Jack and Jill | Review
‘Jack and Jill’ is perhaps the worst Adam Sandler film in recent memory. After this year’s first Sandler film, ‘Just Go With It‘, was surprisingly more enjoyable than initially expected (though it’s still just okay), this new film could have also been a pleasant surprise. Sadly this isn’t the case. Maybe it’s time for a change in director for Sandler’s films, considering Dennis Dugan has directed every single one of them since 2007.
The film involves a very successful man, named Jack Sadelstein (played by Sandler), who lives a fairly pampered lifestyle running an advertisement company. He has a beautiful wife, Erin (Katie Holmes), and two adorable children. When Jack’s twin sister comes to visit his family for Thanksgiving, everything in his life is turned upside down.
Since Adam Sandler doesn’t have an identical twin sister in real life, he’s forced to dress in drag and portray the sister, Jill (the twins’ names of Jack and Jill have no other function than to loosely allude to the old classic nursery rhyme). Sandler portrays Jill as a needy, unbelievably strong, disgusting, and socially awkward character with a lisp. Jill is such a down-in-the-dumps character that you feel kind of emotional and sympathetic to her. That is, until she does something so annoying or gross and reminds you that this is just a very bad Sandler pic.
‘Jack and Jill’ is overridden with product placement. From Krispy Kreme doughnuts to online dating sites like eHarmony and Match.com. It’s ridiculous how much product placement is featured in this film, especially with the last scene. Coinciding with this abundance of product placement are the random cameos of famous Hollywood celebrities, such as Regis Philbin, Shaq, and Johnny Depp.
One of the oddest elements of this film is the inclusion of Al Pacino as himself, also a major character. Pacino, giving a solid performance throughout, falls for the unbearable Jill character, and Jack needs Pacino for a very important commercial; you can see where the story goes from here. The film’s plot is so predictable (and full of zero surprises other than certain weird and/or random scenes) that I can’t believe I didn’t see the scene where Jack dresses up and poses as Jill coming!
‘Jack and Jill’ is far from being one of the best Adam Sandler films. It’s full of gross-out-gags, potty humor, and other immature shenanigans. The film has a few funny scenes, but for the most part it’s underwhelming and a bore. The resolution is also too easy and a total cop out. Sandler is annoying when he’s in a bad film, and this bad film has two Sandlers, which is way too much to handle.
