50 First Dates

The Wedding Singer shoehorned Adam Sandler into a Drew Barrymore movie. The result was both funny and tender. This romantic comedy attempts to shoehorn Barrymore into a Sandler movie. Audiences who adore Sandler’s puppy-dog clowning and amusement with bodily functions get an immediate fix with an early splash of walrus vomit. Viewers not so enamored with the egghead and his embrace of all things uncouth should look elsewhere for their grins. The story is a romantic riff on Groundhog Day. Barrymore’s character has no short-term memory. Every night’s sleep wipes out her memory of the previous day, so Sandler, playing a sea-park veterinarian, spends day after day trying to reconnect with her. Blake Clark brings some dignity to the proceedings as protective patriarch, but Rob Schneider’s caricature of a Polynesian stoner is more a walking crime against humanity than a comic sidekick.