Blended

An innocuous romantic comedy that looks something like The Brady Bunch on safari, Blended stars Adam Sandler as Jim, a slovenly widower with three young daughters. Bubbly Lauren (Drew Barrymore) is an uptight divorcee with two sons. Their blind date at Hooters is predictably disastrous, but these single parents run into each other again at a drugstore, where Jim is buying tampons for his daughter and Lauren is replacing her son's girlie magazine, which she ripped up. And then, because of a credit card mix-up, the pair wind up at a fabulous South African safari resort, where they are forced to share the same suite for a week. Talk about an awkwardly laborious set-up. Jim and Lauren's broods include hormonal teens (Disney Channel star Bella Thorne and Braxton Beckham) and variously troubled moppets (Kyle Red Silverstein, Emma Fuhrmann, and Alyvia Alyn Lind). Kevin Nealon plays another vacationer, with jiggly Jessica Lowe as his young, trophy wife, and Zak Henril as his teenage son. Barrymore and Sandler have teamed up twice before in The Wedding Singer (1998) and 50 First Dates (2004), both of which were far better than this drivel that is cartoonish-ly directed by Frank Coraci (with wildlife action that includes copulating rhinos). Not recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include deleted scenes (6 min.), a location featurette (3 min.), the production segments “Adam and Drew: Back Together Again” (2 min.) and “Bella Thorne's Makeover” (2 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is a gag reel (6 min.), the behind-the-scenes featurettes “Animals” (4 min.), “Dick's Customer Service” with costar Shaquille O'Neal (3 min.), “Safari” (3 min.), “Parasailing” (2 min.), “Ostriches” (2 min.), and “Nickens” (2 min.), the brief “Herlihopps: Basketball Actor,” and bonus DVD and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a wretched comedy.] (S. Granger)