50 First Dates
Bill Geiger on August 30th, 2008
Since he got his big start on Saturday Night Live, Adam Sandler has had quite a bit of success. Films such as Big Daddy & The Longest Yard, among others, more than three quarters of the time, are a hit movie. It doesn’t matter that some of his films are completely, and utterly stupid, people just love his movies. In this film, 50 First Dates, Sandler teams up once again with Drew Barrymore in hope of finding that same chemistry they had in The Wedding Singer.
Adam Sandler plays Henry Roth, a bit of a player who takes advantage of ladies who come to the island of Hawaii. Henry gives them a story to tell about their visit to the island but in the end, has to come up with excuses so they never contact him again. One day, Henry meets Lucy (Barrymore) and his whole attitude changes. Almost like love at first sight, they have a connection. What Henry learns the next day when they were to meet for breakfast is that Lucy has a brain injury to where she cannot remember anything after falling asleep. Her long term memory prior to her injury is intact, but anything after that, she cannot remember. Knowing he must be with this woman, Henry does whatever he has to do every day to have her fall in love with him.
For anyone that has seen this film or The Wedding Singer knows that Sandler and Barrymore do have a great connection with each other. I fancy the former as a better film but 50 First Dates has its moments when you take out some of the sillier parts containing Rob Schneider. Although meant as a romantic comedy, 50 First Dates doesn’t completely fulfill the comedy part. Again, there are moments of some chuckling, but overall, it is pretty flat in the comedy department. The film, in my opinion, works better with the romantic theme. The things Sandler’s character goes through to every day have Lucy fall in love with him is just downright excellent. Call me a sucker for romance, albeit silly romance, but 50 First Dates succeeds in what it was out to accomplish.
Sandler has the habit of having many of his friends in the film with him. I don’t have an issue with it, except when it comes to Rob Schneider. Personally, he adds nothing to the film and actually has the ability to bring it down a notch or twenty.
Video
The transfer for 50 First Dates, presented in 2.40:1 1080P High Definition, is pretty middle of the road for my taste. You would think that a film shot out on the Islands of Hawaii would just blow you out of the water, and they should, but sadly there are some issues with the transfer. The first issue is the fact that there is plenty of shimmering throughout the film. I didn’t notice any grain, but colors were pretty flat throughout the film. I really wanted some, anything, to pop out at me, but sadly that didn’t happen.
Audio
Sony has given 50 First Dates a decent 5.1 PCM Uncompressed audio track. Also available is standard 5.1 English and French. There is plenty of music that is thrown in throughout the film and they filled out my speakers nicely. Most, if not all, dialogue came through the front channels. Any time there was some sort of crash or something breaking, surrounds were used. Bass was felt mostly during the music played through the film.
I had no issues with having to turn up my volume to hear anything as it came through crystal clear to my ears.
As per usual with Sony Blu Ray titles, there is an array of subtitles for pretty much anyone to enjoy. Available are English, French, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Thai.
Special Features
Being one of Sony’s early Blu-ray releases, this one has pretty much nothing noteworthy available as an extra.
- Actor & Director Commentary
- Gag Reel
- “Talkin Pidgin” Featurette
I wouldn’t even bother looking at any of this.
Final Thoughts
I had seen 50 First Dates prior to watching it here on Blu-ray disc. Like many of the movies I watch, it sometimes takes me a few times in viewing it to really like it or not like it. I think in the case of this film, it might have been two times having viewed it to find that I didn’t think it was completely stupid.
I really enjoy the chemistry between Sandler and Barrymore and that is what I liked most about the film. If you can pick this one up cheap used or something, give it a purchase. Given it has been released for some time now, doing that shouldn’t be a big problem.
