Review of That's My Boy (1951) by James W — 13 Jul 2016

Adam Sandler swaps his family guy image for a boozy dead beat Dad with a rotten mouth and foul manners, the result is a horribly uneven comedy with nasty elements and often offensive moments. That's My Boy is certainly better than the majority of Sandler comedies but because he's treading into higher rated territory the raunchiness and crude humour doesn't go well with Sandler's usual slapstick antics.

The voice he puts on for his character Donny Berger is absolutely bloody irritating, surely Sandler would see that it will drive audiences mad but obviously not. The rest of the cast are a bit better and funnier, Samberg is on fine form as Donny's put upon Son who has to deal with his bad father's parenting when he surprise visits.

Peggy Stewart is a good laugh as the naughty Grandma Delores, but at the same time it's quite sickening, this whole family is rather twisted with all the incest, cheating and misogyny that goes on, it's pretty sick and not in the fun way, the shock is there but not for a good reason.

The laughs are scatalogical, some big laughs come in early on then you'll be sat waiting for the next hilarious gag to roll in but it takes it's dear sweet time, most the laughs come from the cameos such as James Caan or Milo Ventimiglia's battle hardened protective Brother.

Put it this way, I won't be watching That's My Boy again, if it had better writing, solid laughs and a more toned down Sandler this would be a treat but instead it's just a sick piss about.