Rachel Review: “Home Team” puts you to sleep with hopeless world

Happy Madison Productions or Adam Sandler’s talentless friends, whatever you call them, got together again and made a new movie called “Home Team.” It was released on Jan. 28 and has the same overused formula as every other back burner Sandler production. It stars Taylor Lautner and Kevin James. 

The movie “Home Team” is based on the real life story of Sean Payton, played by James,  after being suspended from coaching in the NFL and returns home to reconnect with his son. Upon arriving, finding his son’s football team in desperate need of direction, Payton becomes his son’s coach.

With no knowledge of how this story played out in real life, this summary sounds like the bare bones to a possible premise. Maybe it could lead to a touching story between father and son, or something about overcoming past mistakes, but unsurprisingly this movie is nothing more than that. It barely attempts to have any more substance than a basic outline of a story. 

“Home Team” is meant to be a comedy but there was maybe one line I laughed at as the rest are overused from old Sandler productions. I was more bored every time the movie was trying to present a joke. I remember when Sandler movies felt as if the writers and everyone behind the movies were on crack and just having fun. Now they feel like soulless cash grabs more than any other studio in Hollywood. 

I know it’s no Sandler movie or family fun movie without a barf scene. Seriously, the vomit scene was longer than any other scene in the movie. The movie had little runtime and substance already, so they had to keep in every cut they made. I wanted to shut off Netflix for how disgraceful and annoying it was that I had to witness this scene again in a totally different Sandler movie. 

Never mind James, we’ve seen him before in these Sandler movies. Lautner on the other hand was in this movie and that is basically it. Like everything else he is in, he doesn’t have a chance to show any acting ability. But he does seem like the perfect fit to be a part of the Sandler soulless crew and I guess that this is one way of making money, especially now that he has a dad bod.

If these Sandler family comedy movies ever go back to an actual form of storytelling rather than some checklist that hasn’t been unmodified since 1999, I’ll give them another chance. I’d rather waste my time with semi-formulated Disney channel movies than one of these again.

To add insult to injury, Payton actually makes a cameo in the end of the movie as a janitor. Playing someone who cleans up garbage right at the end of your own story? Ouch!