Mr. Deeds (2002)

Starring: Adam Sandler, Winona Ryder
Director: Steven Brill

Rating: PG-13

Studio: Columbia

Review Posted: 7.19.01

Spoilers: Minor

Rating: 0/4 (F)

By Craig Younkin.

Either Adam Sandler's movies are getting worse and worse, or I'm becoming more mature. In other words, his movies are getting worse and worse. Take this careless remake of Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town for example. I'll admit that not even the Capra version deserves to be called a classic, but this is just a dreadful, dreadful movie full of stupid, stupid ideas.

The film begins with the premise of small town innocent, Mr. Deeds (Adam Sandler), who becomes the heir to his uncle's 40 billion dollar company. Born and raised in the town of Mandrake falls, Deeds has no idea about his uncle or his tremendous fortune. He's an all around good guy who is a volunteer fireman, a pizza shop owner, and a bit of a poet trying to get recognized by Hallmark. He could really care less about the money.

It is an issue though, so Deeds is whisked away to New York in order to sign the business over to his uncle's right hand man, Chuck Sedar (Peter Gallagher). From there Mr. Deeds is a fish-out-of-water comedy without the comedy. He realizes that New York is a far rougher environment, and that most people are interested in hurting or using him in order to move their careers forward.

The biggest perpetrator is Babe Bennet (Winona Ryder), a reporter for a trashy tabloid show who pretends to be a school nurse interested in him in order to get all the footage (dirt) she can. Only once she sees what a nice guy he is, she begins to feel guilty about what she is doing.

The only friend Deeds has is a butler named Emilio (John Turturro), a sneaky immigrant with a foot fetish. Turturro supplies the films only funny moments in a movie lacking in them. Not only is it lacking in comedy, it's also lacking in decent direction. Under Steven Brill, this film is a rushed, poorly lighted, underdeveloped, insincere piece of garbage that illicit nothing but snore or sigh inducing results.

Consider for instance a wrestling match between Winona Ryder in a fat woman, or a scene in which John McEnroe manages to jump over a taxi cab, where where Sandler tries to save a woman from a burning building, but ends up jumping out of a window, landing right on her. She then proceeds to grope him, and he cackles like a hyena. There is also a scene where Turturro must whack Sandler's frost bitten foot and so many other lame, stupid attempts at comedy that everybody involved should be ashamed.

The romance here is also dreadful, mainly because Sandler continually seems more like a fool than an innocent and Ryder continually tries to pull one thing after another over his eyes. It's less of a love story between two people and more of a situation of her trying to corrupt a minor. The backgrounds to this movie are also incredibly bright, giving it the look and feel of a below amateur status film.

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