Grown Ups 2
Grown Ups 2 is a 2013 American comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan and co-produced by Adam Sandler, who also starred in the film. It is the sequel to the 2010 film Grown Ups. The film co-stars Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Nick Swardson, Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph, and Nick Swardson. The film is produced by Adam Sandler's production company Happy Madison Productions and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film was released on July 12, 2013. The film grossed roughly $247 million on an $80 million budget. It was nominated for nine Razzies at the 2014 Golden Raspberry Awards.
Plot
Three years after the events of the first film, Lenny Feder has relocated his family to his hometown, where his friends Eric Lamonsoff, Kurt McKenzie, and Marcus Higgins live. Lenny wakes up to find a reindeer in his bedroom, which wreaks havoc through the house until he uses his daughter Becky’s stuffed animal to lure it outside. Lenny dismisses his wife Roxanne’s suggestion that they have another child; Eric worries that his wife Sally is encouraging their children's self-confidence above all else; Kurt gives his wife Deanne a gift for their anniversary, which she has forgotten; and Marcus prepares to spend the summer with Braden, his son from a past fling, but is intimidated by the tall, tattooed teenager, who deeply resents him.Roxanne, Sally, and Deanne are dismayed to learn that their attractive new yoga teacher, Kyle, is gay. Lenny commandeers his children’s school bus from the unstable driver, Nick Hilliard, and takes everyone to their last day of school. He picks up Kurt and Eric and visits K-Mart, where they are joined by Marcus, who has sent Braden to school. Kurt persuades Lenny to throw a party for the first day of summer, and the friends discuss Lenny's childhood bully Tommy Cavanaugh. Police officers Fluzoo and Dante escort them to Becky's ballet recital, where Lenny runs into Tommy, who openly threatens him. As school ends, Kurt’s daughter Charlotte agrees to go on a date, Lenny’s younger son Keith struggles with his own bully, and their older brothers Andre and Greg accompany Braden to an abandoned quarry, where they join a college party.
After humiliating their old rival Dickie at his ice cream stand, Lenny, Eric, Kurt, and Marcus visit the quarry, their childhood swimming hole. They are confronted by a hostile college fraternity led by Milo, who force them to jump into the water naked. The friends take Marcus' van, vandalized by Braden, to Eric’s auto body shop, and Marcus inadvertently rolls through town in a runaway tire. Finding their fraternity house vandalized, the frat boys blame Lenny and his friends and swear revenge. Lenny learns that Keith is a gifted football kicker, but accidentally breaks his son’s leg. Eric apologizes to Sally for avoiding her to spend time with his mother, and endures a sexually charged car wash from male cheerleaders. Lenny becomes suspicious of Kyle’s relationship with Roxanne, who is angered by her employee Penny’s lifelong obsession with Lenny. Marcus bonds with Braden, Charlotte goes on her date, Andre passes his driving test, and Greg succeeds in asking out his crush.
Roxanne tells Lenny that she is pregnant, and most of the town arrives for the Feders’ 1980s-themed party. Lenny realizes Roxanne is not having an affair with Kyle, who has repaired Becky’s stuffed animal, and challenges Tommy to a fight, but Tommy takes a dive to allow Lenny to save face in front of his own bullied son.
The fraternity crashes the party, and Braden admits that he vandalized the frat house, leading to a brawl between the frat boys and the partygoers. The partygoers defeat the fraternity with Andy getting attacked by a reindeer thanks to a tactic by Becky.
Afterwards, the friends and Dickie enjoy a meal at Mrs. Lamonsoff's house, reminiscing about their childhood together. Eric’s mother reassures Lenny about his new baby, and reveals that Eric was accidentally conceived in the men’s bathroom at a New England Patriots game.
Lenny returns home to Roxanne and they reconcile, looking forward to their growing family.
Cast
Production
Filming of Grown Ups 2 began on May 2, 2012, in Massachusetts, United States and ended on July 15, 2012. Columbia Pictures and Happy Madison Productions distributed the film. The film was written by Adam Sandler, Fred Wolf and Tim Herlihy and directed by Dennis Dugan, Sandler's longtime collaborator. The film was released on July 12, 2013 in the United States. It was released on August 9, 2013 in the United Kingdom. Rob Schneider, who played Rob Hilliard in the first film, did not reprise his role, because of scheduling conflicts, and because his wife was pregnant during production.This is the first film sequel that Adam Sandler has starred in. It also has a role played by WWE hall of famer Steve Austin. Stand-up comedian Chris Hardwick confirmed a cameo as an ice cream vendor via his Facebook page. Additionally, the film features a cameo appearance by sportscaster Michael Kay and includes Shaquille O'Neal as a cop. On July 10, 2012, it was announced Arnold Schwarzenegger's son, Patrick, would be appearing as one of the frat brothers. Oliver Cooper was offered a role as one of the fraternity brothers but had to back out due to scheduling conflicts.
Release
The first trailer for the film was released on April 2, 2013. The film was released on July 12, 2013 in United States.Grown Ups 2 grossed $133.7 million in North America and $113.3 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $247 million, against a budget of $80 million. It made a net profit of $48 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film.
In North America, the film earned $16.3 million on its opening day, and opened to number two in its first weekend, with $41,508,572, behind Despicable Me 2. In its second weekend, the film dropped to number four in the United States, grossing an additional $19.9 million. In its third weekend, the film dropped to number five in the United States, grossing $11.6 million. In its fourth weekend, the film dropped to number six, grossing $7.9 million.
Grown Ups 2 was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 5, 2013.
Reception
, a review aggregator, reports that 7% of 109 critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 2.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "While it's almost certainly the movie event of the year for filmgoers passionate about deer urine humor, Grown Ups 2 will bore, annoy, and disgust audiences of nearly every other persuasion." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 19 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, the same grade earned by its predecessor.John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter said, "Throughout, gags are cartoonishly broad and afforded so little time for setup and delivery we seem to be watching less a story than a catalog of tossed-out material." Andrew Barker of Variety said, "Among the slackest, laziest, least movie-like movies released by a major studio in the last decade, "Grown Ups 2" is perhaps the closest Hollywood has yet come to making "Ow, My Balls!" seem like a plausible future project." Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film one out of four stars, saying, "The temptation arises to say something nice about "Grown Ups 2" just because it doesn't cause injury. But no, it's a bad movie, just old-school bad, the kind that's merely lousy and not an occasion for migraines or night sweats." Linda Barnard of the Toronto Star gave the film zero out of four stars, saying, "Adam Sandler scrapes the bottom of the barrel—and then he pukes into it—with Grown Ups 2, a lazily cribbed-together swamp of pointless and unfunny sketches that makes 2010’s Grown Ups look like Citizen Kane." Matt Patches of Time Out New York gave the film one out of five stars, saying, "In the first five minutes, a deer walks into the star's bedroom and urinates on his face. It's all downhill from there."
Rafer Guzman of Newsday gave the film one out of four stars, saying, "For all its warm and fuzzy notions of family and community, Grown Ups 2... has a desperate reliance on jokes about pee, poo and – with surprising frequency – gay panic." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, who gave the film a B, said, "In certain ways, Grown Ups 2 marks a return to classically Sandlerian infantile anarchy." Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times gave the film one and a half stars out of five, saying, "Grown Ups 2 looks like it was a lot of fun to make. And the last laugh is on us." Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News gave the film two out of five stars, saying, "Like most Adam Sandler movies, it’s exactly like most Adam Sandler movies... This movie stars all Sandler’s buddies and gleefully embraces lowbrow crudity even while promoting loving family values." Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club gave the film a D–, saying, "Largely free of Sandler’s usual schmaltz and lame romance, it’s pure plotless, grotesque high jinks, bizarre and inept in a way that’s fascinating without ever being all that funny." Nick Schager of The Village Voice gave the film a negative review, saying "A few decent one-liners notwithstanding, the movie comes off as willfully uninspired."
Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the film one star out of four, saying, "Mystifyingly, the movie manages to emerge plot-free. Instead, it offers a succession of humorless gross-out gags, fat jokes, suggestive posturing, bullying, belches and pratfalls. Life is simple – and gross – in Sandlerville." Sara Stewart of the New York Post gave the film half a star out of four, saying, "The movie lurches from one gross-out scene to another, flipping the bird at continuity and logic. It honestly seems as if Sandler and his team descended on a random suburb, halfheartedly improvising and moving on when they got bored." Stephanie Merry of The Washington Post gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying, "Grown Ups 2 isn’t merely mindless. At times it seems to actually drain IQ points from its viewers while wasting a talented cast of "Saturday Night Live" alums, who are all capable of being much smarter and so much funnier." Andy Webster of The New York Times gave the film one out of five stars, saying, "This is pap, plain and simple: scattered raunch-lite devoid of emotional resonance. At best, it sells itself on the spectacle of a TV show’s cast reunion—and even then it disappoints. With the debacles of That's My Boy and Jack and Jill, Mr. Sandler has increasingly squandered his comic capital. His onetime SNL brethren do themselves few favors—beyond a paycheck—by working in his orbit." Peter Keough of The Boston Globe gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying, "Apparently the world demanded another family-friendly version of The Hangover, one that combined scatological comedy with smarmy sentimentality."
Connie Ogle of the Miami Herald gave the film one out of four stars, saying, "Nobody escapes untainted by the foul stench of Grown Ups 2; it’s bad enough to make you look askance at Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, and Maya Rudolph, all of whom deserve a chance to do something funny other than pose as wives exuding various degrees of sexiness." Richard Roeper gave the film one and a half stars, saying, "When Taylor Lautner is the funniest thing in a movie starring Adam Sandler and Chris Rock, we're in trouble." Randy Cordova of The Arizona Republic gave the film one out of five stars, saying, "In its own way, "Grown Ups 2" sets the bar really high. After all, it’s hard to imagine another comedy coming along this year that is this abrasive and free of laughs. It’s like everyone involved intentionally tried to create a horrible movie." Alonso Duralde of The Wrap wrote, "Yes, it's time for another visit to the Adam Sandler Death-of-Cinema Fun Factory, the big-screen version of a terrible sitcom where laugh tracks are replaced by the co-stars chuckling at their own awful material." Adam Nayman of The Globe and Mail gave the film two out four stars, saying, "None of the stars are trying very hard, and so the most memorable presences are the cameos: If nothing else, Grown Ups 2 will go down as the only film in history to find room for Steve Buscemi alongside "Stone Cold" Steve Austin."
In 2014, comedians Tim Batt and Guy Montgomery watched the film every week for a full year for the second season of their podcast, The Worst Idea of All Time.