Just Go With It

This remake of the 1969 comedy Cactus Flower (with Walter Matthau, Goldie Hawn, and Ingrid Bergman) stars Adam Sandler as Danny, a womanizing plastic surgeon who pretends to be married in order to keep young girlfriend Maggie (Bailee Madison) from becoming too serious. When Danny eventually decides to wed her, Maggie demands to meet his wife, so he persuades his devoted nurse, Katherine (Jennifer Aniston), to impersonate his supposedly estranged spouse. Naturally, as in the original, Danny and Katherine wind up together. But the filmmakers have “opened up” the story by moving much of the action to Hawaii, where the doctor, the two women, and Katherine's two precocious kids (absent from the first film) go on vacation, and they run into more comic relief via Katherine's erstwhile sorority sister and her husband. The alterations allow for plenty of mildly raunchy gags but also transform the piece into as much a family comedy as a romantic one—with disastrous results. As directed by Dennis Dugan, Sandler has never been worse, Aniston is embarrassing, and Madison is a model trying to act. In their collective hands, the film becomes an annoying mixture of puerile slapstick, lame dialogue, and sticky sentimentality. Not recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include two audio commentaries (the first with costars Adam Sandler and Nick Swardson and the filmmakers; the second with director Dennis Dugan), deleted scenes (6 min.), a blooper reel (5 min.), “Dolph: Not the One from Rocky IV” with Swardson (6 min.), “The Perfect Couple: Jen and Adam” featurette with Sandler and costar Jennifer Aniston (6 min.), the “Shooting Hawaii” location featurette (6 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are nine additional production featurettes including “The Not So Perfect Couple” with costar Nicole Kidman, “Look Who Else is in the Movie” on the cameos, “Kevin Nealon: The Plastic Man,” and “Along Came a Prop Guy” (34 min. total), additional deleted scenes (11 min.), a bonus DVD copy of the film, and the BD-Live function. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a lame comedy.] (F. Swietek)