If Adam Sandler's recent cinematic forays are any indication, the man who was Billy Madison is starting to grow up a bit. Click arrives, as did Punch-Drunk Love  and Spanglish, with a slightly more dramatic tinge to it. Not that there's anything wrong with that; after all, Sandler proved he can act in those two films. But they were intentionally more serious projects, so when it comes to mixing his trademark goofball humor with some decidedly straight-faced elements in Click, the result isn't always consistent. The movie begins as a typical Sandler comedy and finishes resembling something like A Christmas Carol in the Year 3000. Though the best of intentions are at work, Click comes across as more creepy and awkward than edgy and funny.

Sandler plays Michael Newman, an architect who, despite a work load that takes a lot out of him, remains a loving husband to his wife, Donna (Kate Beckinsale), and father to their two kids. Still, Michael finds most of his time spent shoveling down junk food, not interacting as much with his family as he'd like, and taking too much nonsense from his boss (David Hasselhoff). But on one fateful night, the search for a universal remote control leads Michael to the strangest discovery of his life: a tiny little remote that actually controls the world around him. Michael discovers that he can fast-forward through fights, pause his boss to slap him ferociously, and go back in time to relive his fondest memories.

At first, the remote is a godsend, until Michael finds that the device has started programming itself, activating its own functions without Michael being there to push the button. Soon, years are flying by Michael in a heartbeat, who realizes he has to find a way to stop the remote before his whole life takes place without him.

Click is a well-meaning and ambitious film that never really finds a good balance for its dramatic and comedic traits. So determined are the filmmakers to take Click off the beaten path as far as Sandler flicks go and yet still be mainstream-accessible, they end up with a string of stale jokes and a surprisingly dark edge that goes too far over the top to be involving for viewers. A week after Jack Black taught the values of teamwork and being charitable (albeit in an extremely silly fashion) in Nacho Libre, Sandler cranks up the Life Lesson-o-Meter up to 11 with Click, and he ends up being about as subtle as using a bazooka to play darts.

The film has its fun with Michael's outings working the remote, with the funnier bits including Michael skipping through the chapters of a frenzied dinner and discovering that his life comes with a commentary track narrated by James Earl Jones. Christopher Walken even stops by to bask in the weirdness, playing a strange technician named Morty who gives Michael the remote in the first place, and his gonzo presence is as welcome as ever. Although not as hilarious as his cameo in the SpongeBob movie, David Hasselhoff definitely has a ball indulging himself in the character of Michael's pompous sleazebag of a boss.

But as far as content goes, Click mostly serves up some run-of-the-mill jokes, and when the time comes for the film to put on a stone face, it hurls itself into the drama with hardly the slightest bit of preparation for the audience's sake. Click jerks the viewers between having to chuckle and wanting to tear up, having to laugh at Michael shake his belly when the remote fast-forwards him to being 400 pounds and needing to be somber when he realizes his wife left him. The experience is like being on one of those scrambler rides at an amusement park with the safety bar working only part of the time.

Eventually, Sandler is left having to trudge his way through the corner he's painted himself into, and the supporting actors, from Beckinsale to Julie Kavner and Henry Winkler as Michael's parents, must sit on the sidelines in unconvincing "old people" make-up until their time is up. The whole production also has something of a phony look to it, inspiring one to laugh at the film's futuristic settings for all the wrong reasons.

As a film critic, I'm glad to see Adam Sandler slowly starting to take riskier chances with his projects, and as someone who grew up watching Sandler movies, it's cool to see him try something different while hanging onto what made him the comedy superstar he is now. Click is an admirable attempt to blend together the man's comedic and dramatic attributes, but in the end, it's not that skillful at inciting laughs or tears.

MY RATING: ** (out of ****)

(Released by Columbia Pictures and rated "PG-13" for language, crude and sex-related humor and some drug references.)