UrbanWire

50 First Dates is Adam Sandler's 20th movie, not that anyone's keeping score. His brand of slapstick comedy is not well received by critics because of his love for anatomy jokes, butt cracks and people being hit on the head repeatedly, the latter which is something maybe only his Hong Kong equivalent Stephen Chow can comprehend. Nevertheless, Sandler has a huge teen fan base, which explains his numerous MTV Movie, Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice, and Teen Choice Awards.

I discovered that there are 3 necessary points in enjoying a Sandler movie: pay attention, enjoy and don't ask so many questions. I didn't expect these wise words from my childhood would have such a significant impact on my journalistic career now.

Henry Roth (Sandler), a marine biologist at Sea Life Park in Honolulu, Hawaii is a playboy afraid of commitment (which explains his affinity for female tourists) until he meets the girl of his dreams in a local diner. This girl is Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore), from the victim of a car accident that left her with a strange short-term memory (think Dory from Finding Nemo or Guy Pearce's character in Memento). She wakes up every day not remembering what happened the day before and continues her life exactly like the day of the accident.

So as not to upset her with the truth of her accident, her dad Marlin (Blake Clark), brother Doug (Sean Astin) and people at the diner, re-enact the events of that faithful day over and over again. That means waking up to read the same dated newspapers, watching the same recorded Minnesota Vikings game and celebrating Marlin's birthday repeatedly. And for the out-of-character Henry, it means he has to win her heart anew every day to make their "relationship" work.

Sean Astin and Rob Schneider steal the show from the lead actors. Astin (last seen as Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings trilogy) looks almost unrecognisable as Lucy's brother, a well-toned bodybuilder with a steroid-abuse problem. Perhaps his convincing acting as the sensible Samwise makes it even more difficult for us to visualise Astin in a slapstick comedy role but he excelled in it.

Schneider, on the other hand, plays Hawaiian native Ula utilising his slapstick comedy experience (read: Saturday Night Live alum). Ula has a weird theory about shark bites ("…they only bite when you touch their private parts!"), which explains how he got his ugly scar and throws light on his creepy but hilarious (if you like off-colour jokes) character.

50 First Dates is a collaboration between Barrymore's Flower Films and Sandler's Happy Madison. Barrymore and Sandler's acting in this movie is pretty average (they were last seen together in The Wedding Singer) but they've seen better days. For example, Barrymore's now a producer of her own movies such as the Charlie's Angels movies and recently Duplex with Ben Stiller. As for Sandler, he won applause for his 1st dramatic role in Punch-Drunk Love and is preparing to headline Quentin Tarantino's next movie, Inglorious Bastards.

If you don't try to take Sandler seriously, and why should, you considering his previous movies were Happy Gilmore or The Waterboy, 50 First Dates is actually an enjoyable movie (like an updated and more likeable version of Groundhog Day) though be wary that the crude humor may not be appropriate for a 1st date.