Hilarious, fun and felt as my gut was going to burst from laughing so hard! “Just Go With It” will make you laugh and the Blu-ray release unveils all the fun and all the pranks that took place while filming this movie. Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler make an interesting odd couple, yet they are quite fun to watch! Happy Madison films are not for everyone but if you do enjoy them, then definitely give this film a try!
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TITLE: Just Go With It
FILM RELEASE DATE: 2011
DURATION: 116 minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (widescreen 1:85:1), English and French5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Spanish, English Audio Description Track 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles: English, English SDH, French and Spanish
RATED: PG-13 (Frequent Crude and Sexual Content, Partial Nudity, Brief Drug References and Language)
COMPANY: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2011
Directed by Dennis Dugan
Screenplay by Allan Loeb and Timothy Dowling
Based on the screenplay “Cactus Flower” by I.A.L. Diamond
Based on the Stage Play by Abe Burrows
Based on the French Play by Pierre Barillet, Jean-Pierre Gredy
Produced by Heather Parry, Adam Sandler, Jack Giarraputo
Executive Producer: Barry Bernardi, Allen Covert, Tim Herlihy, Steve Koren
Music by Rupert Gregson-Williams
Cinematography by Theo van de Sande
Edited by Tom Costain
Casting by Roger Mussenden, Jeremy Rich
Production Design by Perry Andelin Blake
Art Direction by Alan Au, John Collins
Set Decoration by Claire Kaufman
Starring:
Adam Sandler as Danny Maccabee
Jennifer Aniston as Katherine
Nicole Kidman as Devlin Adams
Nick Swardson as Eddie
Brooklyn Decker as Palmer
Bailee Madison as Maggie
Griffin Gluck as Michael
Dave Matthews as Ian Maxtone Jones
Kevin Nealon as Adon
Rachel Dratch as Kirsten Brant
Allen Covert as Soul PAtch
Minka Kelly as Joanna Damon
Dan Patrick as Tanner Patrick
Danny Maccabee (Adam Sandler) meets the girl of his dreams (Brooklyn Decker) but has to enlist his loyal assistant Katherine (Jennifer Aniston) to pretend to be his soon-to-be ex-wife in order to cover up a careless lie. When more lies backfire, Katherine’s kids become involved, and everyone heads off to Hawaii for a ridiculous, out-of-control weekend that tests the limits of how far we’ll go for love.
It’s that time again for a Happy Madison film starring Adam Sandler and this time around, he has wonderful talent to star alongside with him for the comedy “Just Go With It”.
“Just Go With It” is directed by Dennis Dugan (“Happy Gilmore”, “Big Daddy”, “I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry”) and a screenplay adaptation of the French play “Fleur de cactus” by Allan Loeb (“21”, “The Switch”, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”) and Timothy Dowling (“Role Models”, “ZeD”).
The film would star Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Kidman, Dave Matthews, comedian Nick Swardson and the film debut of model Brooklyn Decker. The film would also feature appearances by Minka Kelly, Kevin Nealon, Rachel Dratch, Dan Patrick and Heidi Montag.
While film critics will continue to give Happy Madison films negative reviews, the audience tends to disagree and once again, Adam Sandler’s latest film has become box office gold earning over $212 million in the box office and now, a Blu-ray release is schedule for June 2011.
“Just Go With It” begins with a man named Danny Maccabee (played by Adam Sandler), who came from a family with big noses, on the day of his wedding day, he hears his fiance and her friends talking about how she had sex with another guy and how they are making fun of his nose and his family.
Heartbroken, Danny takes off and heads to the bar wearing a wedding ring he was going to wear but sad and depressed, he notices that beautiful women take to his story and feel bad about them and he eventually is able to score.
As the decades past and Danny becomes a plastic surgeon (fixing his nose), his ruse of pretending he is a divorced man with a terrible wife has worked for him in scoring with women.
Working at his plastic surgery office is his office manager Katherine Murphy (played by Jennifer Aniston), a divorced mother who has two children. She is the person that Danny can easily talk to, discuss his problems or his personal life.
And when Danny falls for the beautiful Palmer (played by Brooklyn Decker), he eventually scores and Palmer falls for him. But when she goes through his pockets and finds a wedding ring (which Danny uses to get women), she is disgusted.
The following day, Danny tries to tell her the truth but instead, gets caught up in another lie, telling her that he is divorcing his wife because she cheated with a German man named Dolph Lundgren and for Palmer, in order to begin their relationship, she must meet his wife in person to confirm they are divorcing.
Now trapped within the lie, Danny goes to Katherine and pleads for her to pretend that she is his ex-wife. Katherine only agrees when Danny buys her expensive things at the boutiques in Rodeo Drive and when she shows up to meet with Palmer, all is good. And interesting thing is that Danny gives Katherine the name of Devlin (named after Katherine’s high school nemesis and a word that she has used with her children to describe “poop”).
It looks as if Danny is safe and he can have his fling with Palmer… that is until Devlin/Katherine gets a call from her children.
Now, shocked that Danny has never mentioned that he had children, Palmer must meet them.
So, getting even further deep in the lie, Danny recruits Katherine’s children Maggie (played by Bailee Madison) who wants to be an actress and tries to speak with a British accent and Katherine’s younger son Michael (played by Griffin Gluck) who wants Danny to take him to Hawaii, so he can swim with the dolphins. Danny manages to bribe Maggie by willing to pay for three weeks of acting lessons and for young Michael, no way Danny will take him to Hawaii but he will give him a Ps3, several games plus unlimed tokens to game center.
So now, Palmer meets Devlin/Katherine and the kids in which Maggie is now known as Kiki D. and Michael is now known as Bart. And as everything is looking good between Danny and the children, young Michael/Bart uses the opportunity to tell a sob story that his father broke his promise to take him to Hawaii because he started dating Palmer.
Feeling guilty that Danny didn’t take him to Hawaii, now Palmer expects him to do so and thus Danny must take Palmer, Katherine and the children along. But also joining in on the fun is Dolph Lungrin/Eddie (played by Nick Swardson), Danny’s buddy who is trying to pretend and get close to Devlin/Katherine.
To further complicate matters, in Hawaii, Katherine runs into her high school nemesis Devlin Adams (played by Nicole Kidman) and Devlin start showing off her husband Ian Maxtone Jones, the creator of the iPod (played by Dave Matthews) and Katherine, wanting to one up her nemesis, also gets deep within the lie by telling them that she is married to Danny.
Will Danny be able to convince Palmer with all these lies that he is a guy ready to get into a divorce but yet still have love for his children? Because of all the lying between she and Danny, Katherine gets closer to Danny and finds herself falling in love with him.
With all the lies and all the emotions, how will their vacation in Hawaii end?
VIDEO:
“Just Go With It” is presented in 1080p High Definition (1:85:1) and the film is absolutely beautiful. Shot in Hawaii, as one can expect, beautiful waters, lush greens, beautiful sunlight, blue skies and perfect conditions. There are many breathtaking scenes in the film. Granted, I’m quite confident that while the film looks beautiful, the scenes that will probably catch more eyes are scenes with Brooklyn Decker and Jennifer Aniston in their bikinis.
Nevertheless, “Just Go With It” is a vibrant film full of colors, I detected no banding, no compression artifacts and for the most part, a good looking film overall. PQ is quite solid and there is a good amount of detail throughout the film.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Just Go With It” is presented in English and French 5.1 DTS-HD MA, Spanish and English description track 5.1 Dolby Digital. It’s important to note that the film features dialogue that is crystal clear and also the occasional ambient sounds of Hawaii with birds, leaves, people, waterfall and other sounds coming from the surround channel.  The film is pretty much a dialogue-driven film but one of the highlights of “Just Go With It” as it utilizes a soundtrack of mashups. You don’t really hear that in commercial film but there are quite a number of them along with Sting songs playing throughout the film.
Dialogue and music is crystal clear and while not the type of film that one would expect to be immersive, there is good use of the surround channels.
Subtitles are in English SDH, French and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Just Go With It” comes with the following special features:
- Audio Commentary with Adam Sandler, Nick Swardson and the Filmmakers – A hilarious commentary with Sandler and Swardson watching the film and joking around and giving us a picture of what took place during the filming of “Just Go With It”.
- Audio Commentary with Director Dennis Dugan – Filmmaker Dennis Dugan is just as nutty as Sandler and Swardson but he gives us a director’s perspective of the film, discussion of certain scenes, working with the talent and more.
- Laughter is Contagious – (4:39) Bloopers from “Just Go With It”.
- Deleted Scenes – (16:57) Featuring 16 deleted scenes from the film.
- Adon Living in Plastic – (2:30) Keavin Nealon visiting boutiques on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills with his plastic surgery face.
- Along Came a Prop Guy – (2:53) Prop guy playing pranks on the crew with a fake spider.
- Decker’s Got Gas – (2:19) Decker Brooklyn planning to use a fart iPhone app to freak out Adam Sandler during their bed scene.
- Dolph-Not-The-One From Rocky IV – (6:11) The cast talk about working with comedian Nick Swardson.
- Kevin Nealon: The Plastic Man – (5:31) Kevin Nealon going through his 3 hour make-up session.
- What’s a Dugan? – (5:27) Cast talk about working with director Dennis Dugan.
- Look Who Else Is In the Movie – (2:40) A talk with Rachel Dratch, Heidi Montag and Dan Patrick.
- Sneaky Kiki & Bart the Water Fart – (1:31) Balee Madison and Griffin Gluck talk about being part of a film and working with Adam Sandler and crew.
- The Perfect Couple: Jen & Adam – (5:51) Cast talk about working with Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler.
- The Not So Perfect Couple – (5:52) Nicole Kidman and Dave Matthews talk about being part of the film.
- Decker’s First Role – (4:20) Decker Brooklyn talks about being in her first film.
- Shooting Hawaii – (5:35) Crew talking about shooting “Just Go With It” in Hawaii.
- Grand Wailea Promo – (7:08) Grand Wailea promotional video.
Before I begin my final judgement call of “Just Go With It”, as with ever “Happy Madison” film that I have to review, I have to preface and remind people that no matter how crazy, moronic or self-deprecating these films can be, leave your serious side at home and if you just want to laugh at the craziest situations, then just sit back, get your popcorn and drink ready and just prepare to laugh!
“Just Go With It” is probably one of the coolest and hilarious, gut-bursting Happy Madison film to come in a long time and part of the reason for the enjoyment is that, it’s one thing to have Adam Sandler and the goofball Nick Swardson together in the film (note: Surprisingly there is no Rob Schneider in this film) and most importantly, Sandler was able to bring in two of America’s top actresses to star in a Happy Madison film, Jennifer Aniston and Nicole Kidman. Seriously, I would never have expected this to happen but it did!
Also, we have the debut of Sports Illustrated bikini cover girl Brooklyn Decker making her film debut and there is no doubt that this is a film that will attract the young adults, the Maxim Magazine crowd as you get a story about men who want to get laid and of course, the hottest female actresses in their bikinis.
Thought Jennifer Aniston was hot during the years she did “Friends”, just watching this film alone after seeing the hot Brooklyn Decker and then seeing Aniston in her bikini and her sexy outfits and know that she still has it and there is no doubt, guys are going to like this film.
And I can hear my critic counterparts saying, “well, how can you like a film that features hot women and moronic jokes?”. And I keep going back to the fact that this is how Happy Madison films are! Like the banality of horror films and people hoping for something to get scared about, I look at these Happy Madison films to see what new things does Adam Sandler and crew happen to have in store for viewers, can they keep us laughing.
And for me, the fact that Jennifer Aniston and Nicole Kidman were in this film, I couldn’t picture them in a Happy Madison film, so I personally had to see how this film was and I enjoyed it.
First, Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston were an intriguing couple. Aniston’s casting in this film was a shock for me, but that’s good. You don’t know what to expect from her in a comedy film of this caliber and I’m pretty sure behind-the-scenes, she was probably not sure what she got herself into (which is discussed in the commentary and special features). But it was fun to see both talents playing characters who get themselves deep in lies. And for Aniston, how can this actress go toe-to-toe with the awesome body of Brooklyn Decker? Well, I think everyone’s eyeballs pop out when Aniston took her clothes off and showcased her and her bikini and there is no doubt in mind that Aniston looks just as fantastic, if not even more better than how she was when she started out in “Friends”. She looked absolutely incredible and she was able to play her character wonderfully.
Nick Swardson is just the ultimate goofball and as expected, learning from the special features, there was a lot of improv and he made the best of it and cracking everyone up. The things that come out of his mouth and the things he does to revive a sheep (even if it was not real after first) was hilarious! Swardson is one of my favorite comedians right now and it was great to see him paired up with Adam Sandler.
And then you have Nicole Kidman and Dave Matthews. While for Dave Matthews, you can expect him taking on these type of roles but for Nicole Kidman, it was great to see her so happy and fun! She and Aniston got along and even learning in a special feature, she and Aniston had so much fun that when they were greeting each other, they accidentally headbutted one another.
Bit Kidman was beautiful as usual and to see her as the arch nemesis of Katherine was quite intriguing and she was able to to quite well in this comedy.
But I also have to give credit to the three cast members that really did a good job in the film. First, Brooklyn Decker. I expected a bikini model with a short number of lines but she took acting seriously and remembered a good number of lines and was quite convincing as an actress. Granted, her scene as she comes out of the beach with her bikini in slow-motion was a definite highlight of the film and I wouldn’t be surprised if many guys turned out for this film because she made her acting debut.
And also credit goes to the two children, Bailee Madison who played the British-talking Kiki D./Maggie and Griffin Gluck as Bart/Michael. It was funny to see this because I have seen so many people in my lifetime trying to speak in an English accent and to see her do continually use this accent was funny and of course, her highlight scene was when Danny (Sandler) drops her face down on the mud. And Gluck plays the normal boy who wishes his real father spent time with him. But he brought a more emotional side to this comedy.
The film was hilarious but I admit, it went a bit longer than I expected. Granted, there is quite a bit of content that could have been trimmed, still… it was a funny, entertaining and hilarious Happy Madison film from beginning to end.
While “Just Go With It” may not be the best comedy ever, nor the best of the Happy Madison Films, it was still a hilarious movie and probably one of the funniest Happy Madison film that I have seen in a long time.  Sure, while it is contrived as you know how the film is going to end, it’s the adventure and the progress of the characters and see how they are all affected because of the lies. It’s just fun to see how things begin to unravel.
As for the Blu-ray release, the blu-ray features a lot of pranks and while these pranks are not exactly long, you do get a bit of pranks from Brooklyn Decker using a fart app on her iPhone while she is filming a scene with Adam Sandler in bed. Another prank features comedian/actor Kevin Nealon in his Adon plastic surgery face and playing in character while visiting Rodeo Drive. And of course, the funnest part of watching these special features is to see how much fun everyone had behind-the-scenes. To see Aniston and Decker cracking up or even seeing crew playing pranks on each other. The film had a good vibe and provided a lot of laughs.
Also, to add when it comes to special features, there are many of them included on this Blu-ray release plus two audio commentaries. And once again, PQ was great and AQ was very good. If you enjoyed this film, you’re going to enjoy this Blu-ray release!
Overall, I’m not going to try to convince Happy Madison film haters to start liking this film. If anything, if you appreciate Adam Sandler comedy films, “Just Go With It” is a fun film and the fact that you have quite a bit of talent involved with this film, if you are just as curious about Jennifer Aniston and Nicole Kidman starring in this film, definitely give it a try! As mentioned, there were times I kept laughing and laughing and nearly busted a gut because I was laughing so hard.
And to me, a Happy Madison film succeeds if it has made me laugh and moreso if it makes you want to watch it again or share the film with others. And while others may look to Rotten Tomatoes and see how low this film was rated by critics, just remember that the audience did come to see this film and the film made a lot of money.
Leave your seriousness at the door, grab yourself some popcorn and just sitback and enjoy! If you want to get away from anything too serious and just want to laugh and just need a film that is not so serious and often moronic but fun, then definitely give “Just Go With It” a try!
