Adam Sandler delivers a disappointing performance in Click. He plays Michael Newman, a gifted architect whose ambition is to become a partner at the firm where he works. Because Michael wants the good life for himself and his family, he’s been giving his all to this end. However, with that kind of ambition dictating his choices, it’s easy for him to lose sight of the important things in life: wife and family. Michael is supposed to be someone audiences can easily relate to. Unfortunately, Sandler presents the character as a negative, nasty, shallow individual who puts himself above everyone else. I found it difficult to sympathize with Sandler’s architect and his plight because the man is far too repugnant.

In a constant state of frustration and impatience, our hero cannot tolerate the smallest frustration. Even the several remote controls he uses for household gadgets and appliances prove too much for him. He has trouble remembering which remote does what. One night when he attempts to switch on the television and instead discovers he has turned the overhead fan on, he reaches the boiling point. He tries again with two or three of the electronic devices with no success. In consternation he concludes he needs a universal remote control. That will solve the problem once and for all.

Despite the late hour, Michael sets off to purchase one. He finds a Bed, Bath and Beyond outlet, the only store still open at this late hour. In vain he searches through the shop for the universal remote. Finally he encounters Morty (Christopher Walken) an employee of the store who gives him a revolutionary new remote product and promises Michael it will solve his problems -- but, he says, the remote is non-returnable. So who cares? Not Michael.

Our stressed-out architect soon discovers that the remote controls more than his appliances. With it he can replay and relive the past, fast-forward ahead to the future, or pause situations in time. The universal control looks like Michael’s key to the success that has eluded him.

Sandler is a far better dramatic actor than he is a comedian, as evidenced in his critically acclaimed performance in director Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love and more recently in Spanglish. I think Anderson was able to do what no other director before or since could do with Sandler. He toned down the actor and inspired him to act more naturally, which resulted in his performances not being so unwieldy. But Sandler is dreadful this time out. Too often the cheap gags come across simply as rude or disgusting rather than amusing. 

I wish Sandler would leave potty humor and comedy behind and reevaluate his career. He should go after serious roles like the ones Jim Carrey has been doing lately. From the outset of Click, it's obvious that Sandler wrestled control of the production from director Frank Coraci. Apparently, Coraci was unable to restrain the actor from going overboard with his scenes.

Steve Koren and Mark O’Keefe’s screenplay lacks originality and appears to be loosely based on the Back to the Future trilogy. Walken, always dependable, gives a funny and sometimes chilling performance as Morty. Indeed, his character bears a scary resemblance to Christopher Lloyd’s Dr. Emmett Brown from those science fiction films. Guess I should admit that while watching Click, I  was tempted to hit the eject button and take another look at my copy of the more entertaining Back to the Future movie trio instead.  

I wonder what would've  happened if Click had been helmed by a skilled director like Robert Zemeckis, one who could control Sandler. I guess we'll never know. Too bad.

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