Among the famous people who make cameo appearances in the new Adam Sandler comedy “Jack and Jill”: Johnny Depp, John McEnroe, David Spade, Shaquille O’Neal, Drew Carrey, Christie Brinkley, Michael Irvin, Regis Philbin, Dana Carvey and even Jared Fogle, the guy from the Subway sandwich commercials.
Total number of laughs all this amassed star power generates: One.
The bit with Depp, who has an amusing exchange with Al Pacino, made me chuckle. Yes, Pacino is also in “Jack and Jill” playing himself. This is not a cameo but a real supporting role. And unlike Robert DeNiro, who often sleepwalks through his for-the-paycheck jobs, Pacino gives the movie his all. Method is Method, whether you’re working with David Mamet or Dennis Dugan.
Dugan is a TV and film (mostly TV) actor who has directed many of Sandler’s pictures, from “Happy Gilmore” to “Big Daddy” to “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.”
“Jack and Jill” contains long stretches of squirm-inducing tedium in which Sandler riffs and ad-libs far longer than he should, as if he thought that wearing a dress would immediately turn anything he did into comedy gold.
Why didn’t anyone on the set (or even the editing room) tell him how irritating he was?
Playing Jack Sadelstein, an L.A. ad exec dreading the annual holiday visit of his twin sister, Jill (also Sandler), the actor is obviously having fun. But the party doesn’t include the audience.
I might not have been able to make it all the way through “Jack and Jill” if it weren’t for Pacino, not because he’s funny but because his performance is fascinating.
This is arguably Pacino’s first big sell-out, but he earns every single dollar. He plays himself as an arrogant, show-off manipulator who pitches a fit onstage when someone’s cell phone goes off during a performance on Broadway; talks to his service staff in gibberish to make people think he can speak foreign languages; and relentlessly pursues Jill as a way of getting into character for an upcoming gig as Don Quixote in “Man of La Mancha.”
Pacino doesn’t hold back, whether he’s prancing around to “I’m a Believer” or pillaging famous lines from his most revered characters for laughs (he breaks out “The Godfather” and “Scarface,” too).
In “Jack and Jill,” the biggest joke of all is on you.
“Jack and Jill” (1 star)
An unfunny indulgence for Adam Sandler playing dual roles as twin brother and sister. Al Pacino is fascinating, if not funny. Even a mass of cameos can’t conjure up much fun. With Katie Holmes and Eugenio Derbez.
Rated: PG for mild vulgar language, comic violence, crude humor.
Showing: Alderwood Mall, Cinebarre, Everett Mall, Galaxy Monroe, Marysville, Stanwood, Metro, Oak Tree, Woodinville, Cascade Mall.
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