Cast members of Grown Ups try hard to make viewers laugh, but many people in the audience at the screening I attended did more groaning than guffawing while watching this latest Adam Sandler comedy. Perhaps that’s because most of the material comes across as too mean-spirited to be funny. For example, if you think a man married to a much older woman or a “Mr. Mom” husband deserves being the target of humiliation, then the humor here will probably amuse you. If not, Grown Ups just might be one of the most annoying movies of the year for you.  

The story concerns five old friends who decide to bring their families together at a lakeside house for a Fourth of July weekend following the death of their former beloved basketball coach. Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider play guys who were on the coach’s only championship team when they were in their teens. But even 30 years later, they can’t forget how much he meant to them.

Sandler’s character, a Hollywood agent, has achieved the most economic success as a grown up. His wife (Salma Hayek) designs high fashion clothes, and his kids have all the latest technological gadgets. James plays a man married to a woman (Maria Bello) who still nurses her 4-year-old son -- and in public. Rock, a stay-at-home dad, endures a grumpy pregnant wife (Maya Rudolph) and a bossy mother-in-law (Ebony Jo-Ann). Schneider is hitched to a woman (Joyce Van Patten) who looks more like his mother than his wife. And Spade is the irresponsible bachelor of the group.

While focusing on the various interactions of these diverse characters during their weekend together, Grown Ups meanders all over the place. The running joke about breast milk turns sour early on, and other crude humor attempts seem juvenile at best. Almost everything is supposed to be comical, but hardly anything comes out that way. I laughed only once during the entire film, and that happened when Schneider delivered his hilarious rendition of “Ave Maria” at the coach’s funeral service.  

Although I appreciate the way this movie ends with an emphasis on the value of friendship, truthfulness and marital understanding, I was very glad when it DID end.  

“Dying is easy; comedy is hard,” said a famous actor on his death bed. Films like Grown Ups prove his point.     

(Released by Columbia Pictures and rated “PG-13” for crude material including suggestive references, language and some male rear nudity.)

For more information about this film, go to the Internet Movie Data Base or Rotten Tomatoes website.