First off, this won’t be insulting to anyone who saw or plans on seeing this movie.

It won’t be degrading.

It won’t use caps lock, or have hilarious insults about any person’s taste.

The demographics for this film are more than easy to identify, attack and criticize…

I’m slowly learning that nobody likes a cynical asshole who rips at your pop culture taste while they pretend to be an expert on the field. Whether it be clever or immature, it is a trait that gets more unappealing with every insult. I’m more than guilty of that…and it’s getting tiresome.

Let me preface any judging I make with these points: I listen to Green Day, Boner jokes amuse me, I wouldn’t change a station that’s playing Bon Jovi, and despite my very indie, and specific taste in films, I enjoyed Notting Hill, Freddy Got Fingered and Con Air. Yeah, Con fucking Air. I work a part time job while going to school and have very few assets to my name; meaning that financially, I am no better than anyone. My opinions, though very select and usually leaning more independent, should not be taken in any high regard because they are meaningless. No one is going to say, “Wait, Steve didn’t like that? Maybe I should rethink my position..”

But…

Though I may not be above anyone in taste, I am a curious soul.

So I will ask one simple question…Why?

Why?

This isn’t laced with sarcasm, or smug in context. It’s begging to be answered with such desperation that I am nearly exhausted.

We are in a recession, which means that even though people may have limited funds, they will always try and pay for entertainment, and you know what…God bless them. Everyone needs an escape.

Families need that gateway of getting away from stress, jobs, etc and cinemas are the best way to do it. However, in this case I won’t give families the benefit of the doubt on this one- movies with cartoon characters, dragons, CGI effects, I would give a pass because being the parent of a 5 year old I realize that you jump on a grenade once in a while for their benefit of liking ‘shiny movies.’ This isn’t shiny though, it’s Al Pacino in love with a guy in drag…and it has over 500 people working on production of it.

But, how much redundancy in one thing do you need before you give up?

The formula, usually involving a comedian of high box office value to dress in drag for 90 minutes and give us every slapstick situation in the book, for some reason…works. It is familiar, we know what we are getting, there will be no punches…in fact we usually go in with the worst expectations only to be pleasantly surprised.

I’m not naive to think (although I know it does happen) that someone will walk out of “Jack and Jill” proclaiming “This is the best movie I have ever seen!”

No. They will stroll out, back to their cars thinking “Hey, that killed a few hours, and I didn’t have to think.”

But why?

Why?

Because instead of having ‘light hearted fluff’ for $12.75 a ticket you are now being subjected to the bare minimum of effort. Adam Sandler has officially pushed auto pilot on his comedic plane and there’s passengers with box knives aboard.

It made $22 Million in one weekend….that’s considered a failure if you look at his previous openings. There were enough people out there in America to generate $22 Million dollars worth of revenue. They have jobs, they serve your food, change your oil, work in hospitals.

They also walk out of a recycled format fully happy on how they spent their money. All I want to know is why? Not as a cynical asshole, I’m no better than anyone…but I do see the demographic for this almost like I’m looking at them as some new organism through a microscope. I don’t have a view toward them anymore that’s derogatory or insulting, for the first time…I’m perplexed.

The demographic is a magic trick…and I want to know the secret. You can claim stupidity all you want, but I guarantee you there are smart professionals eating this up as well.

How do they work?

What makes them tick?

Technically, any movie premise has 5 generic plot points that we all see get recycled through in different ways…but what is so good about this one?

I also wonder about Mr. Sandler’s side of the story as well. I strongly believe he isn’t sitting there on a mound of gold proclaiming “How do I get middle America to give me more money?!” In fact, he lampooned movies like this in the film “Funny People.” So I highly doubt he is naive to how he is reaching in a pretty empty grab bag…

I wonder if Sandler knows about any backlash on this film whatsoever?

Maybe when you are constantly being praised you ignore and put on blinders to how your final product is…or maybe you believe that it is fine based on the audience who enjoy it.

Tyler Perry syndrome.

I guess I believe that no one grows as an individual if you submit yourself to the same formula over and over. Those who get too comfortable in mediocrity do worry me, and there eventually is a difference between original taste and the inability to acknowledge anything but the mundane.

I’m stuck.

I’m worried.

I am Jack’s complete curiosity.