) as Frat Boy Milo.
Missing:
Rob Schneider and his family
LINK URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2191701/combined
Claire's blog 