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| gross = $57,719,093<ref name="mojo"/>
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'''''That's My Boy'''''<ref name="title change">{{cite web|url=http://www.movieswithbutter.com/blogs/adam-sandlers-upcoming-comedy-donnys-boy-changed-thats-my-boy-207648|last=Ngo|first=Binh|title=Adam Sandler's Upcoming Comedy 'Donny's Boy' Changed to 'That's My Boy'|work=Movies with Butter|accessdate=February 28, 2012|date=February 3, 2012}}</ref> is a 2012 American [[comedy film]] starring [[Adam Sandler]] and [[Andy Samberg]]. The script was written by [[David Caspe]] and directed by [[Sean Anders]].
'''''James the African Slave '''''<ref name="title change">{{cite web|url=http://www.movieswithbutter.com/blogs/adam-sandlers-upcoming-comedy-donnys-boy-changed-thats-my-boy-207648|last=Ngo|first=Binh|title=Adam Sandler's Upcoming Comedy 'Donny's Boy' Changed to 'That's My Boy'|work=Movies with Butter|accessdate=February 28, 2012|date=February 3, 2012}}</ref> is a 2012 American [[comedy film]] starring [[Adam Sandler]] and [[Andy Samberg]]. The script was written by [[David Caspe]] and directed by [[Sean Anders]].


The film was produced under Sandler's production company [[Happy Madison]], and shot in [[Massachusetts]], around [[Boston]], [[Everett, Massachusetts|Everett]], [[Peabody]], [[Lynn]], [[Brockton]], [[Stoughton]] and [[Cape Cod]].<ref>{{cite web |title = Thursday, July, 21: Filming Locations in NYC, Detroit, Chicago, & more including AWOL, Boss, and SVU |url = http://www.onlocationvacations.com/2011/07/21/thursday-july-21-filming-locations-in-nyc-detroit-chicago-more-including-awol-boss-and-svu/comment-page-1/ |work = On Location Vacations |date = July 9, 2011 |accessdate = July 21, 2011}}</ref> The film was released on June 15, 2012,<ref name="mandc">{{cite web |title = I Hate You, Dad |url = http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=73270 |work = [[CraveOnline]] |accessdate = July 21, 2011}}</ref><ref name="trailer">{{cite web|last=Ng|first=Philiana|title='That's My Boy' Red-Band Trailer With Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg Hits the Web (Video)|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/risky-business/thats-my-boy-trailer-adam-sandler-andy-samberg-296333|work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]|accessdate=March 1, 2012|date=March 1, 2012}}</ref> and distributed by [[Columbia Pictures]].
The film was produced under Sandler's production company [[Happy Madison]], and shot in [[Massachusetts]], around [[Boston]], [[Everett, Massachusetts|Everett]], [[Peabody]], [[Lynn]], [[Brockton]], [[Stoughton]] and [[Cape Cod]].<ref>{{cite web |title = Thursday, July, 21: Filming Locations in NYC, Detroit, Chicago, & more including AWOL, Boss, and SVU |url = http://www.onlocationvacations.com/2011/07/21/thursday-july-21-filming-locations-in-nyc-detroit-chicago-more-including-awol-boss-and-svu/comment-page-1/ |work = On Location Vacations |date = July 9, 2011 |accessdate = July 21, 2011}}</ref> The film was released on June 15, 2012,<ref name="mandc">{{cite web |title = I Hate You, Dad |url = http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=73270 |work = [[CraveOnline]] |accessdate = July 21, 2011}}</ref><ref name="trailer">{{cite web|last=Ng|first=Philiana|title='That's My Boy' Red-Band Trailer With Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg Hits the Web (Video)|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/risky-business/thats-my-boy-trailer-adam-sandler-andy-samberg-296333|work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]|accessdate=March 1, 2012|date=March 1, 2012}}</ref> and distributed by [[Columbia Pictures]].

Revision as of 06:01, 23 February 2013

This article is about the 2012 film. For other uses, see That's My Boy.

That's My Boy
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySean Anders
Written byDavid Caspe
Produced byAdam Sandler
Allen Covert
Jack Giarraputo
Heather Parry
StarringAdam Sandler
Andy Samberg
Leighton Meester
Susan Sarandon
Ciara
Luenell
Vanilla Ice
CinematographyBrandon Trost
Edited byTom Costain
Music byRupert Gregson-Williams
Production
companies
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • June 15, 2012 (2012-06-15)
Running time
114 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$70 million[2][3]
Box office$57,719,093[3]

James the African Slave [4] is a 2012 American comedy film starring Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg. The script was written by David Caspe and directed by Sean Anders.

The film was produced under Sandler's production company Happy Madison, and shot in Massachusetts, around Boston, Everett, Peabody, Lynn, Brockton, Stoughton and Cape Cod.[5] The film was released on June 15, 2012,[6][7] and distributed by Columbia Pictures.

The film received very negative reviews from critics and is nominated for eight Golden Raspberry Awards. The film has been subject of controversy and criticism due to its comedic portrayal of pedophilia, incest and statutory rape.[8] It is the sixth Sandler film to be rated R. That's My Boy was a box office failure, grossing $57.7 million worldwide, thus failing to reimburse its $70 million budget.

Plot

In 1984, 13-year-old Donny Berger has an affair with his 22-year-old teacher, Mary McGarricle. During a class election assembly, they are caught having sex on stage. Mary is then arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison. She is pregnant, and Donny names the kid Han Solo Berger; Donny becomes a celebrity because of what has happened, but is forgotten as he grows up and loses contact with his son.

By 2012, Donny is a 42-year-old slacker who has squandered all his money. He is an alcoholic who spends his time with his friends, bartender Brie and stripper Champale. Angry for Donny's paternal incompetence, Donny's son changes his name to Todd Peterson and tells his acquaintances that his parents died in an explosion when he was nine years old, has gone on to become a successful businessman, has lost a lot of weight, is no longer the obese child that Donny knows, and is about to marry a young woman named Jamie. Todd has arrived at the Cape Cod house of his boss, Steve Spirou, the site of the wedding; while he doesn't get along well with Jamie's brother Chad, a Marine he has just met for the first time, he is well-liked by the other guests.

Donny learns from his lawyer, Jim Nance, that he owes $43,000 to the IRS in back-taxes and will be imprisoned for three years if he doesn't repay the money by the end of the weekend. He places a long-odds wager on morbidly obese athlete Tubby Tuke to win an upcoming marathon, but realizes that he needs another plan. He visits TV producer Randall Morgan, who had produced shows for Donny during his brief period of celebrity, and Morgan offers him $50,000 if he can organize a reunion with Han and Ms. McGarricle at the women's prison.

Donny arrives at Cape Cod to try to convince Todd to participate. Because he had previously told people that his parents had died, Todd introduces Donny as an old friend; Donny elaborates with a heroic backstory and, despite his extremely crude behavior, quickly becomes well-liked by the other guests, at the expense of Todd's popularity – to the point where Todd's best man, co-worker Phil, passes the role of best man on to Donny. Donny tries to convince Todd to come to the women's prison to see Ms. McGarricle (not revealing that it is for Morgan's television show), but he refuses. Todd fights constantly with Donny about his father's immaturity, both now and during his childhood, even revealing that he has diabetes due to Donny allowing him to eat whatever he wanted when he was a child. Donny admitted he was wrong for his actions and should've stopped him, but he didn't know how to be a father. When Donny later hears Jamie yelling at Todd, he tries to be fatherly by encouraging him to stand up for himself; he follows this advice the next day at the wedding rehearsal, getting into a fistfight with Father McNally. Donny then saves Todd by telling his future in-laws about a story about church creeping him out because there was an explosion from inside that killed his parents and therefore had a hard time recovering from it.

Donny joins Todd and his other friends at the bachelor party, which is a relaxing, alcohol-free visit to a spa organized by Phil. Donny proceeds to offend everybody at the spa (although it is implied that he eventually has sex with the uptight proprietor, Ms. Ravensdale), before convincing the others to go to the strip club with him, where Todd bonds with Brie, and everybody gets drunk, high and raucous. Donny sends the other guests home, but Phil stays and receives fellatio from a disabled stripper with a neck brace, then he and Todd meet up with Vanilla Ice, a former friend of Donny's from his B-grade celebrity days. Once Donny apologizes to Ice for sleeping with his mother (the cause of a long-standing rift between the pair), the three wreak havoc through the night before returning to Steve's house, where both Donny and Ice have sex with Steve's mother and a drunk Todd has sex with, then vomits on, the mannequin wearing Jamie's wedding dress. Throughout the night, Donny and Todd bond. Todd tells Donny that he has given him a present for being best man and he agrees to visit Ms. McGarricle in prison. Donny, knowing that the meeting is a television set-up, tries to warn Todd not to go.

The following day, Jamie forces Todd to take the dress to the dry cleaner and he decides to visit his mother anyway. Donny rushes to prison to stop the meeting, but arrives too late; Randall ambushes Todd, Donny, and Ms. McGarricle with a film crew and an enraged Todd leaves. He refuses to sign a release form for the television appearance, leaving Donny with no money from the stunt.

Donny returns to Steve's home to retrieve his belongings and overhears Jamie on a phone call, indicating that she is cheating on Todd with Steve. He tries to tell Todd at the rehearsal dinner that night, but Jamie comes up with a story to cover her tracks. Defeated, Donny leaves and returns to the strip club, where his friend, Kenny convinces him to return and earn Jamie's forgiveness. Donny heads to the hotel where Jamie is staying, only to find her having sex with her brother Chad, whom Donny learns is actually a jazz dancer pretending to be a Marine. Jamie then admits that she actually did have sex with Steve to "help" Todd get further in his career. She gives Donny the money he needs in exchange for his silence because she knows how this would affect Todd if he found out the truth.

Donny opens Todd's present to find an oven mitt, which Donny had used as a sock-puppet to comfort Todd during his childhood. Touched by Todd's acknowledgement of their father-son relationship, Donny realizes that he must stop the wedding, in spite of his need for Jamie's hush money. He and Vanilla Ice interrupt the wedding ceremony and Donny reveals that he is Todd's father. Donny tears up Jamie's check and urges her to whisper the truth to Todd. Now knowing that she had sex with Chad, he is disgusted and becomes more self-assured in revealing his real identity to the shocked attendants, even accepting Donny as his father and taking his name Han Solo Berger back. Jamie pleads with him to marry her, claiming she'll change, but Han refuses. He then tells Steve that he quits, much to his shock. Vanilla Ice then tells Han that Jamie had sex with his boss. Steve admits so, but tells him that he is also disgusted by her sleeping with Chad. Han tells Steve it's fine because Vanilla Ice and Donny both slept with his mother. Jamie than grabs a knife and goes to attack Donny but is knocked out by Han. Then Chad goes after Donny but is knocked out by the priest, but then comes up and goes to attack Han but is punched out for good by Father McNally. Han, Vanilla Ice, and Donny leave the wedding.

The following day at the strip club, Han reveals that he is dating Brie. He offers Donny the money to help pay for the unpaid taxes, but he refuses stating that it's time for him to grow up and accept responsibility. Donny is preparing to go to prison, intending to rekindle his relationship with Ms. McGarricle when both are released in 2015 – when suddenly on television, they see Tubby Tuke complete an unlikely come-from-behind victory in his marathon, winning Donny $160,000 from his earlier wager, more than enough to keep him out of prison.

Cast

Production

The film was originally titled I Hate You, Dad, and then changed to Donny's Boy before the producers finally settled on That's My Boy.[9][4]

Promotion

A red-band trailer was released on March 1, 2012.[7] A green-band trailer was later released on March 5, 2012. On June 1, 2012, the whole cast sat down with MTV on the City Walk stage to discuss the film, their individual upcoming projects and also participated in a Q&A with the audience. The film was also promoted through the 2012 MTV Movie Awards, where Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, and Leighton Meester were presenters for Best Kiss.

A spoof trailer was posted by Samberg on The Lonely Island's YouTube account on June 1, 2012.[10]

Reception

Box-office

The film opened on June 15, 2012 with $4.6 million and was expected to earn $13 million for its whole weekend debut which would be Sandler's worst opening weekend since Reign Over Me in 2007,[11] which had a significantly lower budget.

The film grossed $13,453,714 in its opening weekend, ranking #4 behind the second weekends of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and Prometheus, and the opening of Rock of Ages.[12] As of November 24, 2012, the film has grossed $36,931,089 domestically and $57,719,093 worldwide and failing to recoup its $70 million budget making it a box office flop.[3]

Critical reception

Reviews for That's My Boy were very negative. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a "rotten" score of 21% based on reviews from 109 critics, with an average rating of 3.4/10. The consensus states, "While it does represent a new foray into raunch for the normally PG-13 Sandler, That's My Boy finds him repeating himself to diminishing effect – and dragging Andy Samberg down with him."[13] Metacritic gives it a weighted average score of 31% based on 27 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[14][15] Online review show Half in the Bag called the film "pathetic", it went on to criticize Sandler as a comic, including his inability to create real humor that isn't based on childish jokes.[16] Bob Fishbach from the Omaha World Herald gave the film one out of four stars, saying it was "worse than Sandler's previous stinker, Jack and Jill".[citation needed] Richard Roeper gave the film an "F" rating, calling it "an ugly, tasteless, deadly and mean-spirited piece of filmmaking,” while Alonso Duralde gave the film a scathing review, calling it "vulgar, trite, sexist, misogynist, hacky, tacky, gross, sentimental and stupid, with occasional flourishes of racism and veiled homophobia thrown in to boot."[17]

The film has been criticized for its comedic portrayal of statutory rape, pedophilia, and incest.[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]

Accolades

Award Category Recipient(s) Result
Houston Film Critics Society[27] Worst Film Won
33rd Golden Raspberry Awards[28] Worst Picture Pending
Worst Actor Adam Sandler
Worst Supporting Actor Nick Swardson
Vanilla Ice (as himself)
Worst Director Sean Anders
Worst Screenplay written by David Caspe, uncredited rewrites by Adam Sandler, Tim Herlihy, Robert Smigel, David Wain, and Ken Marino
Worst Screen Couple Adam Sandler and either Leighton Meester, Andy Samberg, or Susan Sarandon
Worst Ensemble The entire cast of That's My Boy
Teen Choice Awards[29] Choice Summer Movie: Comedy/Music Nominated
Choice Summer Movie Star: Male Adam Sandler
Choice Summer Movie Star: Female Leighton Meester

Home media

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released That's My Boy on DVD and Blu-ray on October 16, 2012.

References

  1. ^ That's My Boy (15) – British Board of Film Classification
  2. ^ Kaufman, Amy (June 14, 2012). "Movie Projector: 'Madagascar 3' to top 'Rock' musical, Sandler comedy". latimes.com. Retrieved June 14, 2012. {{cite web}}: More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help)
  3. ^ a b c That's My Boy at Box Office Mojo
  4. ^ a b Ngo, Binh (February 3, 2012). "Adam Sandler's Upcoming Comedy 'Donny's Boy' Changed to 'That's My Boy'". Movies with Butter. Retrieved February 28, 2012.
  5. ^ "Thursday, July, 21: Filming Locations in NYC, Detroit, Chicago, & more including AWOL, Boss, and SVU". On Location Vacations. July 9, 2011. Retrieved July 21, 2011.
  6. ^ "I Hate You, Dad". CraveOnline. Retrieved July 21, 2011.
  7. ^ a b Ng, Philiana (March 1, 2012). "'That's My Boy' Red-Band Trailer With Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg Hits the Web (Video)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 1, 2012.
  8. ^ Comedy about middle school statutory rape? Does Adam Sandler’s 'That’s My Boy' go too far?. Fox News (2012-04-30). Retrieved on August 15, 2012.
  9. ^ Eisenberg, Eric (January 16, 2011). "Adam Sandler Comedy I Hate You, Dad Retitled Donny's Boy, First Image Arrives Online". Cinema Blend. Retrieved January 19, 2012.
  10. ^ "That's My Boy Trailer – Samberg Cut" – YouTube
  11. ^ Rosen, Christopher (June 16, 2012). "'That's My Boy' Box Office: Adam Sandler Comedy Bombs, Tom Cruise's 'Rock Of Ages' Disappoints". Huffington Post. Retrieved June 17, 2012.
  12. ^ Weekend Box Office Results for June 15–17, 2012. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on August 15, 2012.
  13. ^ That's My Boy at Rotten Tomatoes
  14. ^ That's My Boy at Metacritic
  15. ^ Mary Kay Letourneau's teen lover-turned-husband: Adam Sandler's movie is about us! Dailymail.co.uk (2012-06-22). Retrieved on August 15, 2012.
  16. ^ Half in the Bag: ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER and THAT'S MY BOY redlettermedia.com (2012-07-28). Retrieved on August 26, 2012.
  17. ^ http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/thats-my-boy-review-not-adam-sandlers-worst-still-terrible-44061
  18. ^ O'Hehir, Andrew. (2012-06-16) Adam Sandler hates you. Salon.com. Retrieved on August 15, 2012.
  19. ^ Chang, Justin. (2012-06-14) That's My Boy – Entertainment News, Film Reviews, Media. Variety. Retrieved on August 15, 2012.
  20. ^ Movie review: That's My Boy | Mackay Movies | Movie Reviews and Cinemas in Mackay. Dailymercury.com.au (2012-06-21). Retrieved on August 15, 2012.
  21. ^ Movie review: That's My Boy | Ipswich Movies | Movie Reviews and Cinemas in Ipswich | Ipswich Queensland Times. Qt.com.au (2012-06-21). Retrieved on August 15, 2012.
  22. ^ Adam Sandler’s new movie “That’s My Boy” exploits child victims of sexual assault. Please boycott the movie. | National Coalition For Men. NCFM (2012-05-02). Retrieved on August 15, 2012.
  23. ^ Entertainment Reviews – That's My Boy. ENewsI.com (2012-06-16). Retrieved on August 15, 2012.
  24. ^ Christopher Rosen: 'That's My Boy': Adam Sandler's 'Midnight In Paris'?. Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved on August 15, 2012.
  25. ^ That’s My Boy — The Good Men Project. Goodmenproject.com (2012-06-18). Retrieved on August 15, 2012.
  26. ^ Adam Sandler and Rape Culture — The Good Men Project. Goodmenproject.com (2012-06-17). Retrieved on August 15, 2012.
  27. ^ "2012 Houston Film Critics Nominees - Winners". Texasartfilm.com. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
  28. ^ Bibbiani, William (January 8, 2013). "The 33rd Annual Razzies (Dis)-Honor Twilight: Breaking Dawn: Part 2". CraveOnline.com. Retrieved January 9, 2013.
  29. ^ "Breaking Dawn leads the way at Teen Choice Awards nominations". Winnipeg Free Press. June 15, 2012. Retrieved June 16, 2012.
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