Click. Another sure-fire Adam Sandler comedy, right? Click. The movie co-stars Kate Beckinsale, one of the hottest Brits alive. Click. The movie is about a guy who control his entire life with a remote control. Click. Click. Click. Why the hell does this movie fire blanks?

Honestly, a Soviet monkey in space could write a positively funny comedy about a man who is given a remote control that controls every aspect of his life, especially one that stars Adam Sandler. After all, Sandler is the kind of guy who can pull off stories about crappy hockey players who are excellent golfers, or about idiots who have to repeat grade school. Sure, Sandler has had his misfires - Little Nicky and Mr. Deeds come to mind - but he generally can turn inane plots into inanely hilarious comedies.

Unfortunately, Click just isn't funny enough. It has its moments, but its misfires more times than not. The film focuses way too much on the lamest jokes (various dogs humping a big toy) while completely ignoring the immense possibilites that one could explore with a universal remote control.

Sandler stars as Michael Newman, an architect who spends his whole life working and shooting for the next big promotion in his career. In the meantime, he's all but neglected his children, and, the greater crime, his beautiful, beautiful wife. So obsessed with his work that he dreams of having more time to fit everything in that one day he goes to the local electronics store searching for a universal remote control, and lo and behold finds crazy scientist Christopher Walken in the back, willing to give him a very special remote for free. Sandler soon discovers this remote allows him to fast forward, rewind, pause, mute and adjust the volume in his life. In addition, he can view "DVD" special features of his life, including a making-of featurette (his parents having sex) and audio commentary by James Earl Jones. However, the remote also learns his preferences, and over time starts fast-forwarding through his life without his permission. He soon finds his children grown up, his wife divorced and married to his son's gross swimming coach (Sean Astin) and his health failing, with him of course finally realizing that he should cherish the little moments in life before they slip away, blah blah blah.

Click is moderately entertaining, but it isn't the laugh-out-loud comedy it should have been. The movie gets way too serious at the end as Sandler discovers that he missed his father's death, became a corporate asshole, lost his wife, has a bad heart, has gained a hundred pounds and so on and so forth. The scene where Sandler has a heart attack in the rain is something right out of a hard core drama, not a comedy that earlier had him in a not-so-convincing fat suit. Click is a tale of two movies, and clearly director Frank Coraci couldn't decide on what genre he wanted his film to be. Coraci, who directed Sandler in The Waterboy and The Wedding Singer, certainly knows how to deliver a silly comedy, but loses sight of what matters.

To make matters worse, Sandler's intentions just never make much sense. As he discovers the true power of the remote control, he starts skipping through just about everything in his life so he can in turn focus only on work. I am a workaholic, but even I'm not stupid enough to think that work is all that matters in life. Wouldn't it have made more sense if Sandler uses his newfound tool to give him more time to do work and spend time with the family? He fastforwards through everything from getting dressed in the morning to dinner with the parents to sex with his wife, which really doesn't make much sense. Why on earth would you fastforward through sex with Kate Beckinsale?

Click would have succeeded had Coraci focused on the little things instead of the broad picture. I would have liked to see more interaction between Sandler and Beckinsale, not because she's gorgeous but because her talent is completely wasted here. She's delegated to a very small and thankless role, and the lack of many other supporting characters for Sandler to interact with makes it hard for any comedy to be truly successful. Walken once again delivers a quirky performance, but he's really not that funny at all. David Hasselhoff is amusing, but not commanding.

Click is certainly not Sandler's worst movie, but it is surprisingly dull. Some things don't make sense, and the screenplay isn't clever enough to capitalize on its potential.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.