Grown Ups 2 movie review & film summary (2013)

Sandler has his reasons. His last big success — a huge one — was "Grown Ups," three years ago, before the lousy returns on "Jack and Jill" and "That's My Boy." But you can't really call "Grown Ups 2" a sequel; it's more like an extension or off-shoot, starting in medias res after Feder, his soignée but most curvaceous wife Roxanne (Salma Hayek) and cute brood have already moved back to New England, after having had such a good time in the first "Grown Ups" (maybe we should be glad we were spared the trip across the country). 

We remember or learn that Lenny returned home to New England for the funeral of his beloved high school coach, and to reconnect with childhood pals played by Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider. Such a good time was had by all that Lenny felt it was a good idea for the kids to get away from Hollywood, where Feder, a most successful agent, was providing an overly pampered lifestyle.

Being of the most naïve and hopeful disposition, I interpreted the scene at the end of the first "Grown Ups" when Donna, Eric's daughter, blows the whistle on the five — accusing them of urinating in the pool  when water around them turns blue, and the culprits are revealed — as a potential behavior corrective. No such luck. There is an even bigger, more self-congratulatory relieving-of-self in "2," and blue fills the whole pool. This time the perpetrator is Shaquille O'Neal. No comment.

Other visual gags depending on colors involve chocolate ice cream which emerges poop-like while Dickie (Colin Quinn), Lenny's childhood friend/enemy is propped before a dispenser; this moment echoed later visually with yellow beer, a similar stance, and pee. More creative, if you like this sort of thing, is a new trick Eric (Kevin James) has created: he can combine belching, sneezing and farting, and even has a word for it: burpsnart, or something.

These images stick out because not much else happens, despite a huge '80s theme party, the main purpose of which seems to be to let the guys acknowledge that they're getting on in years. Pranks in K-Mart are featured; it's suburbia, and oddly the film doesn't make much use of nearby nature except for The Quarry, where some frat boys who want it all to themselves force Lenny and pals to jump buck-nekid into the water. This may have some purpose in the film: to point out, as the frat boys do, that all the main characters have blue collar jobs except Lenny, and that some bonded guys are even more obnoxious than Lenny and his friends.

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