'Jack and Jill' Is Hilarious — If You're a 10-Year-Old

In my formative young adult years as program director at Covenant Harbor, a summer camp in Lake Geneva, I learned a valuable lesson: When all else fails, put a guy in a dress. A man in a dress, with maybe a wig and some obnoxious makeup (use tempra paint for the best results), brings 200 10-year-olds to their knees with laughter every time.

However, it’s a cheap, we’ve-already-smashed-pies-in-each-other’s-faces-all-week gag. A filmmaker with the comedic talent of Adam Sandler shouldn’t have to resort to putting himself in a dress for a couple cheap laughs.

In Jack and Jill, the namesake twin characters are played by Sandler. Jill comes from the Bronx to visit Jack and his family for a yearly Thanksgiving pilgrimage. Jack is apprehensive about the visit, as he views his twin sister as needy and annoying.

Jill’s visit includes an attempt at online dating, which ends badly. But an important plot twist, and the film’s saving grace, involves Al Pacino (playing himself) developing an attraction to Jill. That’s right, the man who played Scarface and Michael Corleone plays himself and falls in love with Adam Sandler. Pacino’s diction and carriage throughout recall, well, Al Pacino. It’s uncanny.

The physical comedy, fart jokes and light ethnic humor in Jack and Jill are all staples of previous Sandler movies, so parts of this movie seem very familiar.

Another saving grace here is the bevy of cameo appearances in addition to Pacino. You’ll be racing to imdb.com after this one to identify all the celebrities that walk through. A sampling: Drew Carey, Michael Irvin, Christie Brinkley and an angry John McEnroe (is there any other mood for him?).

Jack and Jill is also a Saturday Night Live graveyard, littered with former cast members like Tim Meadows, David Spade and Norm MacDonald.

In the end, the moral is that love of one’s twin sibling trumps getting ahead in the advertising world. It’s a nice premise, but it’s overshadowed by the inherent cheap gags.

Jack and Jill is safe for families, and I’m sure most 10-year-olds will love it.    

Weekly, obligatory who reference

Sandler, a huge Who fan, could have easily dropped in a Who song to this one, but he didn’t. Come on Adam, you embarrassingly used the Go-Gos (“Vacation Time”), but no Pete Townshend? How about “Rough Boys,” which fits the theme here (technically a Townshend solo number)?

Quotable moments

“We shared mom’s womb. We were wombmates” — Jill

“What is Skype? It sounds anti-Semitic” — Jill

“You’re treating me like some kind of prosti-twin. It’s not right” — Jill

Other observations at the moviehouse

• Another Covenant Harbor axiom rang true in the preview for The Pirates: Band of Misfits: All kids love the Ramones. The pirate preview features the classic “Blitzkrieg Bop.”
• Call me old-fashioned, but I still find it odd to watch toilet seat commercials (well, commercials for home appliances where toilet seats are clearly visible) before a movie.
• However, the car commercial where the whole road-tripping family breaks into an a capella version of Ozzy Osborne’s  “Crazy Train” is brilliant no matter if you see it at home or at the theater.
• Best preview vocabulary of the week: “That’s emasculating.” Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson utters this gem in the upcoming Mysterious Island.

Since when do studios send out previews ONE YEAR in advance of a movie’s release? Paranorman, about a possessed puppet (I think), opens in AUGUST 2012. Reserve your tickets now.