Adam Sandler continues to write and star in his own films, that all seem to be fairly similar, though profitable. After the limited, but classic “Happy Gilmore” and “Billy Madison,” he seemed to be evolving with “Big Daddy” and “The Wedding Singer.” This proved short-lived. But Sandler recovered from the disastrous “Little Nicky” and “Mr. Deeds” with the artistic and experimental “Punch Drunk Love.” While his latest film, “50 First Dates,” is on par with the likable “Anger Management,” it fails to be as consistent as “The Wedding Singer” and is not a solid step forward in Sandler’s career.
“50 First Dates” seems to have been a more sentimental, romantic comedy with traces of “Memento” and “Groundhog Day.” Adam Sandler and his usual gang of writers transformed a script from Lowell Ganz (“City Slickers” and “Splash) into a film that they thought would please more lowbrow Sandler fans. A lot of jokes and bizarre characters have been added with little success, but the love story with Sandler and Barrymore proves to be much more appealing.
Sandler plays Henry Roth, a womanizing veterinarian who lives in Hawaii. He seems very content to have one-night stands with the various tourists who make weeklong stays at the islands.
One day Henry hits it off with Lucy (Barrymore). But while not horribly disfigured, she has lost her short-term memory from a car accident. Henry must figure out a way to make their relationship work despite her inability to create new memories.
He also must deal with her gruff father (Blake Clark) and her dimwitted, bodybuilding brother (Sean Astin) who spend all of their time recreating the first day after her accident. Complications arise as he must figure out a way to balance what is best for her with a way to advance their relationship.
Sandler’s movies always have combined juvenile humor with sentimentality, but the two rarely have seemed so out of synch. Many characters and gags that are meant to be amusing seem to fail horribly. The scenes before we meet Lucy are an absolute disaster, as are the characters of Lucy’s body building brother, Rob Schneider as a native Hawaiian and Henry’s manish assistant, Alexa (Lusia Strus).
The failed comedy is unfortunate because Sandler and Barrymore’s scenes together are unexpectedly romantic, and their relationship is very satisfying. As they showed in “The Wedding Singer,” they achieve chemistry with a lot of smiling and good natured sincerity.
While the film’s genial nature eventually won me over, the filmmakers should have been confident enough not to unnecessarily load the film with bad jokes and quirky characters. The movie entertains, but it is undeniable that it could have been executed with more skill and restraint.

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