Jack and Jill

Genre: Comedy
Released: 2011

Rating:  

Someone tell Morgan Spurlock to see “Dunkin Donuts Presents: Jack and Jill”! How much did Dunkin Donuts and Coca-Cola pay to be in this film? “Jack and Jill” is nothing more than awkward cameos, horrific product placement and an occasional funny joke. After seeing Morgan Spurlock’s “Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold”, I’ve noticed more and more product placement in the world of cinema. Any time the placement is extremely obvious it ruins the suspension of disbelief I had going for that particular movie. There were two particular instances in this flick that really ticked me off.

In what I like to call the “American Idol” sequence, Jack and Jill are at a movie theatre and the cups in the holder are clearly placed in a certain way so that Coca-Cola can clearly be read. It was so obvious that Coca-Cola paid for that spot and it really distracted me from the scene at hand. All I could imagine was the director, Denis Dugan, being told that he had to place those cups a certain way for an advertiser. That just completely ruins the movie magic. We, as an audience, are already paying upwards of twelve dollars. We don’t need to be advertised too if we are paying for a service.

The second product placement is Dunkin Donuts, who has presence throughout the entire film. Sandler’s character Jack works for an advertising company where they shoot commercials for products. One of their clients, Dunkin Donuts, wants Al Pacino to do a bit commercial for their new product “Dunkachino”. This becomes almost the center piece to the entire film. I’ll explain why below.

The film revolves around Jack and Jill, two fraternal twins, who don’t get along. Jill (Sandler) is a lonely middle-aged woman who lives in the Bronx and travels out to Los Angeles every Thanksgiving to stay with her brother Jack (Sandler) and his family. Jack always get nervous around this time of year because he doesn’t want to deal with his sister. He feels that she is annoying but he takes comfort in the fact that she will leave in a few days. Though, this time around, she is particularly lonely and decides to stay a bit longer. One night, they attend a Lakers game together and catch Al Pacino’s eye. Pacino becomes obsessed with Jill and Jack tries to use this to land him for the Dunkin Donuts ad.

The film’s first thirty minutes are absolutely painful to watch. None of the jokes work and everything feels so awkward. Though, it’s strange to see how it starts working after that point. I have to give Sandler credit for actually make the audience care about Jill. There is decent heart involved in her sequences and some of the jokes do work. I consider myself very immature so I definitely had a laugh at a particular toilet sequence after Jill consumes some chimichangas.

If I was eight years old, this movie would be hilarious and I’d probably watch it over and over again. I just don’t understand what happened to Adam Sandler. “Happy Gilmore” and “Billy Madison” are classics but lately with terrible films like “Grown Ups” and “Just Go With It”, he’s just been slipping.

A lot of people have asked me if this movie is for kids and the answer is yes. It’s PG-rated and has great moral themes. I just don’t think it’s all that funny, hence the 2 BDK rating. Check it out as a rental.