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Home / Lifestyle

50 First Dates

17 Aug, 2004 04:53 AM2 mins to read

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By EWAN McDONALD

(Herald rating: * * *)



Boy meets girl, boy chases girl, girl falls for boy, girl and boy fall out, boy wins girl back, the end. The romantic comedy formula has served screenwriters well since the day that Will Shakespeare thought, "I'll bet I can flog this one off
to Baz Luhrmann or Franco Zeffirelli," and sat down to write about a young couple in Verona.

It worked well for Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore in The Wedding Singer, so well that they are reunited six years later in this romantic comedy with a twist.

Sandler plays Henry Roth, a marine biologist who cares for the stars of one of those seal and porpoise circuses at an aquarium in Honolulu.

This enables him to meet women holidaymakers who are looking for a fling and to ... ah, assist them in their quests. One-Night-Stands'R Us, if you catch the drift.

In a coffee shop one morning he meets Lucy (Barrymore). They flirt. They part. In a coffee shop next morning he meets the same girl. She doesn't remember him.

This is because she had a car accident some time ago and suffers short-term memory loss - when she wakes up each morning she has forgotten what happened yesterday. To win her heart and to get to sixth base on our list at the top, Henry will have to make her fall in love with him all over again, every day.

So, you're getting the picture, and the picture you should be getting is that this is not at all your typical Adam Sandler movie. Hey, it's not great art but it may be a sign that Hollywood's eternal boy is at last growing up and may even be trying to be a nice guy.

And Drew Barrymore - well, it's more than enough to say that this is the kind of role that suits her, that she carries off so well, better than any other woman in Hollywood.

The DVD plays in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with bold colours. Director Peter Segal and Barrymore, who was also one of the movie's producers, provide the commentary. Features include six scenes that were wisely deleted, and the usual collection of out-takes, making-of, a guide to the Hawaiian-English patois that you won't need to understand the movie, and several music videos.


DVD, video rental 18 August

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