Review of Blended (2014) by Stephen S — 17 Oct 2016

This is a relatively high profile movie. Adam Sandler, and Drew Barrymore are definitely still a draw of some kind. First few minutes, you think - oh right this one of those amiable rom com movies, it won't be anywhere near high brow, it won't have much of a plot, but it will raise the odd smile and provide a cosy night in with a bottle of wine for yourself and a significant other.

Wrong ! The tone is set when the star crossed lovers head out for a blind date in a branch of Hooters. Which for non-Americans is a restaurant chain that hires its mainly female staff on the basis of their breast size.

Adam's character naturally is a regular here. Story is basically, she is single with kids - boys, he is single with kids - girls. Date is disastrous, but they end up thrown together, and go for dream holiday in Africa.

For anyone from another planet Africa is a single country, which is actually a theme park with lavish hotels, where all the staff are black and all the guests are rich white people. Of course those people on this planet will know this to be far from true, and sit with your jaw on the floor with amazement at the fact that any moving featuring such casual racist stereotyping could possibly get to be made.

This isn't the worst of it though, because ridiculous gender stereotypes run right through it too. In an improbable early scene Sandler is purchasing sanitary protection for his daughter, whilst by a bizarre serious of twists Barrymore is seeking a particular edition of a particular porn mag for her son.

Sandler is able to help as he has that issue at home. Barrymore meanwhile helps him, by selecting the size of tampon his daughter requires. Both of them apparently unaware that sanitary products are not sold on the basis of how large your vagina is.

Yet the checkout woman also doesn't know this, and claims she has to use three at a time when she gets her . Of course the woman on the checkout is playing the stereotype of the humorously vulgar older black woman in a subservient role , but also in this movie the role of the stereotyped black person with enormously sized genitalia.

Classy eh ? The rest of the film plays without humour on these pathetic stereotypes, there's the running joke that the girls look like boys ( they don't ) so Drew Barrymore introduces them to hair extensions and make-up; the other running joke being that one of the boys masturbates a lot.

So Sandler teaches him to play baseball. Which will presumably give him something to think about to make him last a bit longer in the unlikely event that he ever finds a female sexual partner. Presumably he also points him in the direction of some pornography as well because the message that porn is normal and healthy ( for boys ) runs right through this turkey of a movie.

Most of all though it is just boring. Utter crap.