They just didn't care

One thing I did not get into in my review of Jack and Jill for MSN Movies was just how (ostensibly) insultingly sub-pro forma is its actual filmmaking. It isn't even just a matter of how obviously its indifferent redemption-narrative structure is the Avid-enabled equivalent of a very sloppy butter sculpture. The indifference is felt in almost every aspect: the wardrobe, the makeup (nobody could be bothered to make poor Katie Holmes look as if she actually had blood running through her veins), the production design (pretty much what you'd get if you decided to shoot a film Dogme style on an actual studio backlot, if you get my meaning), the special effects (the twin stuff makes Paul Henreid's 1964 Dead Ringer look state-of-the-art). Adam Sandler's "knack" for physical comedy is such that when his boy-and-girl twin characters put aside their differences and unite for a double-dutch routine, the fact that both Sandlers went to their trailers and were replaced by stunt doubles is given not quite the amount of camoflauge we recall from the hilarious break-dancing sequences of the videos for George Harrison's "Got My Mind Set On You" (a lot point elided in the recent Scorsese documentary) and Lou Reed's "I Love You Suzanne." As has been remarked elsewhere, the "quality" "control" over at Happy Madison productions has been nonexistent for some time, but this is the first time it really hit home for me just how mindful Sandler, director Dennis Dugan, and the rest of the perpetrators are with respect to keeping overhead down. Good lord.

Comments

[rotch]

"But Pacino himself brings such unseemly bravado to the film's incoherent send-up of both his image and what's left of his talent that his scenes are stomach-churningly compelling, warp-driving into a meta zone in which self-loathing and self-regard are sucked into some kind of black hole, twirled together, and pulped into cosmic dust."

That line could almost get me into the theatre. Almost.

[Ivan]

Lordy, I *love* that expression on the poor extra's face in the lower right hand part of the photo you've provided--in her mind, she's thinking, "This is paying off Yale Drama School, this is paying off Yale Drama School..."

[Unkle Rusty]

Well, I am sure you have all seen this, but....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3npY7MTcl7E

[Terry McCarty]

Perhaps someday someone will write a monograph comparing Sandler's Columbia output directed by Dennis Dugan with Jerry Lewis' films of the 60s.

[Spartickes]

Please tell me the tile is an intentional MST3K reference.

[Glenn Kenny]

@ Spartickes: Indeed, nothing but. "The Attack of the Eye Creatures" episode, as I recall.

[John Merrill]

Glenn -- an item about one of your co-stars: http://www.tmz.com/2011/11/11/porn-star-sasha-grey-reads-students-school-district/#.Tr0VfoD31lM.

[That Fuzzy Bastard]

It's almost---almost!---inspiring how little the Happy Madison crew care about the movies they make. As that awful buddies-go-camping-movie-that-I-can't-be-arsed-to-look-up made clear, they're a bunch of d00ds who can't quite believe they're paid enormous sums of money to roll out of bed and goof around in nice locations while attractive P.A.s bring them munchies. Nice work if you can get it, and much like the original Rat Pack movies, a lot of the audience is there to soak up the vibe of responsibility-free hanging out with your buds (hence the importance of the "loyalty to his pals" image of Happy Madison productions). It may even be a bonus to relish in identifying with the contempt the people on screen feel for what they're doing and those who watch them do it.

[Stephen Whitty]

Glad you mentioned poor Katie Holmes, Glenn, because I've noticed that recently, too -- she looked like hell in "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," as well, with deep circles under her eyes, even before the little wee beasties showed up. (And the one laugh she got in this film -- being shocked at finding her husband in a dress -- wasn't the one I think she wanted.)

Al, though. Al. MAN.

[Escher]

I give Dennis Dugan a modicum of slack for having directed BRAIN DONORS, which is way funnier than it ought to be, and more than a bit underrated; and, of course, for ZOHAN, which could be the most radical thing any studio has released in the past half-decade.

[jbryant]

I really liked ZOHAN, too, and hoped it signaled a new level of ambition in Sandler and Dugan. I haven't seen their subsequent collaborations though.

[KKA]

This reminds me somehow of the old Henry Rollins rant about how the creators of the TV show ‘Friends’ were forcing their audience to eat the shit off their shoe just because they would, and they asked for more! Not sure if anyone else came to this conclusion, but Sandler may be today's finest graduate of the 'Human Centipede' school of filmmaking. While he certainly didn't invent this particular style, his ability to clearly communicate his creative intentions to his audience, anus-to-mouth is certainly impressive in today's popular entertainment culture.