Where I Watched It: Netflix

English Audio Description?: Yes

The film that is lighting up the Netflix charts, I have a feeling, wouldn’t have done week in theatres. Despite that Adam devine is used perfectly in The Righteous Gemstones, his starring work in films seems to rely on a very specific thing he does. He’s stuck in playing a type, much like Melissa McCarthy or Rebel Wilson, and arguably Chris Farley was in his day. Devine might play characters who are kind and good hearted, but somehow, they are the butt of all the jokes. It’s a problem that Adam Sandler, whose happy Madison is producing the film, rarely encounters unless he chooses in something like Hewbie Halloween. Most of Sandler’s characters are average joe’s who stumble into perfect relationships. Here, Devine is the joke, and everyone but him is in on it.

I really am pulling for Devine to be offered better films and television roles, but he seems content being stuck in this type, at least for now. Then again, so was Jonah hill, until he wasn’t, and needed to break away into more dramatic work. But here, Devine plays one of those Loves le goofballs who for some reason is a bank manager, and is getting married to a girl who is above his pay grade (Nina Dobrev), when it turns out that her parents he’s never met are coming! And the secret that the film plays with, is that her parents (Pierce Brosnan/Ellen Barkin) are professional thieves.

It’s a happy Madison production, so i really shouldn’t need to go into much more detail. The winning performance here is mainly Lil Rel Howery in a supporting role as a friend and co-worker of Devine. He’s also basically just doing his usual schtick, but it just happens to be welcome. Meanwhile, what Lauren Lapkus is subjected to should be a crime. She deserves better.

It’s a film that still finds humor in men kissing, as pierce Brosnan plants a big kiss on Devine upon meeting him.Sadly, Barkin doesn’t get the same moment, which would have suggested to me that the joke is the parents are kissers, instead of Happy Madison still finds two guys kissing to be an easy joke.

The audio description is pretty good, and makes an effort to really describe the characters as we meet them. Since there’s not much else to this movie, that helps. And, it’s not one of those films that uses defaulting, where only non-white actors are given specific racial definition. There are a few sequences of light action, like some car chase moments that work well.

Ultimately, it will come down to how much you like Adam Devine being the most Adam Devine he could be. Sort of like the Melissa McCarthy films, or a Rob Schneider film, some actors seem to get trapped in a certain mode, and that’s happening to Devine. he could really use a dramatic film. A film with this level of supporting talent, from the aforementioned Brosnan and Barkin, to michael Rooker and Richard Kind really should have worked better than this. It just has no interest in really being anything more than a Netflix film. it aspires very little, and achieves even less.

Final Grade: C-