Grown Ups
Metascore
30 out of 100

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 32 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 32
  3. Negative: 16 out of 32
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  1. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    75
    No one in their right mind goes to an Adam Sandler movie for any reason other than to laugh, and Grown Ups delivers.
  2. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    67
    For a while, the movie looks like "Couples Retreat" or a Tyler Perry house party, only instead of cookie-cutter conflicts, everyone just grows happier and more relaxed.
  3. Tampa Bay Times
    Reviewed by: Steve Persall
    67
    What kept me laughing is the genuine camaraderie among Sandler's posse, the way they almost play themselves that perfectly suits this slim material.
  4. Boxoffice Magazine
    Reviewed by: Steve Ramos
    60
    Current Saturday Night Live (SNL) comic Will Forte may have bombed in the recent SNL spin-off "MacGruber," but a dream team of SNL alums, including ringleader Adam Sandler, put the luster back in the SNL reputation with the audience-pleasing, all-ages comedy Grown Ups.
  5. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Michael Rechtshaffen
    50
    Despite the lazily self-satisfied results, his (Sandler) aging fan base likely will come along for the lackadaisical ride.
  6. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    50
    A pleasant, genial, good-hearted, sometimes icky comedy that's like spending a weekend with well-meaning people you don't want to see again any time real soon.
  7. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    50
    The only people humiliated, really, are older people and heavy people and nerds and vegans and black people and mothers who breast-feed their 4-year-olds. Everybody else gets a pass.
  8. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Connie Ogle
    50
    The guys are more amusing than not, and they display the easy chemistry of real-life pals.
  9. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    50
    The film drifts along on a stream of humiliation jokes - physical, emotional, sexual, hairpiece-ial.
  10. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    50
    In Sandler's movies, men don't cry; they urinate. So the scene in which the stars empty their bladders and change the color of a swimming pool's water might be the weepiest of the year.
  11. Movieline
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    45
    Isn't just unfunny; it's so dull.
  12. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    40
    The movie devolves into a series of clichéd bits, none of which are that funny.
  13. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Joshua Rothkopf
    40
    No viewer goes into this movie expecting John Cassavetes's "Husbands," least of all from soft-serve director Denis Dugan (You Don't Mess with the Zohan).
  14. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Betsy Sharkey
    40
    The new Adam Sandler comedy has all the charm of a home movie that does not star your own family, which means it's overly sentimental, filled with you-had-to-be-there moments, bad jokes and even worse camera angles.
  15. Variety
    Reviewed by: Peter Debruge
    40
    Grown Ups delivers precious few laughs for the sheer volume of comedy talent on offer.
  16. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    40
    Beneath all the forced hilarity lies an awful fear of aging--and Sandler is only 43! This is gonna be rough.
  17. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Scott Bowles
    38
    If Sandler hopes to win over new fans, he may want to cork the scatological humor and let it age a bit.
  18. Orlando Sentinel
    Reviewed by: Roger Moore
    38
    These guys set out to make a movie where they could crack each other up. At this late date, they can't even manage that.
  19. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Joe Williams
    38
    Nobody escapes unscathed, except, of course, for Sandler, who co-wrote the infantile screenplay.
  20. NPR
    Reviewed by: Mark Jenkins
    35
    Indeed, despite occasional attempts at plot and character, this is basically a roast with scenery.
  21. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    33
    A movie that at best is irrelevant and at worst is unwatchable.
  22. Arizona Republic
    Reviewed by: Bill Goodykoontz
    30
    Dumb, lazy, obvious and largely pointless.
  23. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Nick Pinkerton
    30
    While Sandler has never trafficked in epigrammatic wit, there's a difference between, say, Billy Madison's "Of course I peed my pants--everyone my age pees their pants" or "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry's" shakedown of hetero squeamishness, and this lazy stuff--the difference between smart-dumb and plain-dumb.
  24. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    25
    When Grown Ups star and co-writer Adam Sandler repeatedly slapped Rob Schneider in the face with a dehydrated banana, I was jealous of Schneider, who suffered less than I did getting slapped upside the head by this rotting fruit of a comedy.
  25. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Amy Biancolli
    25
    The film has some chuckles, if no belly laughs; it has some warmth, if no great heat.
  26. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    25
    Grown Ups finds Sandler reverting to lunkheaded, lazy-laff form.
  27. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    25
    Adam is back to lining his pockets again.
  28. Empire
    Reviewed by: Nick de Semlyen
    20
    Smug and lazy comedy that barely raises a chuckle.
  29. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    20
    Grown Ups is exactly, beat for beat, what the previews would have you believe: a depressingly predictable, two-chuckle deconstruction of what Sandler sees as the modern American male.
  30. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    20
    The guys abuse each other in what's meant to be fraternal affection but feels more like the discomfort of being stuck together in a terrible movie.
  31. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    16
    If Grown Ups were any lazier or more slapdash, it'd be a home movie.
  32. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    0
    It doesn't get worse than Grown Ups, Adam Sandler's sloppy entry into this year's man-child-comedy sweepstakes. Lazy, mean-spirited, incoherent, infantile and, above all, witless.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
5.1 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 203 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 41 out of 84
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 84
  3. Negative: 30 out of 84
  1. JohnB
    7
    If i listened to the critics, I'd never go see anything.
  2. JosephM.
    10
    Who ever wrote the 1st review I saw is just a hater!! Grow up!
  3. DylanM.
    3
    There are a lot of laughs to this one, yes, but who in their right mind would write a movie less than an hour long without any plot?!? It9;s the visual form of a sugar rush that way: a quick burst of hilarity that ultimately proves to be unsatisfying in the end.… Full Review »
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