Twitview: Like either of Barrymore & Sandler’s other two films?  Then you’ll think this is adorable, mindless fluff.  I mean that in the best possible way.  Relax and enjoy the silly.  B-

The Wedding Singer.  50 First Dates.  And now Blended.  This is the third go-round for Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler.  Third time’s the charm?  Well, I’ve already been charmed by The Wedding Singer.  So as Missouri says, show me!

Jim is a widower with three girls that manages the local Dick’s Sporting Goods (product placement!)  Lauren is a divorcee with two boys that organizes closets.  Setup: free-wheeling dad who dresses his girls like boys because employee discount + uptight overly regimented woman with hyper and awkward boys.  When Jim and Lauren get set up on a blind date, things go about as bad as you can get.  First date idea from Jim: Hooters!  Lauren drools French onion soup down her blouse!  The Hooters girls seem to know Jim really,  really well!  Lauren spits a too-hot buffalo shrimp across the table!  Needless to say, these two cut their losses early and vow never to see each other again.

But the restaurant swapped their gold cards, so Jim knocks on Lauren’s door.  Hey, Lauren’s coworker Jen dates Jim’s boss!  But things are looking rocky with Jen and Boss, just when Boss purchased a crazy incredible week-long trip to South Africa for Jen, Boss and Boss’s 5 kids!  Wait…Jim has 3 kids.  Lauren has 2 kids.  Are you thinking what I’m thinking?  SOUTH AFRICA BITCHES!

As Jen and Boss make no mention of the fact that they’ve sold their respective places in the trip to someone else, it’s a wonderful surprise when Lauren and Jim find out that they’re sharing a suite, and that the trip is to a location that specializes in “family-moons”, where the newly coupled with kids can take a moment and bond.  Except for it’s not a wonderful.  Before you can say “hey, the South African natives are straight out of Book of Mormon”, Lauren and Jim are finding that they may not hate each other all that much.  L’amour!

Now, you may think after all that, that I didn’t care for the plot or the characters.  That’s where you’d be wrong.  No, not because they’re finely crafted and the character development is a delight.  I like the ebb and flow of Blended because Sandler and Barrymore make it so damn fun to watch.  It’s one of those impossible-in-real-life-but-fine-in-rom-coms kinda story that is perfect to just sit down and bliss out to.  Will straight dudes like this film?  Eh, probably not.  But for anyone else who is down to rom-com, your fluffy, silly ship has come in.

Terry Crews as an over-caffeinated Julie The Cruise Director is as over-the-top and hilarious as possible.  There were folks who didn’t like Blended because the “racial portrayals were offensive”.  Settle down, Jethro.  Crews — and the rest of his strange, Sexual-Chocolate-In-South-Africa band — practically winks at you from the screen.  Not only is he in on the joke, he’s cranking that sucker to 11.  The only thing that landed with a thud for me was Braxton Beckham as Jim’s oversexed older son Jake.  Having Jake lust after the babysitter was supposed to be quaint and funny, but he came off creepy and stalkerish.  Ew.  Balancing that creepy out is the fun of Bella Thorne (Big Love) as Jim’s eldest daugher Hilary (whom Jim refers to as Larry.  Because men can’t raise girls!  Amirite ladeez?)  Thorne takes a horrible cliché and turns it into a sweet subplot of growing up, love and acceptance.  Kevin Nealon and Jessica Lowe play the obligatory overly-sexual but crazy-in-love couple Jim and Lauren share their communal meals with.  Lowe’s shimmy practically has a movie all on it’s own, and director Frank Coraci (surprise; The Wedding Singer) knows not to let ’em overstay their welcome.

The songlist is, as is the case with most of Sandler and Barrymore’s films (together and separately), pretty awesome.  “True Fine Love” by Steve Miller, Whitney’s “I’m Every Woman”, “I’ll Make Love To You” by Boys II Men (nice bookend there), R.E.M.’s “End of the World”, and “Miss Moving On” by Fifth Harmony.  Ahhh, the things a great soundtrack can do to lift a mediocre film.  Another thing that helps Blended is the innocent fun along the way to the inevitable happy ending.  Sitcom tropes are trotted out and handily dealt with, problems are easily solved and by doing so, the leads are brought together in one extended meet cute.  The South African location shots don’t hurt either, thanks to cinematographer Julio Macat (Pitch Perfect, Wedding Crashers).  Oh, and sportsness; South African Cricketer Dale Steyn (one of the best fast bowlers in world, so they tell me) has a cute bit in the film that I’m sure international audiences will go crazy for.  Plus, he’s easy on the eye, so USA!  And in case y’all thought Sandler only had love for Cricket, Shaq himself plays Jim’s coworker Doug.  And he does just fine.  He’s got this, Jay Pharoah.

Cozy chemistry that Barrymore and Sandler share reminds you of their other, better films.  But that doens’t mean that Blended isn’t enjoyable.  It means that instead of breaking new ground or coming up with an interesting twist on the usual rom-com, Blended pulls out all of the cliché and stereotypes, stirs in the typical twists you see coming a mile away, and delivers a film that is just plain-old fun.  A little too goofy?  Maybe more than a little over-the-top?  Sure.  But Sandler and Barrymore anchor the film with their believable turns as date-weary, relationship-leery parents.  And who doesn’t love a guaranteed happy ending?  Blended is a perfect example of John Lennon/Bertrand Russell’s “time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time”.  Truer words, guys.  Truer words.