Review of Big Daddy (1999) by Dan H — 01 Jul 2015

Big Daddy is one of Sandler's better comedies and one of the last films of his to be in at least decent quality, it's fun but has a little bit of an overly cutesy feel.

Sonny Koufax finds a 6 year old on his doorstep (literally) and cannot find a foster family to give him to. Thus, Sonny's lazy days are over becoming a temporary father, learning that it's a lot of work but fun comes along the way, avoiding the foster home as much as he can and regretting his past decisions.

Big Daddy depends on its cutesy scenes of a young Sprouse twin and its chemistry with Sandler, which works decently but feels a bit forced: There's not much comedy from a Sandler film but what it does attempt at comedy is boring scenes featuring Sandler and his friends chatting about Julian. Sandler's character isn't much like his others, typically a screaming idiot who redeems himself in the end, that's exactly what Sonny is, though, but the feel isn't right for a Sandler film. Even if they casted a different lead role the film suffers from numerous flaws. The pros include a young Jon Stewart in a small role, Sprouse's character being somewhat likable, and the ending, proving itself to still have a happy ending but not an extremely predictable one. It's not bad but it's not great, often overlooked.