Mr. Deeds (***)
review by Jon Waterman

Do you remember the good old days of the mid 1990s?  No?  Me either.  Do you remember the good Adam Sandler movies from the mid 1990s?  "Billy Madison?"  "Happy Gilmore?"  Those were the films.  Aaaaah.

"The Wedding Singer" was also very entertaining.  Then we come to "The Waterboy," "Big Daddy," and "Little Nicky."  The further along the timeline we go, the worse the film.  If you’re up on your history, that brings us to the current day.  Adam Sandler, despite the horrible quality of his recent movies has several coming up in just about a year’s time.  The first of these is "Mr. Deeds."

Let me just say that I was shocked and amazed, because I actually laughed…a lot.  I’m glad.  I hope Adam Sandler movies continue to be funny.  I hope that those three were just a slump that will ne’er be visited again (read a-gain).

Sandler plays Deeds, a small town pizza shop owner/delivery guy who inherits a $40 billion mega-conglomerate when his great uncle dies.  All the reporters want the story, and the higher-ups of the company want his shares in the company.

This movie is a remake of the classic comedy "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town."  I could spend all review comparing and contrasting the two.  I could bore you by telling you what I thought was lacking or what I felt was improved upon, but why?  Most of you will never see the original (although you should).  And I try to take each film on its own merit whenever possible anyway.  So, here it goes.

I’m mostly going to talk about the script, since this is a comedy.  Tim Herlihy wrote this one, which should surprise no one considering he’s worked with Sandler since college including at Saturday Night Live.  Here are my complaints:  The bad guys should have been more menacing/threatening.  I never felt that there was any danger to Deeds, not even in the fake comedy type of way.  There was no real conflict to drive the story.  With that in mind, the only thing we have to go by is the love story between Deeds and undercover reporter Babe Bennett (posing as school nurse Pam Dawson – played by Winona Ryder).  And anyone who’s seen a Sandler movie knows that the love story is the weakest thing in there.  The turnaround from dislike to love is always the same and always unbelievable.  So, to sum up, the story comes second to the jokes.  Luckily, this is what I’ve come to expect from a Sandler picture, but I still wanted more conflict.

Quick note on the acting…Peter Gallagher (plays the main bad guy, Chuck Cedar) really needs to work on his comedic delivery, he was stinking up the joint.  Luckily John Turturro (plays the servant, Emilio) was there to save the day.

There’s really not a whole lot to say about this movie.  Take it for what it is, a simple-minded Adam Sandler comedy, and you’ll have a good time, especially if you liked his early stuff.

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