Screggy Bojanklin

THIS MOVIE IS NOT GOOD. Do not believe the hype. When the credits roll, you will be disappointed. One guy in the screening I saw cursed and stormed out. The filmmakers take a simple story, try to give it some mystery by starting at the end, wrap it in this nonsense about the end of the world, and then work backward and basically try to tell you that life is full of suffering and when you're at the end, all you will think about is that one little moment when you danced. I did get misty-eyed a few times, but all in all, this movie does not work. Having a narrator was such a bad idea. So much of what he is narrating could have been shown, but it's obvious they needed to massage Steven King's ego by including some of his writing, but that's the problem. King's writing isn't that interesting, so the narrator just sounds like a guy talking too much about stuff they should have just shown. And some of the scenes beat you over the head with uninteresting "lessons". The main offender is the scene between the grandpa and the kid. Grandpa talks about math and dancing for 5 MINUTES. I heard at least two bored sighs from people in the audience during this scene. The whole point of this scene is a pro-education message that totally misses the mark and could have been powerful if they had just shown math being important. There's just so much talking and so much false wonder and my god, what a let down, that last scene when they show what's in the attic. It's hard to imagine the filmmakers watched this and said yes, this is perfect. Anyway, you've been warned. If you decide to struggle your way through this movie and suffer, I hope you at least dance.

This film is hard to enjoy. If you're an average movie goer. If you like Happy Gilmore and The Waterboy. There's a good chance you won't like this movie. Sandler's character is nearly completely unlikable. The score is loud, grating, relentless and mirrors the chaos of his life. Some people walked out. Minor spoiler ahead!! This movie doesn't have a happy ending. For him anyway. Someone had a happy ending. But the directors chose to leave the ending hanging in the air. Kind of annoying. They make you suffer through this movie with Sandler's character and then there's no pay-off. I guess that's their point.