The Week Of (dir. Robert Smiegel) (NETFLIX ORIGINAL)

It’s no surprise that streaming juggernaut "Netflix" recently renewed its lucrative contract with former SNL-alum turned comedy superstar Adam Sandler, as his irreverent and broad style of comedy is perhaps best suited for a home viewing performance. Away from the silver-screen multiplexes, Sandler can reach the widest possible audience, as many times as the viewer wishes, and there's less chance of a critical bashing.

Gone are the days of cinematic glory for Sandler, where hits like "Punch Drunk Love" and "Click" proved that the Brooklyn native did have the acting chops, although around the corner were the dog-shit offerings of "Jack and Jill" and "Grown Ups". But he put pen to paper with the execs over at Netflix back in 2014, and soon offerings such as "The Ridiculous Six", "The Do-Over" and most recently "Sandy Wexler" became the highlights of the twilight of his career, and one need only view the trailer for any of these works to get the general juvenile idea of his comedy.

Not much has changed then with his most recent collaboration - which is helmed by the usually competent director Robert Smiegel (FILMS) -as this limp attempt at social satire lays dormant on screen, without a minuscule amount of wit, invention or comedic flair. Sandler's comedic schtick only really ever had one note: high-pitched voices, perhaps the odd drag act, and the occasional bit of toilet humour- and it very rarely worked. Case and point here. His routine has run dry, and therefore he resorts to sub-Father of The Bride satire, with assorted stereotypical characters and one moment of sheer outright racism (Jerry sees two African-American men walking down the street and assumes them to be part of Tyler's wedding party) which should not go unchallenged.

Sandler plays schlubby Long-Island native Jerry Lustig, a modest-living father of three, with wife Debbie (Rachel Dratch), who in five-days, will host the dream wedding for his daughter Sarah (Allison Strong). Though only 23, she'll be marrying her high-school sweetheart, Tyler (Roland Buck III) - who's father Kirby Corbice (Chris Rock) is been out of the picture since birth. Even though Kirby has buckets of cash from his life as a top surgeon in Los Angeles, Jerry wants to finance the special day by himself, without the gracious help of the groom's father; so he orders the city hall for the reception, and a nearby hotel to house his soon-to-be in-laws. Over the course of the precipitating days, family members come into town, from Jerry's paraplegic WW2-vet Uncle Seymour (Jim Barone) and his live-in carer Charles (Steve Buscemi), to high-functioning sociopath Noah (Noah Robbins), and other anti-social undesirables.

What we get -instead of the traditional straight-forward narrative - are a series of sketches; first the hotel stay goes awry so the incoming bridal party must stay at Jerry's own home, then a bachelor party set-piece which sees Jerry and co throwing a 80-year old paraplegic into a pool of foam, and the odd bit of inter-family squabbling. Title cards are visible on screen, to count down the ensuing days - and around 30 minutes in, never have you wished for the weekend to come sooner. Ongoing gags around a neighborly crush are interjected to no effect, and Jerry and Debbie often argue off-screen which equally amounts to nothing more than to stretch the running time to a reasonable length.

No surprises that character development and a cohesive narrative structure are notable only by their absence, as is an underlying message of anything larger more substantial than “weddings are stressful”. My early belief was that the final wedding sequence would be the welcome relief to the proceeding 85 minutes of foolishness, yet it merely serves a further reminder of the filmmaking teams inability to tell the story without getting sidetracked by toilet-humour pratfalls. Expect a few more incarnations from Sandler and Netflix over the next few years, and thankfully these films aren’t stinking out theater screens and will only be seen by people who prefer to stay at home anyways - yet it’s all so lazily and without a comedic bone in its body, surely Sandler has a healthy bank balance from his years in the business, maybe taking a step back wouldn’t go a miss.

Rating 1/5