Big Daddy - 4 stars out of 10

Big Daddy - 4 stars out of 10

"Big Daddy," while on par with Adam Sandler's brand of humor, is evidence of the decline in the popularity and quality of his comedy films.  This tiresome film has the stupid humor and quirky characters that we love but it is all very disjointed, as if the writers were desperately casting out their lines for jokes and gags to include in this random compilation of Sandler goofiness.  "Happy Gilmore" and "Billy Madison" maybe not deserve any Oscar nominations, but they have interesting stories that grab our attention and characters that truly learn an important lesson to become a better person.  All of this is done in the midst of stupidity and randomness, but the good story makes us love his characters.  In "Big Daddy," the story feels like the writers said "How can we find an excuse for him to raise a kid?" and then reused some of the material from "Billy Madison."  In the end, the character's big transition is him saying "Oh!  I should teach him GOOD things instead of BAD things!"  While it has its hilarious moments like throwing sticks in front of rollerbladers and funny lines like "Heep?  Heep hop?  Heep hop anonymous?", "Big Daddy" lacks the inspiration of Sandler's older films.  The critics hated it, the audiences loved it, but I think that the critics got this one right.