Click - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution movie review

'Click': Clever premise, unclever execution

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

George Bailey and Marty McFly, meet Adam Sandler, a fellow traveler in time and what-might've-been.

In his new movie "Click," Sandler plays Michael Newman, a man who's put his career as an architect ahead of his family (gorgeous Kate Beckinsale, cute Joseph Castanon, even cuter Tatum McCann). As we all know, in the movies, at least, that is not the Path to Wisdom.

Sony Pictures

'Click'

C-

The verdict: Will click best with die-hard Sandler fans.

Director: Frank Coraci
Starring: Adam Sandler, Christopher Walken, Kate Beckinsale, David Hasselhoff, Sean Astin
Run time: 97 minutes
Release date: June 23, 2006
Rating: PG-13 for language, crude and sex related humor and some drug references.
See showtimes

More on the movie
• Christopher Walken has become a celebrated movie madman.
• The Flick Chick Quick List of movies for which viewers need Adam Sandler's digital remote

On the web
Official movie site
View the trailer
Trailers require Quicktime

Frustrated by his inability to deal with technology on the most basic level — he shuts the garage door when he wants to turn off the TV — he storms out of the house late one night to the nearest Bed, Bath & Beyond, in search of a simplified universal remote control. There, he discovers Way Beyond, a hidden little area presided over by Morty (Christopher Walken in a bow tie and frizzy hair.)

Walken knows just what he needs: a very special remote control. One that, as Michael soon discovers, can fast-forward his life or rewind it or put it on pause, just as if his entire existence is a special-edition DVD. Want to skip a tiresome argument with your wife or the time it'll take to be promoted to partner? Click, hit fast-forward. Want to take a nostalgic visit to the past? Click, hit rewind. There's even a commentary track.

Trouble ensues as what seemed like a dream come true turns into a nightmare.

Writers Steve Koren and Mark O'Keefe have taken a clever premise and given it a singularly unclever execution. The movie exists on several different, tonally incompatible planes.

In one, Sandler uses his comic persona and easy-does-it on-screen presence to pull off some funny bits a la "The Wedding Singer" or "50 First Dates."

In the second, he reverts to the crude lowest-common-denominator humor that's also his trademark, with gags about oversexed dogs and passing gas (preferably in someone's face).

But it's the third level that just about does "Click" in as, in a misbegotten attempt at meaning, the movie seeks to emulate the wonderful, one-of-a-kind "It's a Wonderful Life." Never a good idea, but especially not if you're trying to graph that onto scatological jokes. And unfortunately the overly earnest mismatch obliterates much of what's gone before — that is, a certainly sweet and sometimes amusing move.

The supporting cast is fine, with Henry Winkler and Julie Kavner as Michael's parents, David Hasselhoff as his selfish boss and Sean Astin in a Speedo. Beckinsale is lovely but wasted. Sandler is Sandler, though those of us slowly coming around to his particular appeal may wish he'd taken more chances, as he did a few years ago in "Punch-Drunk Love."

Only Walken, as is his want, free-floats over the film's inconsistencies and clumsy schmaltz. Part Clarence the Angel from "It's a Wonderful Life," part Doc Brown in "Back to the Future," he seems to be acting in an entirely different movie. A movie we wish the capable Sandler had made instead.