Blended

Here’s the story of a widower raising three daughters and a divorcee struggling to raise two sons. There is a sitcom mentality that pervades Blended, except the latest Adam Sandler vehicle is much longer.

It’s basically another example of the aggressively low-brow shtick that Sandler has peddled for the past two decades, with no hint that he knows when to stop and change things up. Maybe he’s oblivious because he keeps surrounding himself with the same collaborators and yes men, including romantic-comedy partner Drew Barrymore (third pairing) and director Frank Coraci (fourth pairing), in addition to various buddies who pop up in cameos throughout the proceedings.

At any rate, the film opens with a disastrous blind date between Jim (Sandler) and Lauren (Barrymore) that ends with a flurry of insults and awkwardness. Each retreats to their day jobs and their home lives as single parents, crossing paths again during a late-night supermarket run that winds up with another slew of embarrassments and a credit-card switcheroo.

A couple more contrivances later, and Jim and Lauren find themselves, with kids in tow, at an African resort aimed at bringing together fractured families. The boorish Jim and the uptight Lauren get to know one another and mingle their children, reluctant to realize that perhaps they can be better parents together than by themselves.

The film manages some sporadically amusing banter as its characters trade barbs, but the hit-to-miss ratio of the gags is pretty low. The uninspired screenplay is content to recycle the same jokes over and over, with gradually diminished returns.

Jim’s oldest daughter (Bella Thorne) is mistaken for a boy because of her haircut. Lauren accidentally bangs her youngest son’s head against door frames while carrying him to bed. A flamboyant lounge singer (Terry Crews) and his chorus intervene in the most awkward moments to serenade the mismatched couple. Even if these concepts are funny at first, they become lazy and tiresome by the third or fourth go-around.

What’s left is a hope that the audience will somehow find these obnoxious adults and hyperactive kiddos endearing as they wait for Jim and Lauren to inevitably admit that this group must somehow form a family, while visiting a would-be African resort that looks more like a suburban theme park, save for the occasional playful giraffe or amorous rhino. That’s where Blended gets all mixed up.

Rated PG-13, 117 minutes.