The new trailer for Grown Ups 2 opens, unsurprisingly, with a joke. But not a new joke — a multi-tiered joke from the film’s predecessor, Grown Ups, that goes on for 20 seconds, accompanied by a score crafted specifically to help the punchline land. It’s an artistic choice, superceded only by the mind-boggling scenes to follow in this trailer — nay, short film. Watch the video, then check below for our in-depth screengrab analysis of this timeless work of transgressive fiction.
Just to make confirm you saw what you thought you saw….
Following the life-changing events of Grown Ups 1 (they roasted marshmallows and cut in line at Splish Splash), Adam Sandler and his wife Salma Hayek have moved out of Los Angeles and back to the gang’s hometown to give their children the life they deserve. While real world suburbia is a bit more than a stone’s throw from the back woods, director Dennis Dugan has apparently taken a more expansive approach, borrowing from the tenets of Russian cinema to transpose the modern small town with the Great Plains of our nation’s yesteryear — Sandler is attacked in his own home by a skittish buck with a loose bladder.
The whole gang (Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Kevin James) meets up with an old friend: police officer Shaquille O’Neal, who wields his firearm to scare his buddies into putting their hands in the air. Now, anyone who has lived through the post-millennium years would likely not expect a “Wave ’em like you just don’t care!” to follow this command. But Grown Ups 2 doesn’t only transcend location, but time. Here we are, back in the mid ’90s, when such a gag would be pertinent. Eras are melded.
The old hometown, on top of being a time-warping wormhole and a suburb/natural preserve hybrid, is also a gigantic college campus. Proven by Taylor Lautner and his fellow fraternity douches reigning supreme on their “turf.” Duggan calls from the pages of Lord of the Flies for this scene, pitting the fit, arrogant young college boys against the melting mush that is the starring cast. Subtexts of Darwinism conquering humanity will burst from the screen.
Finally, the Grown Ups franchise takes a post-modern jab at its own newcomer, Andy Samberg. Samberg’s story is best explained via a parable from the modern classic family film Hook — enticed by the heraldry of an evil sorcerer (Sandler), a nubile young boy without a sense of belonging (Samberg) takes to these wicked ways, joining forces with the pirate’s despicable traveling circus while his father (Lorne Michaels) pleads for him to just come home. Human tragedy has never been so real.
What artistic exploits will Grown Ups 2 tackle once it hits theaters?
Follow Michael Arbeiter on Twitter @MichaelArbeiter
[Photo Credit: Columbia Pictures(4)]
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