Just Go With It – movie review

I love Adam Sandler movies, and am absolutely in love with Jennifer Aniston, so going to see Just Go With It was a no brainer. It was a fun and enjoyable movie, but it was a tad predictable.

In all Adam Sandler movies, Adam Sandler gets the girl, so Just Go With It wasn’t going to be any different. It slides further into chick flick territory, however, when Sandler’s character Danny doesn’t realize that love has been in front of him the entire time. Of course, there are also so many lies going on in the movie that it can be hard to keep up. Not only does Danny have his lies going on to impress Palmer, but then Aniston’s character Katherine starts lying to an old friend and uses Danny in her lies, and Danny’s cousin Eddie just creates his own web of deceit. But of course it all leads to hilarious moments.

My favorite scene in the entire movie is when Eddie takes Palmer out for a night under the guise of forming a stronger unit for the kids, but really so Danny and Katherine can commit to another lie they’ve gotten themselves into without raising suspicion.  Somebody’s sheep passes out, and Eddie’s lies literally come back in his face as Palmer volunteers him to save the sheep. It is comical to see Eddie try so hard to save a sheep, not knowing what he’s doing, and somehow managing to succeed. It’s the kind of physical comedy that sometimes can feel cheap, but is still hard to not laugh at.

Adam Sandler played Danny, and Danny is like most Adam Sandler characters. He’s nice enough, at times he’s angrier than he needs to be, and he ultimately learns something about himself. There’s really no difference between Sandler’s character here from pretty much any other Adam Sandler movie. However, it’s a character that works for him; otherwise, nobody would watch his movies. If you like Adam Sandler, you’ll love him in Just Go With It.

Jennifer Aniston played Katherine. I liked Katherine, and I think she and Adam Sandler have great friend chemistry, but once things started getting romantic, it didn’t feel as right. I liked Aniston’s performance, though. You could tell that Katherine cared about her kids and Danny, and the last thing in the world she really wanted or needed was to be hurt again, like she was by her ex-husband.

Brooklyn Decker played Palmer. There was something about Palmer that I didn’t like, but I can’t put my finger on it. She was obviously hurt by her own parent’s divorce because it got mentioned every other line, and she did care about Katherine’s kids and how they were affected by their parents divorce, even if she wasn’t quite right on who those parents were. However, Palmer was really impetuous and just wanted to rush into things. That’s probably what I didn’t like about her. Nobody rushes into something with a divorced guy with kids. It just doesn’t feel realistic.

Nick Swardson played Eddie. This character was a little unlike other characters Swardson’s played. Eddie was still a little gimmicky, but he was much more involved in the plot than I expected. I liked seeing Swardson getting more screen time. He’s really funny, and at times he offered comic relief, while at other times he helped complicate the plot. Eddie was a fun character.

Nicole Kidman played Devlin Adams, a woman who was once in a sorority with Katherine, whom Katherine hated so much she named her kids’ poops after Devlin. Devlin was vile and bitchy and easily offended. However, she manages to redeem herself, which doesn’t always happen with the bitch-from-the-past characters, so that was cool. Nicole Kidman played Devlin so well, and it was super fun to see her as a redhead again.

Overall, Just Go With It is a fun movie. If you like Adam Sandler movies, you won’t be disappointed. It’s got romance, comedy, and a man trying to resuscitate a sheep–which is a lot more than some movies have offered lately.