Grown Ups is a 2010 buddy comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan and starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider. Sandler and Fred Wolf wrote the script. The film was produced by Sandler's production company Happy Madison and was distributed by Columbia Pictures.^[3] Sandler, Rock, Schneider, and Spade all joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in the 1990–1991 season; supporting cast including Colin Quinn, Maya Rudolph, Tim Meadows and Norm MacDonald have also been SNL cast members.

Plot[link]

In 1978, five childhood friends won their junior high school basketball championship. During their celebration at a rented lake house, their coach, Buzzer (Blake Clark) encourages them to live their lives in a similar way to how they played the game. Thirty years later, the five friends, who had remained close companions up until their graduation, have since separated. Lenny "Hollywood" Feder (Adam Sandler) is a high-powered Hollywood talent agent who is married to Roxanne Chase (Salma Hayek), a fashion designer, and has three children. His two sons, Greg and Keithie (Jake Goldberg and Cameron Boyce) have become very spoiled much to his annoyance, and his Daughter Becky. Eric Lamonsoff (Kevin James) claims he is now a co-owner of a lawn furniture company, is married to Sally (Maria Bello) and has two children, Donna and Bean (Ada-Nicole Sanger and Frank and Morgan Gingerich). Much to Eric's chagrin, Bean continues to nurse on Sally. Kurt McKenzie (Chris Rock) is a stay-at-home father who is married to Deanne (Maya Rudolph), the primary breadwinner of the family and has two kids. Deanne is pregnant with another child and her mother (Ebony Jo-Ann) also lives with the family. Rob Hilliard (Rob Schneider) has been divorced three times and has daughters Jasmine, Amber, and Bridget (Madison Riley, Jamie Chung, and Ashley Loren) from those marriages. His current wife, Gloria (Joyce Van Patten), is 30 years older than him. Marcus Higgins (David Spade) is a lazy womanizer. All five friends regularly harass each other in comedic fashion throughout the film: Lenny for being rich, Eric for being overweight, Kurt for being skinny and not being more useful, Rob for his way of saying "Hey!" and for having a much older wife, and Marcus for being a slacker.

When the five friends find out that Buzzer has died, they all return to New England with their families to attend his private funeral. Lenny rents the lake house for the 4th of July weekend for his friends to stay at, but Lenny can't stay for the whole weekend because Roxanne has a fashion show in Milan. While at the lake house, Lenny is annoyed that their kids would rather play video games than spend time outdoors, so he and the others force their kids to play outside during their stay. Eric has a small incident on a rope swing and injures a bird. At a local restaurant, Lenny runs into his old nemesis, Dickie Bailey (Colin Quinn), who is still upset at Lenny because he allegedly had his foot out of bounds when he made the long-ago game winning shot. Dickie challenges him and his friends to a rematch, but Lenny declines, noting that Dickie is decidedly out of shape. The next day, the five friends spread Buzzer's ashes. Rob becomes depressed during this event, lamenting his failed marriages, and later says his three daughters from the past marriages are coming. After having to deal with Jasmine, Rob goes and hangs out with his friends, who were fishing. After making some jokes on Rob, the others elect to cheer him up with a game of arrow roulette. Rob remains in the circle the longest, making him the winner. His thrill of victory is cut short as the falling arrow impales his foot. That evening, Lenny discovers the kids talking on cup phones and Roxanne accidentally tells Becky that she is the "Tooth Fairy". Happy that they are enjoying the same kind of fun he had as a child, Lenny installs an extensive cup-phone network in the house.

Roxanne ultimately figures out that it is more important to stay at the lake house than go to Milan. The five friends later go to a water park. There, Bean learns to drink milk out of a carton, while Marcus flirts constantly with Jasmine and Amber, having bought them skimpy bikinis. Rob assaults a ride attendant who insults Bridget for being less attractive than her sisters. Eric ignores Donna's warning about a chemical in the kiddie pool that turns urine blue, and chaos results when he pees in the pool. Later, the other friends and Eric pee in the pool and the water turns blue. Later, Lenny and the group go to the zip line and meet Dickie again, this time with his own group of friends, including Wiley (Steve Buscemi), who ends up in the hospital after an accident. On their final day at the lake house, Lenny and his buddies are challenged again to a basketball rematch by Dickie. At the game-deciding shot, Lenny purposely misses in order to allow Dickie to finally win. Before the end of the film, Marcus plays another game of arrow roulette, this time with an entire crowd of people, and everyone takes off, with the already-injured Wiley getting his foot impaled by the arrow.

Cast[link]

• Adam Sandler as Lenny "Hollywood" Feder
  • Michael Cavaleri as Young Lenny Feder
• Kevin James as Eric Lamonsoff
  • Andrew Bayard as Young Eric Lamonsoff
• Chris Rock as Kurt McKenzie
  • Jameel McGill as Young Kurt McKenzie
• David Spade as Marcus "Higgy" Higgins
  • Kyle Brooks as Young Marcus Higgins
• Rob Schneider as Rob Hilliard
  • Joshua Matz as as Young Rob Hilliard
• Salma Hayek Pinault as Roxanne Chase-Feder
• Maria Bello as Sally Lamonsoff
• Maya Rudolph as Deanne McKenzie
• Joyce Van Patten as Gloria Noonan-Hilliard
• Ebony Jo-Ann as Mama Ronzoni
• Di Quon as Rita
• Steve Buscemi as Wiley
• Colin Quinn as Dickie Bailey
  • Hunter Silva as Young Dickie Bailey
• Tim Meadows as Malcolm
  • Christopher Borger as Young Malcolm
• Madison Riley as Jasmine Hilliard
• Jamie Chung as Amber Hilliard
• Ashley Loren as Bridget Hilliard
• Jake Goldberg as Greg Feder
• Cameron Boyce as Keithie Feder
• Alexys Nycole Sanchez as Becky Feder
• Ada-Nicole Sanger as Donna Lamonsoff
• Frank and Morgan Gingerich as Bean Lamonsoff
• Nadji Jeter as Andre McKenzie
• China Anne McClain as Charlotte McKenzie
• Dan Patrick as Norby the Ride Guy
• Tim Herlihy as Pastor
• Blake Clark as Coach Bobby "The Buzzer" Ferdinando
• Norm MacDonald as Geezer
• Jonathan Loughran as Robideaux
  • Connor Panzner as Young Robideaux
• Kevin Grady as Muzby
  • Jeremy Weaver as Young Muzby
• Richie Minervini as Tardio
  • Daniel Cohen as Young Tardio
• Jackie Sandler as Tardio's wife
• Sadie Sandler as Tardio's daughter #1
• Sunny Sandler as Tardio's daughter #2
• Dennis Dugan as Referee
• Lisa M. Francis as Bailey's wife
• Berkeley Holman as Bailey's son
• J.D. Donaruma as Higgins' father
• Billy Concha as Scoreboard Guy
• Alec Musser as Water Park Stud
• Henriette Mantel as Woodman's waitress
• Jonathan Crowley as Milk Kid
• Jason Sudeikis as parent at basketball celebration
• Dan Marshall as Mourner (uncredited)

Production[link]

Filming commenced in Southborough, Massachusetts on May 18, 2009, but most of the filming was done in Essex, Massachusetts, Water Wizz at Wareham, Massachusetts, as well as some scenes shot in Marblehead, Massachusetts on the exclusive Marblehead Neck.^[4] The restaurant scene takes place in Woodman's of Essex. The "lake house" and basketball scene at the end were filmed at Chebacco Lake in Essex, MA. The film was scheduled to be released on July 1, 2010, but the production company moved it up to June 25, 2010.

Music[link]

The score to Grown Ups was composed by Rupert Gregson-Williams, who recorded his score with a 55-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox.^[5]

Release[link]

Box office[link]

The film was a box office success grossing $162,001,186 in the United States and $109,429,003 in other countries, with a worldwide gross of $271,430,189.^[2] The film won at the 2011 MTV Movie Awards for the "Best Line From A Movie" category, which it won for the line "I want to get chocolate wasted!", delivered by Becky, played by Alexys Nicole Sanchez.

Critical reception[link]

The film was well received by audiences, but was poorly received by critics; review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 10% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 151 reviews, with an average score of 3.3/10, and its consensus states that "Grown Ups' cast of comedy vets is amiable, but they're let up by poor direction and the scattershot, lowbrow humor of a stunted script."^[6] Metacritic awarded the film an average score of 30 out of 100 based on 32 reviews.^[7] Rob Schneider earned a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Supporting Actor for his performance in the film.

Sequel[link]

Columbia Pictures and Happy Madison Productions are currently in negotiations for a sequel (marking this the first, true sequel to any of Adam Sandler's previous films), with Fred Wolf signed on to write the script and Dennis Dugan returning to direct. Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Maya Rudolph and Salma Hayek will reprise their roles from the first film, while Oliver Cooper, David Henrie, Shaquille O'Neal, Nick Swardson, Alexander Ludwig, Andy Samberg, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Taylor Lautner have signed on to play new characters. Michael Kay announced via Twitter that he will make a cameo appearance. The film has been confirmed for a July 12, 2013 release date.^[8] The movie has been filming in the Massachusetts towns of Swampscott and Marblehead.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Grown Ups (film)

• Official website
• Grown Ups at the Internet Movie Database
• Grown Ups at Box Office Mojo
• Grown Ups at Rotten Tomatoes
• Grown Ups at Metacritic