Mr. Deeds

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 96 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Adam Sandler is back doing what he does best, playing a likeable hometown kinda guy who just wants to be nice to people.

Mr. Deeds

This time around he is Longfellow Deeds from Mandrake Falls, New Hampshire where he owns the local Pizza parlor and has a dream of selling greeting cards to Hallmark. This is a town where everybody knows everybody else, and apparently Deeds is the nicest guy around. Call in sick and he’ll compliment you on your acting skills when he finds out you were lying. He’ll also make you a pizza with Oreos and french fries on it… I might have to try that myself.

The story revolves around what he does when he learns his rich uncle (that he didn’t know he had) has left him $40 Billion dollars in stock. Predictibly the dollars don’t phase him, he’s just a nice guy. And just as predictibly there’s a greedy corporate type who wants to get control of the stock so he can do what he wants with the company.

There is of course a love interest for the story to revolve around, this time it’s Winona Ryder (on loan from jail we suppose) as a ruthless reporter for a tabloid. She poses as a school nurse so she can befriend Deeds and spy on him but of course… wait for it… she falls in love. Predictibly.

If there’s one word to sum up this movie it would have to be FORMULA. There’s no surprise in anything that happens, absolutely every prediciton you’ll make within the first 10 minutes of the movie will come true. The only thing that saves this from a 2 star rating is that Sandler is extremely good at doing this type of movie. It’s all formula, but it’s a formula that works for him.

This movie is date friendly as well as child friendly (though there is a moderate amount of cursing, hence the PG-13 rating). Recommended, but it can certainly wait for DVD.

Posted by John | Filed Under 3 Stars, Adam Sandler, Comedy, Jared Harris, PG-13, Peter Gallagher, Steve Buscemi, Theatrical, Winona Ryder