The remote control for your life: Christopher Walken is about to unveil the sleek model.        Massaging mayhem in the office: Sophie Monk, David Hasselhoff and Michelle Lombardo in "Click".
                                                                                                                     (Photo: Sony Pictures/Revolution Studios)
 

 

The remarkably unfunny "Click" does have one thing going for it: it is dead-on in its commentary on today's fast-food technology attention-deficit American culture, what with Blackberrys, iPods, cell phones, Bluetooths and other assorted gadgetry ruling (and ruining) our lives.  You cannot walk any American boulevard, avenue, road or street without spotting at minimum a dozen people avoiding human contact by interacting with some portable machine.

Beyond these assessments however, "Click" is a forgettable film starring Adam Sandler, whose comic edge of late has given way to an increasingly edgy, angry disposition which is more overbearing than hilarious.  In Frank Coraci's film Mr. Sandler is Michael Newman, an architectural designer who has been highly successful at a New York City firm called Ammer Associates.  Michael has a beautiful and wonderful wife (Kate Beckinsale), two adorable kids, and an oversexed dog (which takes its pent-up sexual horniness out on an inanimate stuffed duck.)  He is frustrated by life's daily annoyances, one of which is having too many remote control devices around the house (!), operating everything but the precious television set.  Heaven forbid!  As if this isn't enough, he has to keep up with the O'Doyle's, the next door neighbors whose bratty son who constantly reminds Michael that his dad is richer and has better products than Michael does.

 

This version of the Hatfields and the McCoys is only sometimes funny.  In Michael's attempt to keep up with the O'Doyle's he rushes out to Bed, Bath and Beyond late at night to get a universal remote.  He ends up going to the "Beyond" part of the store where he meets Morty -- an amalgam of the Nutty Professor and Dr. Emeritt Brown (the "Back to the Future" character) -- in the shape of Christopher Walken, who gives Morty the appropriate mystery, menace and humor.  Morty gives Michael a free universal remote, and Michael soon finds that he can mute his barking dog, fast-forward his wife when she is embroiled in an argument with him, and teach O'Doyle Junior a painful lesson.  While those initial gimmicks are amusing, soon things spin out of control and before you (or anyone else) can say "hey presto", the remote has a mind of its own.  Thanks to this magical remote control, lovemaking with a spouse was never so fast and un-enjoyable.  Thanks to a dull script by Steve Koren & Mark O'Keefe dialogue has never been quite so drab -- at least with some limited exceptions, the curse-words from the mouths of babes and the tiresome in-jokes are dull.  Michael Newman should have teamed up with the Vince Vaughn character Gary Grobowski of "The Break-Up" to form their own company: Lazy-Boys 'R' Us -- for both have that in common -- lifting a finger to help the spouse or fiancee is an option neither considers. 

 

                     
                For the kids: Kate Beckinsale (kneeling), Tatum McCann and Joseph Castanon.          Wonderful toys?  Adam Sandler navigates his space with a helicopter remote in "Click".
                                                                                                                (Photos: Sony Pictures/Revolution Studios)

Surely and predictably enough with all the remote short-cutting through the everyday, life flashes before Michael's very eyes.  Lessons are learned, family is valued, and remote controls go the way of the 1980's, though David Hasselhoff, he of 1980's "Knight Rider" and 1990's "Baywatch" -- a man who has become a walking punch line ever since those series' conclusion, appears as John Ammer, king of his own architectural empire.  In actuality, Mr. Hasselhoff doesn't do too badly here.  As the colorful womanizer Ammer he seems to be having more fun than Mr. Sandler, even in the rare moments of levity that Mr. Sandler's on-screen persona enjoys.

 

So what else does one need to know about Frank Coraci's film?  That there are too many bathroom jokes in "Click"?  That the universal remote control suddenly inherits the life history of the person who possesses it?  (In this case that's Michael, because after he gets his hands on it no one else touches the special remote for the duration of the film.)  That when the story vanishes into nothingness flatulence and frolic take over -- flatulence and the like which are more at home in a Tom Green film of the late 1990's and early 2000's than in Adam Sandler films?  Mr. Sandler, who also co-produced this disappointing film, has more talent than he shows here and deserves better.  "Anger Management" excelled without this sort of mess, and "Spanglish" was sweet and endearing, with a solid heart.  "Click" on the other hand, tries to be a "Truman Show" of sorts, but Andrew Niccol's 1998 film was a drama with precious few comedic moments.  That film, featuring a toned-down Jim Carrey, clicked on all cylinders. 

 

"Click" which opens today, just doesn't.


CLICK co-stars Henry Winkler, Julie Kavner, Jennifer Coolidge and Sean Astin.  The film's duration is one hour and 38 minutes.

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