MOVIE REVIEWS: JUST GO WITH IT

Just Go With It is getting the usual mixture of praise and damnation from critics that Adam Sandler movies generally attract, often in the same review. Take A.O. Scott’s in the New York Times, for example. Scott calls it “this passive-aggressive, naughty but nice, sometimes obnoxious and occasionally quite funny late-winter romantic comedy.” In the Orlando Sentinel, Roger Moore describes the movie as “an uphill struggle of a farce built on the winning combo of two comic actors who seem to be able to make even the worst comedy a hit.” Several critics express sympathy for Jennifer Aniston, who has appeared in a ton of forgettable movies since her days as Rachel on Friends. In the New York Daily News, critic Elizabeth Weitzman asks, “What is it with Jennifer Aniston? Commitment issues? Low self-esteem? Because there’s got to be a reason she makes so many poor choices. I’m speaking, of course, about her taste in scripts, which is so baffling it’s time to suggest either therapy or a change in management. The curse strikes again in Just Go With It, a witless rom-com that is only marginally watchable thanks to Aniston and her costar, Adam Sandler.” But Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times gives the film an overall positive review, concluding, “If you’re a Sandler film buff, the comedy is classic Sandler and will probably satisfy. Still, the best thing about the movie remains Aniston — she is reason enough to just go with it.” And Mick LaSalle, begins his review in the San Francisco Chronicle this way: “It had been one of the minor inducements to longevity, this crazy hope of one day actually seeing Jennifer Aniston in a good movie. That day arrives with Just Go With It, a very funny romantic comedy that nicely combines Adam Sandler’s acerbic sweetness with Aniston’s down-to-earth warmth.”