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SONY PICTURES

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Frank Coraci
Cast:
Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale, Christopher Walken, David Hasselhoff, Henry Winkler, Julie Kavner, Sean Astin
Writing Credits:
Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe

Tagline:
What If You Had A Universal Remote ... That Controlled Your Universe?

Synopsis:
A harried workaholic, Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) doesn't have time for his wife (Kate Beckinsale) and children ... not if he's to impress his ungrateful boss and earn a well-deserved promotion. So when he meets Morty (Christopher Walken), a loopy sales clerk, he gets him to bypass life's little distractions with a special remote that leads to increasingly hysterical results. But as Michael gleefully mutes, skips and scans past his family and his friends, the remote gradually takes over his life and begins to program him, in this fast, funny and out-of-control comedy adventure.

Box Office:
Budget
$70 million.
Opening Weekend
$40.011 million on 3749 screens.
Domestic Gross
$137.340 million.

MPAA:
Rated PG-13

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Widescreen 1.85:1/16x9
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English
French
Closed-captioned

Runtime: 107 min.
Price: $28.95
Release Date: 10/10/2006

Bonus:
• Audio Commentary with Director Frank Coraci, Actor Adam Sandler, Co-Writer Steve Koren, and Executive Producer Tim Herlihy
• Four Deleted Scenes
• Seven Featurettes
• Previews


PURCHASE @ AMAZON.COM

EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

RELATED REVIEWS

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Click (2006)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (October 9, 2006)

For Adam Sandler’s latest smash comedy, we turn to 2006’s Click. In this one, Sandler plays harried architect and family man Michael Newman. He has to deal with an overbearing boss (David Hasselhoff) who wants everything done yesterday, so this actively takes away from his home life, much to the resentment of wife Donna (Kate Beckinsale).

Feeling out of control, Michael desires some way to simplify matters. On an errand to get a new remote, he ends up at Bed Bath & Beyond where he discovers a secret “Beyond” backroom. There he encounters wacky inventor Morty (Christopher Walken) and picks up a “universal remote”. As Michael soon learns, this sucker doesn’t just run the TV and the DVD player. It runs everything, which means Michael can take complete control of his life.

Sort of. Though delighted with his acquisition, Michael quickly discovers that some complications come along with the universal remote. The movie follows his ups and downs as he attempts to make things right.

As the years pass, I find it more and more difficult to defend Adam Sandler. I’ve liked him since his early days on SNL but his films sure are inconsistent. For every winner like Billy Madison or The Wedding Singer, we find clunkers such as Big Daddy and Little Nicky.

I’m afraid we must lump Click into that pile of stinkers. That comes as a major disappointment since the movie boasted a lot of potential. The trailers sure made it look funny, and while the theme clearly borrows heavily from Jim Carrey’s Bruce Almighty, I think there was still more than enough potential comedy for Click to mine some gold.

Unfortunately, it manages to eke very little gold from that particular mine. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve already viewed pretty much everything funny about Click. Oh, a couple more chuckles may emerge along the way, but what few laughs the film prompts pretty much begin and end with the promos.

That leaves us with what ends up as a half-baked mix of Bruce Almighty, A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life. The former dominates the first half of Click, while the flick goes all Scrooge Bailey on us during its second half. The two sides fail to meld neatly, and Click never comes across as anything other than an awkward rip-off.

It doesn’t help that Sandler plays Michael as a raging jerk. At least Jimmy Stewart had the good sense to make us care for Bailey before he grew bitter and nasty; Sandler doesn’t accord us the same luxury. This means we don’t really care about Michael and don’t root for him to succeed. Sure, we feel some empathy for his pressure-filled life, but he’s such a charmless prick that we never grow to like him. We constantly hear him described as a nice guy but we don’t see him that way.

That’s a massive problem that the flick can’t overcome. Click features a fun premise and a good cast. It just is too abrasive and aggressive to win over the viewer. The movie batters us with unfunny gags and an unlikable leading character. That combination makes it a big disappointment and a slow-moving dud.


The DVD Grades: Picture B-/ Audio B+/ Bonus B-

Click appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. The picture looked generally solid, though it suffered from a few small issues.

Sharpness appeared erratic. Most of the movie came across as acceptably distinct and well defined, but more than a few exceptions occurred. Periodic soft shots popped up throughout the movie, though they never dominated the proceedings. No jagged edges or shimmering marred the piece, but some moderate edge enhancement showed up at times. Source flaws weren’t a concern. The movie showed no signs of defects.

Colors mostly looked fine. They presented a natural palette that seemed warm and full. The tones seemed concise and vivid the majority of the time, with only a few slightly runny shots. Black levels were dense and deep, and low-light scenes generally appeared appropriately defined. Shadow detail was a smidgen thick at times, but not often. Overall, the image of Click was decent but not as good as I’d like.

Click presented Dolby Digital 5.1 audio that seemed like a pretty typical soundtrack for this sort of comedy, though the elements related to the remote control opened up matters to a good degree. The forward domain played the strongest role in the audio throughout the film. The mix displayed solid stereo imaging and also created a pretty good sense of environment through various effects. Elements meshed together well and moved across the spectrum cleanly. As for the surrounds, they remained the junior partners most of the time, but they became more involved in the proceedings when the remote did its magic. Though scenes were somewhat infrequent, but they added good spice to the flick at times.

Audio quality appeared fine. Speech was smooth and distinct, and I noticed no signs of edginess or problems connected to intelligibility. Music sounded bright and vivid and displayed pretty good range. Effects were clean and accurate, and they suffered from no signs of distortion. Bass response rounded out the piece nicely. The soundtrack did the job and presented some more than acceptable audio.

Moving to the extras, we start with an audio commentary from director Frank Coraci, actor Adam Sandler, co-writer Steve Koren, and executive producer Tim Herlihy. All four sit together for this running, screen-specific chat. The chat includes info about sets and locations, the choice to shoot hi-def video and other technical decisions, cast and performances, real-life influences and inspirations for various elements, visual effects, and various shoot specifics.

Expect a lot of joking and praise here along with the occasional nugget of decent information. Every once in a while, something reasonably interesting turns up, but most of the track sticks with light fare. The guys seem to enjoy themselves, and they make things amusing. However, they don’t give us a very good look at the film. This ends up as a pretty mediocre commentary.

Four Deleted Scenes fill a total of two minutes, 53 seconds. These include “Habeeboo Can Do It” (0:22), “Loser Guy Returns” (0:51), “Fatty Sandwich” (1:04) and “Sp-Sp-Spit It Out” (0:35). These are obviously pretty inconsequential, though “Returns” offers a neat call-back for the Terry Crews character.

Under the “Featurettes” domain, we find seven pieces. Make Me Old and Fat runs six minutes, 32 seconds, and uses the same formula we’ll see for the others. We get movie clips, behind the scenes elements, and interviews. We hear from Coraci, Sandler, visual effects designer Jim Rygiel, special makeup effects Rick Baker, and actors Henry Winkler and Kate Beckinsale.

As implied by the title, we get some info about how they made the actors look different ages and body sizes. Mostly we hear the actors reflect on their experiences, so don’t expect real nuts and bolts details. The show remains reasonably fun, though, largely due to all the shots from the set.

Next comes FX of Click. It fills five minutes, six seconds, and features Rygiel, Beckinsale, special effects coordinator John C. Hartigan and lead creative supervisor Kent Demaine. This gets into visual elements like how they executed the universal remote-related sequences. We see the different elements and how they mesh. There’s also a look at a rain-soaked set and another covered with snow. This turns into a good technical overview of all the different challenges presented by the material.

For the four-minute and 45-second Design My Universe, we hear from Coraci and production designer Perry Andelin Blake. We learn details about the movie’s main sets. It’s a quick and effective view of the subject.

Cars of the Future goes for three minutes, six seconds, and includes Hartigan, Blake, Coraci, and sculptor Craig Abele. It looks at the designs used for the vehicles in the future sequences. Since we barely see these in the movie, I like the fact we get a closer view of their creation.

During the 70-second Humping Dogs, we hear from Rygiel and Beckinsale. We find a very quick look at how they got the dogs to do the nasty with the stuffed duck. It gives us the minimal basics, which is about all we need – or want – from this subject.

In Director’s Take, we get four minutes and 20 seconds with Sandler, Winkler, Beckinsale and actors David Hasselhoff, Jake Hoffman, Julie Kavner, Sophie Monk, Sean Astin and Christopher Walken. The participants talk about Coraci and why they think he’s a wonderful guy and a great director. The content stays with general praise, but some decent footage from the set slightly redeems it.

Finally, Fine Cookin’ goes for two minutes, 55 seconds and features general wackiness from Sandler on the set. While he wears his fat guy makeup, he goofs around and acts silly. This is mildly amusing.

The DVD opens with a few ads. We get promos for Stranger Than Fiction, The Da Vinci Code and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. These also appear in the disc’s Previews area along with trailers for The Benchwarmers, 50 First Dates, The Pursuit of Happyness, Casino Royale, Ghost Rider, Spider-Man 3, Open Season and The Holiday.

I wanted to like Click and thought I would enjoy it based on trailers. However, the movie featured exceedingly few humorous moments and instead features the exploits of a genuinely obnoxious, unlikable lead character. A few minor laughs emerge but not enough to overcome the film’s many faults. The DVD presents decent picture and audio plus some moderately interesting extras. This is an acceptable release for a disappointing movie.

Viewer Film Ratings: 2.5945 Stars Number of Votes: 37
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Review Archive:  # | A-C | D-F | G-I | J-L | M-O | P-R | S-U | V-Z | Viewer Ratings | Main