Film Review: Click

"it's soo true..."

Click (12a)
Dir. Frank Coraci

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

When I press this button you will not be able to move, you will be completely at my mercy. Everything will be ‘paused’ except me and you better hope that I like you… Because I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want me to slap you around, break wind in your face or take off vital pieces of your clothing – leaving you hurting / gagging or just plain embarrassed when I restart time? Of course it’s just a movie but you’ve got to admit that the idea of having a ‘universal remote control’ which works on the universe itself is a fun one and director Frank ‘The Wedding Singer’ Coraci milks it for every last drop of potential mirth.
Adam Sandler plays Michael Newman, your average American guy who is striving to please his scumbag boss (a top cameo by David Hasselhoff), keep his cute kids and gorgeous wife (a jaw droppingly hot Kate Beckinsale) happy and still have time for his extended family. It’s an impossible task and it’s driving him mental. That is until he one day is given a universal remote by wacky inventor / angel Christopher Walken. From then on Click plays like a kind of Bruce Almighty just with supernatural technology giving him the Godlike powers rather than deifying himself. There were an awful lot men in the cinema wearing wistfully envious looks when Newman experiences the delights of being able to ‘picture in picture’ sports channel coverage into his field of vision at any time, and several partners got evil looks when nodding vigorously at the great idea of being able to fast forward through every argument you ever have with your better half. How about using it to turn down the volume on a whining needy friend, annoyingly jolly karaoke merchant or loudly barking dog? What about hitting the slow motion button when a foxy female jogger passes or pausing time to give your boss a quick beating when given an outrageous deadline? Click takes puerile (mostly male) wish fulfillment and plays it large on the big screen.
The fun does slow down for a schmaltzy moral about wasting your life but even that doesn’t detract from Click being a very worthwhile way to kill some time. There’s even a great soundtrack which features one of my all time favourite tracks - U2’s Achtung Baby masterpiece ‘Ultraviolet’. I went to see Click with fairly low expectations but will now chalk it up as potentially Adam Sandler’s finest work to date.

Darkmatters rating system (out of 5):

Action öö - not an action flick but pacy enough
Laughs öööö – plenty and well observed, you will laugh out loud
Horror ö – nothing too grim except Sandler in a fat suit at one point
Babes öööö – Beckinsale is in my all time top 10!

Overall öööö (more fun than you might expect!)


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