The Do-Over
The Do-Over is a 2016 American buddy action comedy film directed by Steven Brill, and written by Kevin Barnett and Chris Pappas. The film follows Charlie (David Spade) and Max (Adam Sandler) after the latter fakes their deaths in order to start their lives anew. Things go awry, when they discover that the dead men whose identities they have adopted were entangled in criminal activities. Paula Patton, Kathryn Hahn, and Luis Guzmán also star.
| The Do-Over | |
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 Promotional poster | |
| Directed by | Steven Brill |
| Produced by |
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| Written by |
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| Starring |
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| Music by | Rupert Gregson-Williams |
| Cinematography | Dean Semler |
| Edited by | Tom Costain |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Netflix |
Release date |
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Running time | 108 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $40 million[1] |
The film is the second in a four-film deal between Sandler and Netflix.[2] The film was released worldwide on Netflix on May 27, 2016.[3]
Plot
Charlie is an unhappily married bank manager in a supermarket who reunites with his old high school buddy and FBI agent Max at a high school reunion. They spend a weekend on a yacht Max rented, which makes Charlie feel young again.
Max blows up the yacht to fake their deaths. When Charlie regains consciousness, Max explains that they can now both start new, better lives. He confesses that he is not an FBI agent and is actually a coroner. This allowed him to use two unclaimed cadavers in place of them; Charlie is given the new identity of Dr. Ronald P. Fishman, and Max takes on the new identity of Butch Ryder. Although initially appalled, Charlie has no reason to return to his old life after witnessing his lackluster funeral. Max tells Charlie that he found a key in Butch's rectum, and Charlie being a bank manager, uses a database to determine that it belongs to a safe deposit box in Puerto Rico.
They travel to Puerto Rico and access Butch's safe deposit box. The box contains money and the keys to a mansion, and they relocate there. The duo learn that Ronald was married after seeing a picture of his wife on Butch's tablet. At the mansion, Max and Charlie are attacked by a group of assassins led by The Gymnast. They manage to escape, and Max reveals he lied about being a coroner, and that he is actually a guidance counselor.
They return to the continental U.S. and find Ronald's widow, Heather. Max and Charlie explain to her that Ronald was murdered and infer that Butch got Ronald entangled in criminal activity. Heather informs them that Ronald's study was broken into recently.
The trio head to a biker bar where Ronald and Butch used to meet up. At the bar, they learn that Butch had stage four cancer. Ronald had developed a "magic bullet" cancer treatment and they began conducting secret, non-FDA approved clinical trials. When Ronald's financier, Shecky, withdrew funding, Butch started robbing banks. They also learn from a biker that Ronald and Butch were having a love affair.
The trio heads to Shecky's home where he reveals that his house was also broken into recently. The trio leave and determine that the men who tried to kill them wanted the cancer treatment formula and broke into their homes to try to find it. Charlie says they should hand over the formula when they find it, which angers Max. While hacking a computer at Ronald's laboratory, Charlie discovers that Max was one of Ronald's cancer patients. He also learns that Max has a young son with his wife, Becca, and realizes Max has been trying to recover the cure to save his own life.
Max returns to Shecky's house, thinking that he is withholding the cure. Shecky has been wounded by a gunshot, but before he dies, reveals that the assassins were hired by Trojgaard, the world's largest chemotherapy company, to steal the cure and bury it. The Gymnast, still in Shecky's house, takes Max hostage.
Meanwhile, Charlie goes to Becca's house and pieces together that the Jenga app on Butch's tablet was disguised to hold Ronald's cure. He attempts to call Max, but The Gymnast destroys Max's phone as he is tortured. Heather then arrives at Shecky's house and reveals to Max that she not only accepted a fortune from Trojgaard to bury the formula when Ronald refused, but also that she was the one who killed Ronald and Butch.
Charlie calls Heather, and she claims Max killed Shecky. When they meet, Charlie sees through her lie, and he punches her in the face, but Heather then holds Charlie at gunpoint. Before she can shoot, Max, who had escaped and killed The Gymnast, knocks her down. Heather then holds the two at gunpoint, but Becca shows up, beats her unconscious, and recovers the tablet. The police arrive, and when they draw their weapons, Becca, holding the tablet, accidentally throws it into the nearby bay as she put up her hands.
The tablet suffers irreparable damage, but it is revealed that Charlie backed up the formula to a USB. The duo are pardoned for their crimes when they offer the cancer treatment as a bargaining chip. Charlie, Max, Becca, son and mother return to the mansion in Puerto Rico after Max is cured.
Cast
- Adam Sandler as Max
- David Spade as Charlie
- Paula Patton as Heather
- Kathryn Hahn as Becca
- Nick Swardson as Bob
- Matt Walsh as Shecky
- Renée Taylor as Mrs. Kessler
- Sean Astin as Ted-O
- Natasha Leggero as Nikki
- Luis Guzmán as Jorge The Shooter Boy
- Catherine Bell as Dawn DeFazio
- Jackie Sandler as Joan
- Michael Chiklis as Carmine
- Torsten Voges as The Gymnast
- Stan Ellsworth as Dakota
- Dan Patrick as Auto Store Lou
Production
Principal photography on the film began in Savannah, Georgia on July 7, 2015, and it ended on August 21, 2015.[4][5]
Release
The film was released worldwide on Netflix on May 27, 2016.
A 23-year-old accountant living in New York named Max Kessler, who looks like Adam Sandler, went viral after posting a comment to Reddit about the movie release with a photo of himself next to a photo of Sandler. Sandler responded and invited Kessler to the premiere of the film in Los Angeles.[6]
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 9% based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 3.17/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "A dunderheaded story of mistaken identity, The Do-Over finds Adam Sandler and David Spade retreading old ground -- minus the comedic pep required to enliven the decidedly uninspired proceedings."[7] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 22 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[8]
Keith Uhlich of The Hollywood Reporter panned the film, and wrote: "it's clear that every Adam Sandler movie is dada of the high-concept, low-hanging-fruit variety, in which the Happy Madison stock company uses filmmaking (loosely termed) as an excuse to take an extended tropical vacation."[9] David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a grade D- and called the film "atrocious in different ways than any of Adam Sandler's previous comedies". Ehrlich continued "more than two decades since Billy Madison minted Sandler as a leading man — this restless innovator is still finding new methods of making bad movies. For years, we’ve been asking Adam Sandler to try harder. We’ve been making a huge mistake."[10]
Christian Holub of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a positive review: "The plot threads can be a little hard to follow, especially since most of them revolve around two unseen characters who are dead before the story even begins, but Sandler and Spade’s partnership gives the whole enterprise enough emotional grounding to make up for it."[11]
References
- "The Do-Over – PowerGrind". The Wrap. Retrieved April 15, 2017.
- Fleming Jr, Mike (June 1, 2015). "Paula Patton Joining Adam Sandler, David Spade In Netflix Comedy 'The Do Over'". Deadline.com. Retrieved July 10, 2015.
- Chan, Robert (March 21, 2016). "David Spade Gets R-Rated for Adam Sandler's New Netflix Comedy Coming This Memorial Day". Yahoo!. Retrieved March 21, 2016.
- "Filming begins on new Adam Sandler film 'The Do Over'". WTOC. July 7, 2015. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
- "Adam Sandler's 'The Do Over' begins filming in Savannah, GA next month". onlocationvacations.com. June 11, 2015. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
- Miranda, Leticia (May 18, 2016). "This Guy Got Invited To A Movie Premiere Because He Looks Just Like Adam Sandler". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
- "The Do-Over (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
- "The Do-Over (2016)". Metacritic. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
- Keith Uhlich (May 29, 2016). "'The Do-Over': TV Review". The Hollywood Reporter.
- Ehrlich, David (May 27, 2016). "'The Do-Over' Review: Adam Sandler's Awful New Netflix Comedy Will Make You Wish He'd Stop Trying". IndieWire.
- "'The Do-Over': EW review". Entertainment Weekly.