A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The films of Adam Sandler exist as the baffling proof that humour appealing to the lowest common denominator can indeed succeed in Hollywood. His ideas of how to elicit laughs are crude to say the least, coming from both verbal and physical standpoints. He always plays the main attraction, who by now audiences are familiar with like a scraggly long lost uncle. Sandler's characters are usually various renditions of an overgrown child in an adult man's body, acting much like the one he is charged with taking care of in Big Daddy. They are shouty to the point of being verbally abusive, physically aggressive, impulsive, shameless womanisers, part-time misogynists, and in some cases like this one, going nowhere slackers. I suppose that somewhere within this figure lie some more endearing everyman traits, but somehow they always seem to be pushed aside for more of Sandler's trademark hit moments. The worse disparity of the two ends of this spectrum came in Click, which shifted between genuine, heartbreaking regret and toilet humour of the lowest kind. There was also the apparent subversion of Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch Drunk Love, hosting the same type of character but wrapping him up in sympathy and puppy love. Sandler's stories, in whatever shape, form or plot, usually descend into the character finding and righting his path, a sort of bildungsroman for the child trapped in the adult body. In going through some variation of a life altering trial or tribulation he inevitably finds a bit of common sense and tact, and the film therefore rewards him for it (usually in the form of a girl). But paradoxically they also demand that Sandler not lose any of his original 'charm' that makes his characters what they are - so much so that in the epilogues he still wont't hold back on his typical one-liners. The plots of his films therefore pull off the magical trick of being able to freeze Sandler's characterisation for choice tender moments - segments where the brash loudmouth is suddenly and inexplicably exchanged for the nervous little boy as he tries to woo Layla, or the more responsible parent of Julian. Of course, Layla as a character is little more than a carrot on a stick, a prize to be dangled in front of Sonny to coax him into getting his life together. And Joey Lauren Adams is a goddamn angel with that smile - she would be taken with a serial killer if the plot required her to. But the crux of these plots is that these moments rarely ask Sandler to take up any actual responsibility other than a few of those gift-wrapped moments of sentimentality and assigned 'growth', doled out in spirited montages. When the film then tries to fall back on its humour, it predictably crashes and burns. Julian, portrayed by the Sprouse twins, is an aggressive bundle of cuteness designed to disarm Sandler's brand of cynicism and immaturity. He mispronounces every second syllable like a character from Looney Tunes, and waddles and pouts his lips just the right way so that even Sonny cannot bear but try and act like an actual parent. But Sonny is a Sandler character through and through, and hardly ready to be a father, so along the way Julian picks up the valuable lessons of losing with humility, manners, personal hygiene, altruism, caring for animals and treating women with respect. After Big Daddy Sandler would also start his own production company to ensure these characters survived, and provide Rob Schneider with a reason to live. Despite all of these pitfalls, audiences seem to like repetition and Sandler's brand of humour, perhaps if only to stick around for the rare films in which he is not only funny, but also genuinely likable.An alternative summary of the film: Hooters Hooters Hooters Hooters Hooters. It's ironic that Sonny would bag Corinne for her former college job, because he fits the profile of someone who would frequent the same fast-food joint.

"Hooters" is a word heard about 15 times from Adm Sandler in this movie every time he sees his roommate's girlfriend, Leslie Mann, who once worked at Hooters, and now Adam just can't let that go. Adam's roommate has another surprise for him. The day he leaves on a business trip to Japan, his son gets dropped off at the door from social services. Actually, it's just the five year old kid that's there by himself from social services. Last time I checked, S.S. is not allowed to send a small child to someone's house unsupervised. But don't ask. This film has a number of implausabilities. Such as, how in the world did Adam get away with lying about who he was to S.S. the first time he went there with the kid and met with social worker Josh Mostel? I would think they would automatically ask you for I.D., especially if you're there about temporary custody of a small child. And how on earth did Adam break into that man's house so fast when he and the kid were trick or treating and the man refused to come to the door? He must've not had his doors locked too good. Not smart thinking when living in NY.Anyway, the movie had some good and funny parts too. I liked the little relationship that started between Adam and Leslie Mann's sister, Joey Lauren Adams. And there were some good bonding scenes between Adam and the kid. Some amusing moments included: Adam finding out his ex was sleeping with a 60 year old man, or as he called him, the Pepperage farm guy. And Adam saying to him: "hey old man river! Zip it or I'll break your hip!" Then Adam making fun of Rob Shnieder for not being able to read, especially with the way he said it when he was disguised as "Scuba Sam", the kid's toy " Scuba Steve's" father. Then there was Adam's talk with the kid's uptight kindergarten teacher, with her saying that his kid was the smelly kid. Then he asks her what he should do about that, and she answers "you should start by paying more attention to his school work". Yeh, OK, that will take care of him not smelling anymore. Then the Steve Bucemmi guy, a bum who says how he ruined his life by going through the " doing mushrooms" phase. And I really enjoyed the "lamb and tunafish" and "spaghetti and meatballs" analogy joke in the courtroom between Steve Bucemmi and Rob Shnieder. (I really liked Steve in the film "Ghost world". That was a really good film). Unfortionately, " Big daddy" also had a lot of vomit and pee jokes which I definitely coulda done without. And I also could've done without that spit thing Adam taught the kid.Finally, the social services finds out that Adam had lied about who he was, and he has to go to court. What really bugged me about the court scene was the judge. She sat there for the longest time remaining quiet while all of the different friends and family of Adam's defend him and say how good he's been to the kid. Then Adam's dad comes up to the stand and argues with him for a while about how he should never get custody of the boy. Then Adam says a couple of convincing, heartwarming things about the kid, and then Adam's dad finally says"your honor, my son deserves this child". Then everybody in the courtroom agrees and cheers. Then suddenly, after all that, that bitch of a judge then suddenly starts going on a rampage about how Adam should not only not have custody of the kid, but he should be in jail. Why would she keep quiet all that time while Adam redeems himself, and everyone else including his uptight dad acknowledges that Adam is fit to have the kid, and then all of a sudden she goes off on such a rampage? That really bugged me. I know that he shouldn't have lied about who he was to S.S., but the judge should've been mentioning that earlier in the court session and all the way through it, not her saying nothing until the very end when it looked like Adam was going to win, and then suddenly going off. Anyway, those are my two cents about this movie.

You know it's amazing how many films in the 90s can be consider classics and many were comedy filmsHowever Big Daddy is not one of those films it is one of the films that I would never watch again given the choiceI mean how many films think they can get away with having gross comedy bits it just not that funnyThis film has gross moments that are so awful that it is not even funny to look atIt goes to show that some movies were better on paper this one is one of those films because Adam clearly wasn't thinking straight when he made this filmThe film has some of the worse acting ever seen in a movie it just feels like that normal Adam film where you can expect nothing lessPlus he reuse the same actors for a good percent of his movies it just goes to show that some movies don't need to be madeI give Big Daddy a 1 out of 10

Irresponsible slacker Sonny Koufax (Adam Sandler) begrudgingly 'adopts' his best pal's son Julian (played by twins Cole and Dylan Sprouse), teaching the kid how to act as irresponsibly as he does. Inevitably, Sonny realises his mistake and rectifies the problem, but is eventually rumbled by the social service, who want to put Julian in care. Faced with losing the little guy forever, the layabout smartens up his act, hits the law books and prepares for court, determined to win Julian back.A massive dollop of schmaltzy Hollywood cheeze designed to tug at the heartstrings but leave a big smile on the face, Big Daddy is extremely formulaic stuff that simply lets Sandler do his thing: be a likable loser who learns a valuable life lesson and changes his ways for the better, all the while delivering crass gags about urinating in public and women with big boobs (Leslie Mann and Kristy Swanson bearing the brunt of many a Hooters joke). If Sandler's name in the credits doesn't make you want to turn off instantly, then this should prove a reasonably fun way to waste your time—just don't go expecting too much from it.