click movie review

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, not remotely amusing.

Now streaming on:

Scrooge was granted visions of Christmas Past and Christmas Future, and reformed his life. What happens to Adam Sandler in "Click" is like what happened to Scrooge, except with a lot more Christmases. He needs more than one lesson and he gets more than one lesson. Way more.

In " Being There ," the hero Chance has spent all of his life watching television. When he wanders out to freedom and is threatened on the street, he clicks a TV remote control to get another channel. In "Click," Sandler plays Michael, an architect who is given a universal remote that's truly Universal. With it, he can take control of his life: freeze a scene, fast-forward, reverse, mute the sound, select the chapters of his choice and even witness his parents at the moment of his conception (that's, of course, in the "Making of" documentary).

The movie is being sold as a comedy, but you know what? This isn't funny. Yes, there are some laughs, as when he finds he can turn the dog's barking up and down, or play around with the settings for hue and contrast, or when he discovers the picture-in-picture feature that allows him to watch the ballgame no matter what else is going on around him. But the movie essentially involves a workaholic who uses the universal remote to skip over all the bad stuff in his life and discovers in the process that he is missing life itself. Take away the gimmick of the universal remote, and this is what a lot of us do, and it's sad.

It's not just sad, it's brutal. There's an undercurrent of cold, detached cruelty in the way Michael uses the magical device. He turns off the volume during an argument with his wife. He fast-forwards through a boring family dinner, and later through foreplay. He skips ahead to avoid a bad cold. He jumps to the chapter where he gets a promotion. Eventually, he realizes the family dog has died and been replaced by another, his kids have grown up, his wife is married to someone else, and he weighs 400 pounds. It happened while he wasn't paying attention.

Like many other Sandler movies, this one lingers studiously over bodily functions. After losing enormous amount of weight, for example, Michael plays with a big flap of loose skin around his stomach, plopping it up and down long after any possible audience curiosity has been satisfied. During an argument with his boss ( David Hasselhoff ), he freeze-frames the boss, jumps on his desk and farts. When he puts his boss back on "play," the boss inexplicably decides his secretary has put feces in his salad. Anyone who can't tell poop from lettuce doesn't deserve to be a senior partner. They teach you that in business school.

Michael is surrounded by patient and saintly people. His wife, Donna ( Kate Beckinsale ), loves him but despairs of reaching him. She has that standard wifely role of complaining when he has to work late and can't be at the swimming meet/Fourth of July party, etc. Michael's parents ( Henry Winkler and Julie Kavner ) are sweet and loving but kvetch too much and talk too slowly, so Michael zaps right through the time he has remaining with them.

I am not sure if this story device could possibly have been made funny. It could have been elevated into a metaphysical adventure, as in " Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ," or made to generate a series of paradoxes, as in " Being John Malkovich ," but "Click" stays resolutely at Level 1 -- the tiresome explication of the basic premise. Once we get the idea, there are no more surprises, only variations on the first one.

The movie does have some wit about its product placement. The plot is set in motion when Michael goes out late at night to buy a universal remote and only one store is open: Bed, Bath and Beyond. As a retail store name, this has always reminded me of the final subtitle in Kubrick's "2001," which was "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite." Beyond the infinite. That's a fair piece. In the store Michael enters, Bed and Bath are easy to find, but Beyond is behind a mysterious door at the end of a very long corridor, where a man named Morty ( Christopher Walken ) makes him a gift of the universal remote. If they make "Click 2," I want it to be about Morty.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Now playing

The American Society of Magical Negroes

Robert daniels.

Brian Tallerico

Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces

Peyton Robinson

Film Credits

Click (2006)

Rated PG-13 for language, crude and sex related humor and some drug references

107 minutes

Adam Sandler as Michael Newman

Christopher Walken as Morty

Kate Beckinsale as Donna Newman

David Hasselhoff as Mr. Ammer

Sean Astin as Bill

Rachel Dratch as Alice/Alan

Henry Winkler as Ted Newman

Julie Kavner as Trudy Newman

Directed by

• Frank Coraci
• Steve Koren
• Mark O'Keefe

Latest blog posts

A Plea for Someone to Save Megalopolis

The End of the World is Going to be Weird on Prime Video’s Quirky, Clever Adaptation of Fallout

The Zellner Brothers Take a Walk in the Woods with Sasquatch Sunset

The Scene That Clint Eastwood Cut to Make Unforgiven a Classic

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Civil War Link to Civil War
• Monkey Man Link to Monkey Man
• The First Omen Link to The First Omen

New TV Tonight

• Chucky: Season 3
• Fallout: Season 1
• Mr Bates vs The Post Office: Season 1
• Franklin: Season 1
• Baby Reindeer: Season 1
• Dora: Season 1
• Good Times: Season 1
• Beacon 23: Season 2

Most Popular TV on RT

• Ripley: Season 1
• 3 Body Problem: Season 1
• Parasyte: The Grey: Season 1
• Shōgun: Season 1
• Sugar: Season 1
• A Gentleman in Moscow: Season 1
• We Were the Lucky Ones: Season 1
• The Gentlemen: Season 1
• The Regime: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Fallout Link to Fallout
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

Best Movies of 2024: Best New Movies to Watch Now

25 Most Popular TV Shows Right Now: What to Watch on Streaming

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Awards Tour

CinemaCon 2024: Day 2 – Universal Showcases Nosferatu , Twisters , Wicked , and More

Fallout First Reviews: A ‘Violent, Fun, Emotional, Epic’ Video Game Adaptation, Critics Say

• Trending on RT
• Play Movie Trivia

Click Reviews

Despite all its inherent flaws and challenges, what can I say? It clicks.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.0/4.0 | Sep 5, 2020

The film has its moments where it attempts to teach us about priorities and what should be important in our lives.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 13, 2020

A remote-control gizmo allows Adam Sandler to skip all of life's bad stuff and blows the whistle on current culture's instant-gratification laziness. It'll teach your kids to learn to take the bad with the good.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 17, 2020

A catchy little idea for a comedy catches a bad attack of the sads at the halfway mark, where the filmmakers mistakenly think it's time for some drama and a few lessons about the human condition.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 29, 2020

The concept never really takes off on screen. Moreover, the only way such presumably uplifting cinema can work is if one feels in some ways for the characters and situations.

Full Review | Jan 17, 2019

As a moral fable Click holds no surprises; as a Sandler comedy, it's unusually dark, occasionally touching and pretty funny.

Full Review | Mar 14, 2018

Click brings up some very real problems about adult life but it answers them with Hollywood platitudes ... granted, it's about having fun not trying to find solutions to the problems of modern existence, but it still seems a bit disingenuous.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 18, 2011

A fascinating film with an unresolved comedy/tragedy axis

Full Review | Aug 30, 2009

"Click" is a one-trick-pony of a comedy.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Apr 23, 2009

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 20, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 7, 2008

As a broad family comedy this is perfectly acceptable, but from a sci-fi point of view it's a very pale imitation of the time travel classics it seeks to ape.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 30, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 7, 2007

For all its competing aspirations, the movie just never clicks.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 14, 2007

Back to the Future? Back to the drawing board!

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Apr 9, 2007

A movie with a lot of wasted potential. It looks like it was made by a bunch of schmucks.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Feb 15, 2007

It's kind of a reverse "It's A Wonderful Life" as Mike see's what happens to those around him when he pushes a button.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 13, 2006

What is surprising about Adam Sandler's latest comedy is that it still works despite its uneven tone and - while it is never laugh-out hilarious - makes nonetheless for passable entertainment . . .

Full Review | Nov 24, 2006

a fun little movie that impressed me more than it probably should

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 17, 2006

It's rather sad that the only laughs to come from this comedy are when its dramatic moments fail so much.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 8, 2006

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Movie Review

A Man-Child Who Has His World Under Control in 'Click'

By Manohla Dargis

• June 23, 2006

Having conquered youngish love in "50 First Dates," Adam Sandler has turned his careless attention to family life with his new film, "Click." With any luck this may mean that, after next tackling middle age and retirement, this comic actor, who has made a career out of variations on the modern man-child, might soon be headed toward the great big cinematic beyond, thereby putting an end to his attempts to broach a subject profoundly unsuited to his talents: adulthood.

Mr. Sandler's talents are certainly modest, but the success of films like "The Waterboy" indicates that they are the sort of gifts that connect with moviegoers. In these and other audience favorites, Mr. Sandler plays emotionally and psychologically stunted men who, through happenstance and the help of a hot babe, end up lurching toward relative wisdom or at least success. Around the time of the release of "Big Daddy," he was quoted as saying: "I like idiot characters. It's fun to play that kind of guy: clueless people who frustrate other people." Mr. Sandler's big trick has been to turn those idiot characters into heroes who invariably have the last mean laugh. Think revenge of the nerd, but with a lower I.Q.

"Click" more or less follows the usual template: Mr. Sandler stars as Michael Newman, an up-and-coming architect with a pert, pretty wife, Donna (Kate Beckinsale), and two button-cute young children, Ben and Samantha, each of whom is played by three different actors, for reasons that will soon become clear. The story takes off after Michael, while searching for a universal remote control to simplify his chaotic life, wanders into a Bed, Bath and Beyond, where he meets a freaky salesclerk, Morty, with lightning bolts blazing off his head (who else? Christopher Walken). Morty of course understands that what today's harried white-collar family man needs is no ordinary remote, which is how Michael ends up with a device that allows him to hopscotch through time.

While some people might use a time-traveling device to, say, get the real scoop on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Michael uses it to turn the volume down on his dog and his wife, the two being more or less interchangeable irritants, at least storywise. He also rewinds to high school and to several earlier cringe-worthy incidents involving his parents (Henry Winkler and Julie Kavner, each wearing some grotesque facial prosthetics). In a sop to the film's target audience, he also uses the remote to reduce the speed of a female jogger so he can watch the health-conscious blonde's generously proportioned breasts bounce slowly, slowly, up and down, an effect that would have been impossible if this ambulatory eye candy had been wearing the proper brassiere.

Breasts are big, so to speak, in "Click." When Michael fast-forwards to what turns out to be a fairly dark future — it's a wonderful life, not — he does a double take at the similarly bountiful profile of his now-adult daughter (Katie Cassidy) and orders her to put on a sweater, apparently as much for his sake as hers.

Michael arrives at this epiphanic moment after the story takes several abrupt turns into thornier terrain involving roads unwisely taken. Following the lead tendered by the credited screenwriters, Steve Koren and Mark O'Keefe, the director Frank Coraci struggles to push the character toward the kind of age-appropriate complexity lost on Mr. Sandler, forgetting that his star only works when, as all those ponderous bosoms suggest, he's un-weaned.

"Click" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It's the kind of potty-mouthed movie that's one expletive shy of an R.

Opens today nationwide.

Directed by Frank Coraci; written by Steve Koren and Mark O'Keefe; director of photography, Dean Semler; edited by Jeff Gourson; music by Rupert Gregson-Williams; production designer, Perry Andelin Blake; produced by Adam Sandler, Jack Giarraputo, Neal H. Moritz, Mr. Koren and Mr. O'Keefe; released by Columbia Pictures. Running time: 98 minutes.

WITH: Adam Sandler (Michael Newman), Kate Beckinsale (Donna Newman), Christopher Walken (Morty), Henry Winkler (Ted), David Hasselhoff (Ammer), Julie Kavner (Trudy), Jennifer Coolidge (Janine) and Sean Astin (Bill).

“I’m so tired of my life,” whines Michael ( Adam Sandler ) as he crashes onto a bed in Bed, Bath & Beyond. It’s easy to see why it's such a burden: he's a healthy, successful architect with a sexy, caring wife ( Kate Beckinsale ) and two adorable children, living in a spacious house sitting in a safe neighborhood. Let’s take a moment of silence to mourn the man’s trials and tribulations.

Click is the story of an unhappy guy in desperate need of a George Bailey epiphany or a slap upside the head—whichever comes first. While wandering into the ‘Beyond’ section of the home-furnishings store, he meets a wacky Nutty Professor type named Morty ( Christopher Walken ) who holds the cure to all of his problems: a universal remote control that not only dictates electronic devices, but also his life. When Michael goes home he discovers that he can fast forward fights with his wife, watch a big-breasted woman jog in slow-motion, and lower the volume on his barking dog.

Since this is a lowbrow Adam Sandler comedy, the remote control is generally used as a guide to revel in immaturity. He hits the pause button on his smarmy boss ( David Hasselhoff ) to fart several times in his face, and gets revenge on a speedo-wearing coach ( Sean Astin ) by kicking him squarely in the nuts. In response to his strange behavior, his young daughter asks in nauseatingly scripted-fashion, “Did you smoke crack today, daddy?” By the fifth time the dog is shown humping a stuffed toy, it is clear the movie is headed for amateur night at the local comedy club.

When Michael’s remote begins to recognize patterns and do things automatically, Click gets serious. The trouble really hits when he speeds through time to land a big promotion, and loses months and then years while stuck on “auto-pilot”. Suddenly, Michael’s life is horribly depressing and he realizes that gosh, maybe his perfect existence wasn’t such a bummer after all; cue the feel-good music. While Click has good intentions, it never feels convincing or true-to-life. Without an emotional connection, it is just a wannabe Hallmark finale tacked onto an episode of “Jackass”.

Thank goodness for a great performance by an under-used Christopher Walken, an amusing scene involving a DVD commentary track by James Earl Jones, and a sweet turn by comedy legends Henry Winkler and Julie Kavner as beloved parents. Without these saving graces, absolutely nothing clicks. Director Frank Coraci ( The Wedding Singer ) re-teams with longtime friend Sandler, and writers Steve Koren & Mark O’Keefe ( Bruce Almighty ) admit that the jokes came easily to them (which explains why few are funny) and that they struggled more with the emotional journey (which explains why it’s a mess). Unfortunately with Click , Sandler has taken about three leaps backwards from Punch Drunk Love and 50 First Dates . Where’s a new Hanukah song when you really need one?

Zendaya Candidly Makes A Rare Comment About How She And Tom Holland Have Handled Constantly Being In The Public Eye

'Furiosa' Exclusive CinemaCon Footage Shows An Insane Anya Taylor-Joy

Kevin Costner Finally Spoke Out About Yellowstone's Final Season, And It Sure Sounds Like John Dutton's Story Isn't Over

Most Popular

By Eric Eisenberg February 21, 2024

By Mike Reyes February 14, 2024

By Dirk Libbey February 13, 2024

By Sarah El-Mahmoud February 07, 2024

By Mike Reyes January 31, 2024

By Riley Utley January 26, 2024

By Eric Eisenberg January 10, 2024

By Corey Chichizola January 10, 2024

By Mike Reyes January 05, 2024

By Eric Eisenberg January 04, 2024

By Eric Eisenberg December 21, 2023

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

• DVD & Streaming
• Comedy , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Adam Sandler as Michael Newman; Kate Beckinsale as Donna Newman; Christopher Walken as Morty; Henry Winkler as Ted; Julie Kavner as Trudy; David Hasselhoff as Ammer; Sean Astin as Bill

Home Release Date

• Frank Coraci

Distributor

• Sony Pictures

Movie Review

Michael Newman is tired of his rat-race life, but it seems there’s little he can do about it. To provide for his beautiful wife, Donna, and two kids, the architect feels he must do whatever it takes to climb the corporate ladder—including skipping out on the very thing he’s trying to support: his family.

Needing to watch a video for a work project, Michael runs out late one night to replace his TV’s remote control. As he shops, he encounters a mysterious man who offers him a remote for free, yet warns him about its strange powers. It doesn’t take long for Michael to discover that this device can actually control real life. Tired of hearing the dog bark? Michael just points, clicks and turns the mutt’s vocal cords down. Feeling a little peaked and pale? He gives himself a tan using color controls. Fed up with arguing with the wife? He simply skips to the next “chapter.” And that’s when things really rev up. By fast-forwarding through unwanted experiences, Michael finds he can cut straight to the rewards—suave looks without showers, sex without cuddling, job promotions without work.

The little blue stick ends up having a mind of its own, though. With Michael’s every press of a button, it’s been programming itself according to his preferences. By the time he’s done thoughtlessly whizzing through the mundane minutia of days, weeks and months, much to his dismay, he discovers that the remote has decided he wants to continue rocketing through life, and it sticks on fast-forward. Unfortunately for Michael, the future he’s rapidly skipping ahead to doesn’t look so bright.

Positive Elements

Click tries hard to remind us to appreciate our todays. Soak up every moment we have, it says, and cherish the relationships that matter most. Life is about appreciating the moment—good or bad—rather than always looking for what’s over the horizon.

For Michael, that means reprioritizing his life. When his wife complains about his workaholic tendencies, he earnestly enumerates his reasons for spending so much time at the office. I’m not out drinking or gambling or picking up chicks, I’m working hard for my family, he says. But, as we all know, that’s not the right answer, either. Donna’s wise words ring out loud and clear: Pay attention to the things and to the people that matter.

In fact, throughout the story, Donna shows admirable attributes. She repeatedly puts the kids’ desires first, reminding Michael of his promises to them. She tries to comfort her husband during a tough time. And when a single friend suggests that artificially enhancing her appearance may cause Michael to hang around more, she responds with an affirmation of the couple’s secure love. “Michael knows he’s my one and only,” she later adds.

Showing her desperation to have her father around, Michael’s young daughter asks if there’s anything she and her brother can do to help him with his work. In the future, Michael’s family members are still willing to express love for Michael, even when he’s treated them badly. Click also reminds parents that their kids are watching. Without Michael realizing, his son imitates his every move—particularly his unhealthy habits (chief among them, eating junk food and swearing).

Spiritual Elements

Morty, the mysterious inventor-like character who hangs out in the “Beyond” and “Way Beyond” back rooms of a Bed Bath & Beyond store, turns out to be—surprise!—an angel of death. (Get it? He’s from beyond .) And though we later see that he has supernatural powers, there’s no mention whatsoever of a higher power who’s sent him. Michael, on the other hand, seems to blame God for his misfortunes, shaking his fist at the sky during one scene while asking God if He’s “through with me—just for once.”

Sexual Content

Could it be true? A steady stream of crude jokes, double entendres and sexual sleaze in an Adam Sandler movie? Say it isn’t so! Alas, cheating, illegitimacy, molestation, oral sex, workplace harassment and wet T-shirt contests are all fodder. A running gag that appears in virtually every other scene involves dogs “humping” a large stuffed animal. This visual excites Donna, which leads to bedroom invitations for Michael. A couple of times, while the remote zips through time in fast-forward, we see a shadow of Michael moving up and down on top of Donna (during one instance a small dog hops on his backside to join in). Michael and Donna talk and laugh about role-playing during sex and the length of their encounters.

A visit to the “making of” Michael takes him (and us) back to his parents’ bedroom, where we hear the sounds of them creating him. Michael, seeing their tangled legs, initially asks, “Is this a porno or something?” Then he discovers who’s under the sheets. When Michael is born (for a brief moment Michael, Morty and the camera catch a glimpse of the doctor from inside ) there’s lots of ribbing about how small his penis was.

In a creepier than usual scene (as if being inside a womb wasn’t enough already) Morty ogles Donna’s physique in Michael’s presence. (Michael seems to have no problem with this.) Similarly, not recognizing his grown-up daughter, Michael calls her a “looker” and describes her as “chesty.”

Michael slows down time to zoom in on a busty woman jogging. Other women’s cleavage is highlighted throughout the movie. Donna dons tight-fitting nightwear. Men are shown in their underwear. One wears a very small and tight Speedo. A sight gag involves the universal remote being found in Michael’s pants and played off as an erection. Add to this mess several gay and sex-change jokes.

Violent Content

A few instances involve Michael freezing time in order to inflict pain on others. After being treated unfairly, he slaps his boss several times. Later, he’s even more violent with Donna’s new husband, kicking him repeatedly in the crotch. (That’s after he tries choking him in real time.) When a bratty kid makes fun of his son, Michael arranges things so the taunter gets hit in the face with a baseball. (Especially disturbing is the fact that both father and son stand there laughing as the boy runs off hurt.) Michael also purposefully drives over this boy’s expensive toy.

Michael tries to tackle Morty, but ends up falling down. He smashes into a table, breaking it. He also falls backward when a dog jumps on him, causing him to hit his head. A nurse gets pushed with a needle in hand, sending it into his own arm.

Crude or Profane Language

The f-word is said once and gets (not-quite) cut off another time. The s-word appears nearly a dozen times (and is also used by kids). God’s name is interjected inappropriately almost 20 times (twice it’s combined with “d–n”), and Jesus’ gets misused twice. Almost three-dozen milder profanities are uttered, including a handful of sexually crude terms. Rude hand gestures are made.

Drug and Alcohol Content

When Michael experiences the real-life power of the universal control for the first time, he chalks it up to an acid trip caused by mixing large doses of cough medicine with sugary snacks. His strange behavior prompts his young daughter to ask him if he’s smoked crack. Michael tells the brat’s mother that the kid has been smoking a cigar laced with marijuana. Michael’s mother tells her son to “stay off the bong pipe.”

A bar scene shows beer bottles, and toasts at a workplace party and a wedding both include people drinking champagne. Michael suggests to a group of clients that they head to a restaurant where they can do Jell-O shots till they “puke.”

Other Negative Elements

Angry at how he’s been treated at work, Michael takes it out on his young son, even screaming an obscenity at him. After his son and daughter try to help him with his work, he lambastes their efforts as “stupid.” Later, the young kids dismiss watching “kiddie” programs on TV, instead opting for a gory CSI episode.

A dog is briefly shown relieving itself. Michael plants his boss’s face in his backside, breaking wind while time is paused. He also makes a hand gesture as if he were shooting himself in the head. His boss jokingly makes a comment about slitting his wrists, and a work client sarcastically speaks of castrating himself. In the future, Michael discovers that one of his company’s overworked partners committed suicide after the stress of the job got to him.

As a kid, I remember loving Super-Sour Balls. They were massive, tennis ball-sized candy orbs that took days, sometimes weeks to eat. I’d slobber through that hard outside layer lick by lick, my face puckering with each tart taste. And at times I’d wonder if I would ever finish. But after hours of patience and perseverance (not to mention wasted time), eventually I’d work my way to the tiny, sweet core made of pure bubble gum. It was the Mount Everest of candy adventures, and obviously, I wanted to savor the moment of triumph. Unfortunately, the makers of Super-Sour Balls had other plans—the gum usually lasted for all of five minutes.

I can’t help but think of Click as a giant Super-Sour Ball. Here is a genuinely creative idea—albeit a mishmash of concepts from Back to the Future, It’s a Wonderful Life and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol . A man gets taken on a journey through his life and discovers that what he’s living for isn’t really what he wants. In the process of visiting his future, he finds he’d much rather treasure his today and those around him who make that today so wonderful.

Sweet message. And for the scant few moments it can be savored, Click conveys it with gusto. One poignant scene (almost an oxymoron considering Sandler’s presence) involves Michael rewinding again and again his elderly father saying, “I love you” to his future self—despite the fact that Michael is undeserving of such affection at that point. It’s a tragically beautiful picture of the desire that exists in each of us to be cherished.

And now for the surrounding super-sour part. Nonstop sexual jabs and eyesores. Foul language, much of which is heard escaping from the mouths of kids. Mean-spirited kicks to the crotch. And unwanted drug references.

Believe me, I wanted to like this movie. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a flick with core messages so uplifting and valuable for our worked-to-death society. I wanted to laugh, cry and leave the theater with a desire to love my family more and live every day as if it were my last. Instead, I left wishing I had one of those nifty universal remotes for myself—so I could skip all the tart and tawdry stuff and chew on the five minutes that are worth clicking to.

Marcus Yoars

Latest reviews.

The Long Game

The Greatest Hits

Weekly Reviews Straight to your Inbox!

The Untold Truth Of Click

In recent years, thanks to stints on Netflix and Hulu, "Click" has been given a second life and a new reputation as one of Adam Sandler's more underrated comedies. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but there's a certain appeal to this "It's a Wonderful Life" premise, even if it's already been tackled about a dozen different ways. Michael Newman (Sandler), a workaholic architect vying for a partnership at his company, is given a magical remote control that lets him fast-forward or rewind through different parts of his life. When the remote gets set to auto-pilot and goes out of control, his marriage to his wife Donna (Kate Beckinsale) and his relationship with his children start to unravel.

The movie could have flopped and faded into obscurity in Sandler's filmography — nestled somewhere in-between "Bedtime Stories" and "Sandy Wexler" — but by pairing a charming ensemble cast with one of Sandler's better emotional payoffs, "Click" holds its own as a memorable chapter in the actor's career. There are plenty of cameos and in-jokes you might have missed, and some amusing anecdotes from behind the scenes. From a head-scratching award nomination to the resurrection of a beloved vocalist's career, here are some surprising facts about "Click."

The premise of Click wasn't totally original

Michael Newman's ability to fast-forward through the parts of his life he doesn't feel like participating in, upon first watch, seems like a fresh and unique million-dollar idea. That is, until you learn that it was already done nine years prior on the Fox Kids network, on the "Goosebumps" television series . That version even has the same title.

Based on the eighth story in R.L. Stine's short story collection "Tales to Give You Goosebumps," the episode "Click" centers around teenager Seth Gold and his brand new universal remote. The remote controls not only all of his electrical appliances, but everyone around him. And just like Michael in the film, Seth abuses the power he holds in the palm of his hand and faces drastic consequences.

According to Vulture , Scholastic, Inc. reportedly considered suing Sandler and his production team on the grounds of plagiarism, but if such talks did indeed occur, it seems the two parties agreed that the overlapping plots were coincidental. Both Stine's short story and Sandler's movie can even be traced back to "The Magic Thread," a story in William Bennett's "The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories," where a boy named Peter can make years pass by tugging on a thread (via KidsStory.org ).

You might not remember Jonah Hill's brief Click role

In only his third ever credited role, after "I Heart Huckabees," "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," and "Grandma's Boy," a 23-year-old  Jonah Hill appears in one scene, as a teen version of Michael's son Ben. When Michael fast-forward's to Ben's high school years, he ends up mocking his own son about his weight. It's a scene that serves mostly as an illustration of how Michael's actions have poorly influenced his children, but it also sets up what comes next: Michael learns that Donna left him for Bill (Sean Astin), Ben's former swimming coach.

Hill's performance was his first on-screen collaboration with Sandler, and the two actors would again work together in 2009, on Judd Apatow's "Funny People." A few short years after "Click," Sandler and Hill would find themselves in very different places in their careers. In 2011, Sandler turned in two of his most dire critical flops ( "Just Go With It" and "Jack and Jill" ), while Hill garnered a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Peter Brand in "Moneyball."

Morty's real identity is foreshadowed earlier than you might think

The film's non-O'Doyle antagonist, Morty ( Christopher Walken ), works in the "Beyond" section of a Bed, Bath & Beyond. He's a kooky, wild-haired tinkerer with access to a stadium-sized back-stock of items, including the futuristic blue remote control that "remote controls your universe." The set-up of Morty's proposition being a trap that Michael can't avoid because of his own greed is, ultimately, undone when the audience learns that the entire movie was all a dream. Still, throughout "Click," Walken delivers a charismatic — and sometimes eerie — performance as an immortal puppet master.

In the film, when Michael's father dies, Morty reveals that he "took him," because he is, in fact, the Angel of Death. The reveal is supposed to be a surprise, but the clues were right in front of us all along — "mortis" is the Latin word for death and is the basis for the word "mortality," the central theme of the movie.

Eric Lamonsoff strikes again

Sandler has always made it a habit of casting his best friends — namely David Spade, Kevin James, Chris Rock, and Rob Schneider — in his movies. This ensemble takes the spotlight in "Grown Ups" and "Grown Ups 2," but said co-stars frequently pop up in small roles throughout most of Sandler's vehicles. While you may remember James playing Eric Lamonsoff in "Grown Ups," you may not know that the character is named after a real person. 

Before his identity was given to James' character, Lamonsoff and Sandler were childhood friends and college roommates. Not only does the real Eric Lamonsoff have bit roles in "The Week Of," "Jack and Jill," and "You Don't Mess with the Zohan," his name is also mentioned in "The Wedding Singer," "Pixels," "Sandy Wexler," "Murder Mystery," and "Click." In "Click," Lamonsoff is referred to by Ammer (David Hasselhoff) as a former CEO of the architecture company where Michael and Ammer work. 

The "Sandlerverse" is expansive, as the comedian loves having minor characters do recurring cameos in his movies. Lamonsoff joins 10-Second Tom ("50 First Dates" and "Blended"), Otto the Caddy ("Happy Gilmore" and "Jack and Jill"), Nazo the Delivery Guy ("Big Daddy" and "Mr. Deeds"), and the O'Doyle family ("Billy Madison," "Click," and "Hubie Halloween").

A familiar family

Making their screen debut in "Billy Madison" 12 years prior, the O'Doyles are an antagonistic clan of four red-headed boys who terrorize Sandler's titular adult student. In "Click," the O'Doyles are back as the Newman family's neighbors, and eldest son Kevin (Cameron Monaghan) is a suburban bully. He particularly likes picking on Ben and getting under Michael's skin.

There are many memorable comedic moments in "Click," like when Michael discovers the power of his remote by way of expediting his dog Sundance's bathroom break, or when he pauses his life so he can fart in Ammer's face at work. But some of the best scenes in the movie come courtesy of Kevin O'Doyle. When he and Ben are playing with a remote control Robo-Dog, Michael runs it over with his car. Similarly, when the two boys are playing catch outside, Michael pauses their game with his remote and moves Kevin's hand just enough so Ben can clock him with a ball toss. 

The "O'Doyle Rules!" catchphrase made famous in "Billy Madison" doesn't return in "Click," but Monaghan's performance is a stroke of majorly annoying genius, a great shout out to Sandler's past work, and a bit of nostalgia for the movie that turned him into a box-office kingpin.

Michael's futuristic car almost hit the market

As the plot of "Click" finds Michael fast-forwarding his life a decade into the future, after he's taken over as CEO of his architecture firm and is living in a lavish mansion, we see him driving a sleek, all-black luxury sedan. The actual car used in shooting these scenes, known as a Cadillac Sixteen, was a real-life concept model introduced by General Motors in 2003, as reported by Auto Evolution .

With its distinctly forward-thinking aesthetic, the Cadillac Sixteen proved to be a remarkably cinematic vehicle. In addition to "Click," it's made a number of screen appearances, showing up in the Hugh Jackman-led robot boxing movoie "Real Steel" in 2011, as well as video games like "Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition" and "Asphalt 8: Airborne." And though the Sixteen never saw an official release to the wider market, some of its design wound up incorporated into later Cadillac models, primarily the 2008 CTS.

Children of famous actors

The "Sandlerverse" extends beyond the actor always casting his friends in his movies. In the case of "Click," he hands the baton off to the children of famous actors, some of whom were his past and future co-stars.

Michael's kids each appear at three different ages over the course of the film, tracking the siblings from early childhood through their teen years and into adulthood. While teenage Ben is played by Jonah Hill, whose parents are not celebrities (unless you count Hill's father, Richard, who was Guns N' Roses' tour accountant ), but adult Ben is played by Jake Hoffman , the son of Dustin Hoffman . Sandler and the elder Hoffman would go on to star together in Noah Baumbach's "The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)" more than a decade later.

Teenage Samantha, meanwhile, is played by Lorraine Nicholson , the daughter of Jack Nicholson . Nicholson and Sandler had already co-starred in the box-office smash "Anger Management" in 2003. Adult Samantha is played by David Cassidy's daughter Katie . After Nicholson's performance in "Click," she'd find her niche in the horror genre, taking roles in "Black Christmas," "When a Stranger Calls," "Harper's Island," and Samuel Bauer's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" remake.

An Oscar winner's signature moves

Christopher Walken loves to dance. In fact, his performing arts career began when he was three years old and started taking dance lessons, as he told Interview Magazine (via Biography ). After taking turns in various theater productions, like "West Side Story" and "Baker Street," Walken employed his impressive moves in many of his movies — over 50, to be exact, as compiled by GOOD .

Dancing — along with his charismatic New Yorker shtick and unmistakable speech pattern — has become one of Walken's trademarks, as he memorably put on the moves in "Joe Dirt," "Wayne's World 2," and "The Deer Hunter." Famously, he even tap-danced in Steve Martin's "Pennies From Heaven." Early on in "Click," Michael, in disbelief about what his remote control can do and certain he's on a prank show, high-tails it back to Bed, Bath & Beyond and encounters a waltzing Morty. Walken's dance moves rarely take center stage, but they do steal a scene here and there.

The only Oscar-nominated Adam Sandler movie

Surprisingly, after impressive lead turns in "Punch-Drunk Love," "The Meyerowitz Stories," and "Uncut Gems," Sandler has never been nominated for a Best Actor Oscar. But "Click" was, in fact, able to secure a nomination at the 79th Academy Awards for Best Makeup. Though it would lose to "Pan's Labyrinth," the movie is not just the only Happy Madison Productions feature to garner such an accolade, but it's the only movie from Sandler's 30-plus-year career to have its name included in film's biggest night.

The makeup effects in "Click" achieve nowhere near the same feat as those in "Pan's Labyrinth," but head artist Kazu Hiro would get nominated again the following year for "Norbit," and eventually take home statues for his work on "Darkest Hour" and "Bombshell."

What parts of "Click" earned it this prestigious recognition? The hue of Sandler's face at one point goes from purple to green, and he dons a fat suit for the future scenes. Meanwhile, Beckinsale's hair gets a silver re-do and Astin's turns a touch of gray. Most notably, Henry Winkler dons some silicone prosthetics that make him look 100 years old. But many of these effects have a notably CG-circa-2006 look, making it feel like we're not really seeing Hiro's best work. Whatever it was that the Academy saw, it's noteworthy that this remains they only time they've paid attention to a Sandler vehicle.

A critical flop, but a box office hit

Though "Click" holds a 34% Rotten Tomatoes score and a 45/100 Metacritic score , it was a slam dunk at the box office in the summer of 2006. Riding the momentum of Sandler's turn in Peter Segal's remake of "The Longest Yard," which racked up a $47.6 million opening weekend , audiences turned out in droves for "Click," helping the film eclipse the $240 million mark in theaters on a budget of only $82.5 million. The buzz would carry over into Sandler's next film, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry," which would gross over $34 million across its opening weekend.

Despite the monetary successes, critics were displeased with "Click," especially Sandler's unlikable protagonist and the plot's gross-out humor. The Guardian's Philip French wrote, "There are more farts and embarrassing sex jokes than laughs — far more." And as Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum said, "Adam Sandler still coasts on American pop culture's peculiar indulgence of boys who won't grow up."

Because it's a film centered on second chances and the repercussions of taking your life for granted, Schwarzbaum also pointed out the specific ways Sandler's Michael Newman fails to mimic James Stewart's George Bailey in  "It's a Wonderful Life," because the former does so much less to earn the pathos of his final scenes. Reviews aside, "Click" remains the 4th most successful non-animated Sandler film at the box office , topped only by "Pixels," "Grown Ups," and "Grown Ups 2," which is still an important mark on the actor's resume.

Dolores O'Riordan's silver screen debut

Sandler's relationship with music has always carried over into his films. He's played a musician (in "The Wedding Singer"), and the soundtracks are always finely curated with classic rock hits. Songs by The Cars and Peter Frampton make appearances in "Click," but it's The Cranberries' "Linger" that emerges as a bedrock in Michael and Donna's marriage. The seminal cut off of the band's debut album, "Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?" is a beautiful tune that encapsulates the young love between the Michael and Donna during their '90s courtship. At a bar, Donna writes, "Will you still love me in the morning?" on a napkin. Michael writes back, "Forever and ever, babe," as The Cranberries' ballad pours from the speakers.

Near the end of the film, Cranberries frontwoman Dolores O'Riordan makes a cameo appearance when she performs "Linger" at Samantha's wedding. It was the Irish singer's first — and only — time acting on screen in a non-music video role. The performance foreshadows the older Michael having a heart attack while dancing with Donna, giving the song a full arc and a life of its own. Prior to "Click," O'Riordan left The Cranberries in 2003, but eventually claimed that her cameo in the film inspired her to make a comeback, as she told Contact Music (via Cranberries World ). The Cranberries would reunite three years later and continue touring up until O'Riordan's death in 2018 (per The Guardian ).

Henry Winkler's coin trick

Michael's father, Ted ( Henry Winkler ), has a recurring gag throughout the film in which he eats the top of a quarter and then, magically, puts it back together. The coin trick gets mentioned again and again, including in a sweet flashback showing that Michael's parents were not wealthy when he was growing up, illustrating why he puts his work over his family in a misguided attempt to give them what he thought he was missing in his own childhood. 

Surprisingly, the coin trick is one of the most emotional plot devices in "Click," as Ted often tries using it as a way of growing closer with his son. 20 years in the future, when Michael is CEO of his own company and Ted stops by to invite him and Ben to a "boy's night out," Ted tries enticing Michael with the promise of showing him the secret to doing the quarter trick — to which Michael lashes out, by saying he's always known how it works.

Present-day Michael watching his future self dismiss a kind gesture by his own father, in what would be the last time he'd ever see him, is particularly heartbreaking. Sandler gets a chance to dig into some genuine emotion, and to make the scene even more poignant, the coin trick is based on something Winkler does in real life. Most recently, he performed it on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" while doing press for his performance in the third season of "Barry."

Adam Sandler's dad, on-screen and off

Ted loves Michael, but Michael often puts work above family. Beneath the overarching theme of mortality and the question of what might happen if you have the ability to fast-forward through parts of your life, there's a very moving, generational father-son subplot throughout "Click." As Michael is constantly rejecting his father's wishes to spend more time together, time is starting to run incredibly thin for the two Newman men, and the remote's autopilot feature has forced Michael to skip years at a time. 

When it all culminates in him yelling at Ted during the last time they would see each other, Sandler's performance gets very real — to the point where a perceptive audience might suspect there's a bit of method acting under the surface. A year prior to filming "Click," Sandler's own dad, Stanley, died. These days, the actor is no stranger to dramatic roles after his critically acclaimed turns in "Reign Over Me," "Funny People," "The Meyerowitz Stories," and "Uncut Gems. But as he told Black Film in 2006, his goodbye to his on-screen father hit closer to home than anyone initially knew. 

In an interview with Tribute , Winkler explained that it meant a lot to him to play a father to Sandler's character in the film, especially because of Stanley's recent passing, and because he recognized how important family was to Sandler. The culminating scene remains one of the movie's — and Sandler's — most emotional, and present-day Michael calling his future self "pathetic" for being so mean to his dad still tugs at our heartstrings every time.

Letterboxd — Your life in film

Forgotten username or password ?

• Start a new list…
• Add all films to a list…
• Add all films to watchlist

Add to your films…

Press Tab to complete, Enter to create

A moderator has locked this field.

Add to lists

Where to watch

2006 Directed by Frank Coraci

What If You Had A Remote... That Controlled Your Universe?

A harried workaholic, Michael Newman doesn't have time for his wife and children, not if he's to impress his ungrateful boss and earn a well-deserved promotion. So when he meets Morty, a loopy sales clerk, he gets the answer to his prayers: a magical remote that allows him to bypass life's little distractions with increasingly hysterical results.

Adam Sandler Kate Beckinsale Christopher Walken David Hasselhoff Henry Winkler Julie Kavner Sean Astin Joseph Castanon Jonah Hill Jake Hoffman Tatum McCann Lorraine Nicholson Katie Cassidy Cameron Monaghan Jennifer Coolidge Rachel Dratch Sophie Monk Michelle Lombardo Jana Kramer Nick Swardson Sidney Ganis Michael Yama Mio Takada Eiji Inoue Toshi Toda George K. Eguchi Katheryn Cain Frank Coraci Tim Herlihy Show All… Iryna Blokhina Emilio Cast Willy Goldstein Lily Mo Sheen Carolyn Hennesy Elena Patten Cheyenne Alexis Dean Elliott Cho Alan Au Ryan Keiser Christopher Levy Nickole Reyes Brianna Davis Robert Jones Jenae Altschwager Manish Goyal Marco Khan Ahmad Jordan Nick Hodaly Alireza Tanbakoochi John Pagano Dolores O'Riordan Sally Insul Rob Schneider Billy Slaughter James Earl Jones Theresa Barrera Elizabeth DeCicco Abra Chouinard Terry Crews Howard Fong Jorge Garcia Tracy Britton Jason Sandler Celeste Thorson Lana Titov

Director Director

Frank Coraci

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Josh King Marcei A. Brown

Producers Producers

Mark O'Keefe Jack Giarraputo Neal H. Moritz Steve Koren Adam Sandler Tania Landau Kevin Grady Aimee Keen

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Tim Herlihy Barry Bernardi

Writers Writers

Steve Koren Mark O'Keefe

Casting Casting

Roger Mussenden Pamela Lynn Thomas

Editor Editor

Jeff Gourson

Cinematography Cinematography

Dean Semler

Camera Operators Camera Operators

Ian Fox Richard Merryman

Lighting Lighting

James J. Gilson

Production Design Production Design

Perry Andelin Blake

Art Direction Art Direction

Alan Au Jeff Mossa John Collins

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Gary Fettis Evelyne Barbier Cosmas A. Demetriou Jeff Markwith Hugo Santiago

Special Effects Special Effects

John Hartigan

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Peter G. Travers David Taritero

Stunts Stunts

Paul Eliopoulos J. Mark Donaldson Michael H. Barnett J.J. Perry Max Daniels Nathan Siebring Vanessa Motta Thomas J. Larsen

Composer Composer

Rupert Gregson-Williams

Sound Sound

Thomas Causey Elmo Weber David Bach Russell Farmarco Orada Jusatayanond Clayton Weber Mark Allen Gary A. Hecker Michael J. Broomberg Brian Ruberg Jeffrey J. Haboush Bill W. Benton

Costume Design Costume Design

Ellen Lutter

Makeup Makeup

Rick Baker Ann Pala Kathleen Freeman Corina C. Duran-Rabichuk Bill Corso

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Thomas Real Nancy Tong

Original Film Revolution Studios Columbia Pictures Happy Madison Productions

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

English Portuguese Japanese

Releases by Date

23 jun 2006, 27 jul 2006, 11 aug 2006, 18 aug 2006, 21 sep 2006, 23 sep 2006, 27 sep 2006, 28 sep 2006, 29 sep 2006, 04 oct 2006, 05 oct 2006, 19 oct 2006, 29 oct 2006, 01 feb 2007, 10 oct 2006, 25 mar 2008, 01 jun 2009, releases by country.

• Theatrical M
• Theatrical L
• Theatrical TP
• Theatrical 6
• Theatrical T
• Theatrical B

Netherlands

• Physical 6 DVD & Blu-ray
• TV 6 SBS 6
• Theatrical M/12

South Korea

• Theatrical 12
• Theatrical 7
• Theatrical PG-13
• Physical PG-13 DVD & Blu-Ray

107 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by James (Schaffrillas) 6

I came into this world in a hospital that no longer stands.

The unfortunate truth about our awesome and terrible existence as a species is that the institutions we create will not last forever. Doors will be shuttered, and as the generations march on, so too will our life's work be lost to the cold, unfeeling annals of History.

However, this sentiment need not apply to art.

Indeed, our creations meant to challenge and entertain audiences may endure long after we and everything we have ever stood for crumble into dust. Artistic expression is among the most beautiful and everlasting Concepts humanity has been graced with, and to that end, it would not be unwise to express the sentiment that…

Review by pynechone ★★★★ 28

this is a good movie you fucks

Review by kangadoodoo ★½ 11

I didn't expect to cry, but I did.

Review by Eliza ★★★★★ 17

the premise is that capitalism makes balancing work and home life impossible and that to get ahead, you have to put your brain on auto-pilot and neglect your own happiness, damn

basically it’s a wonderful life 2 once the initial happy madison production type antics stop

Review by adambolt ★½ 1

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

When I was a kid, I cried at the scene where his dad dies.

This time, I cried when Adam Sandler paused time to fart in someone's face.

Review by Sethsreviews ★★★★½ 16

This dumb film means so much to me, and I will always defend it. I used to make my dad watch it every week as a kid, but he'd only let me if we watched Gladiator or Spartacus right after. There was nothing like going from an emotionally resonant, cheesy Sandler comedy to a big-budget, grand Hollywood epic on a school night.

Review by Parker ½ 8

Why does this movie get so deep and dark near the end? There should never ever be a scene where an old, dying Adam Sandler chases his family down in the rain and tells them with his last breath, "family is the most important thing" while the grim reaper looks on. YET HERE IT IS!

What makes the dark turn even weirder is that the first hour or so is just dick and fart jokes!!

And who the fuck would use a magic remote control to fast forward having sex with Kate Beckinsale? What the fuck kind of movie is this?!

Review by beck ★★★

watch your fucking neck, black mirror!

Review by chloe 💓 ★★½ 2

a little too similar to the way i play sims 4

Review by DirkH ★ 24

I tink I loosed a koppel of IQ pointz wail watsjing dis.

I shel go zit in a korner now ent wiep laik a babbie siel.

I stil fiel smarterder den Adam Sandler thou.

Review by megan ★★ 1

give me that fucking remote

Review by aksel ★½ 23

Well, this viewing experience was a wake up call

Similar Films

Select your preferred poster

Upgrade to remove ads.

Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of our members to maintain our site and apps. Please consider upgrading to a Pro account —for less than a couple bucks a month, you’ll get cool additional features like all-time and annual stats pages ( example ), the ability to select (and filter by) your favorite streaming services, and no ads!

• Become a Critical Movie Critic
• Movie Review Archives

Movie Review: Click (2006)

• General Disdain
• Movie Reviews
• One response
• --> July 12, 2006

It’s been awhile since we’ve reviewed a movie starring Adam Sandler. Been even longer since we’ve actually looked forward to a movie starring Adam Sandler. But believe it or not, I was actually interested in watching Click . Perhaps I was hoping for comedy genius to strike again for him (see “Waterboy” or “Happy Gilmore”) — after all the premise for Click seemed ripe for the picking; an out of luck guy gets a remote control that can change ever aspect of his life. Boy oh boy could I ever be so let down.

Now don’t get me wrong, the movie isn’t particularly bad. It’s just not what I expected. Click is — gasp — actually more of tear-jerker, quasi-drama than a comedy. While there are several funny moments in the movie, it is really a heartfelt movie chronicling life and expressing how one should accept the little nuances and aggravations, as these are the things that make our lives complete. The ultimate problem, from my viewpoint, is the director (Frank Coraci) really isn’t sure which way he wants the movie to lean. Meaning, although Click is supposed to be a comedy — it doesn’t quite live up to it. And although the movie is supposed to be a drama — it doesn’t quote live up to that either.

That being said, the movie is well acted. Adam Sandler clearly tones down his typical idiot act and does surprising well (he also did well in “Punch-Drunk Love”). Christopher Walken is ALWAYS a pleasure to watch. That man simple transcends all boundaries. Kate Beckinsale should have been naked (she should ALWAYS be naked).

More importantly, Click will have you thinking about all the stupid things in your life (puking on your mother-in-law, snorting Draino, etc) and wondering whether you’d fast forward through them or plod along. Good idea, just could have been presented a bit better. For the most part, however, you’ll enjoy the movie and if you’re not careful (or if you have a body full of estrogen) you may even find your eyes welling up with tears.

Tagged: death , family , time travel

I'm an old, miserable fart set in his ways. Some of the things that bring a smile to my face are (in no particular order): Teenage back acne, the rain on my face, long walks on the beach and redneck women named Francis. Oh yeah, I like to watch and criticize movies.

Movie Review: Ghosted (2023) Movie Review: Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) Movie Review: Fantasy Island (2020) Movie Review: Snatched (2017) Movie Review: Horrible Bosses 2 (2014) Movie Review: ABCs of Death 2 (2014) Movie Review: Life After Beth (2014)

'Movie Review: Click (2006)' has 1 comment

July 21, 2007 @ 8:07 am just-4-teens

worth watching even if its only the once.

Log in to Reply

Privacy Policy | About Us

 |  Log in

Click (United States, 2006)

We know from experience that Adam Sandler has a fondness for Frank Capra. After all, is there anything odder than watching Sandler channel Gary Cooper in a remake of Mr. Deeds (Goes to Town) ? Actually, there is. It's watching Sandler channel Jimmy Stewart in Click , a film that owes more than a little to It's a Wonderful Life . In fact, while it's more of an indirect remake of Dickens' A Christmas Carol , the Capra-esque overtones are there. To round things out, Sandler throws in a little Rip Van Winkle and nod to Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle." However, while Mr. Deeds didn't work, Click (perhaps surprisingly) does. It's because Sandler doesn't throw out the drama in a quest for laughs. There are times when the comedian falls back on his typical shtick, but the film doesn't shy away from the darkness inherent in this kind of story, and it has a heart. Sandler is Scrooge in the last act of A Christmas Carol and George Bailey in the last act of It's a Wonderful Life , and he does justice to those who have preceded him down this path.

Even though the film has been directed by "Sandler vet" Frank Coraci ( The Waterboy, The Wedding Singer ), the film may cause disappointment amongst the die-hard rank-and-file even as it presents a more appealing Sandler to mainstream audiences. The nastiness and vulgarity that have long been associated with Sandler's comedy are largely missing in action, excepting a few scenes. Then again, Sandler has been moving away from this image over the last few years, using Jim Carrey's career as a template. He's hoping his fans will grow with him; reaction to Click may go a long way to answering whether they will.

At least on the surface, movies don't get more high concept than Click : a man obtains a "universal" remote controller that allows him to manage not only the TV but his entire life. He can fast-forward and rewind his reality, skipping unpleasant things like busywork and arguments with his spouse while re-living pleasant times, like his first date with the woman he would marry. But the remote is dangerous, and he starts using it as a substitute for living through bad times. Worse still, it's an intelligent remote and, after it learns his patterns, it fast forwards through large chunks of his life. By the end, he has learned wisdom, but at a terrible price. However, as in A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life , he is given a second chance.

The man in question is Michael Newman (Sandler), a hard working architect who has little time for his loving wife, Donna (Kate Beckinsale) and his two kids, Ben and Samantha. He's too busy working for his arrogant, preening boss, Ammer (David Hasselhoff). One night, after discovering that he can't turn on the TV without operating the ceiling fan or garage door, Michael heads out in search of a universal remote. The only store still open is Bad Bath and Beyond. In the "Beyond" part of the store, he encounters mad scientist Morty (Christopher Walken), who gives Michael the ultimate universal remote, but with a caveat: he cannot return it.

Click makes ample use of the fast-forward button, and occasional use of the pause and rewind buttons. Yet there's a lot of potential left untapped. Consider, for example, the DVD-like menu for Michael's life which features a commentary by James Earl Jones and other special features. These function as punchlines to a couple of gags, but not much more. One has to wonder what Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman could have developed from this premise. But we have to work with what he have, not what might have been.

The film features some jarring tonal transitions as it juxtaposes Sandler's trademark crude humor with pathos. Michael's boss, his wife's brassy best friend (Jennifer Coolidge), and the unappealing kid next-door (Cameron Monaghan) receive the Sandler treatment. Yes, there is a fart joke - and it's a pretty long and loud one. And the family dog humps a stuffed animal. Eventually, however, the jokes become more widely spaced and low-key as the drama takes over. We start to feel for Michael and the growing tragedy of his life. He's not a bad guy - just someone who has gotten caught up in the rat race and lost sight of his priorities. His "farewell" to his father (Henry Winkler) is accomplished with Scrooge-like precision. It's sad to watch him mourn everything he has lost. If not for the reboot that we know is coming, Click would have been heartbreaking.

I can't let the review pass without making mention of the aging and de-aging affects. Because the movie spans a long time period, characters are forced to look older and younger than the actors who play them. The old-age makeup is what we have come to expect - not terribly realistic, but acceptable. However, when it comes to the CGI used to return Henry Winkler and Julie Kavner (as Michael's parents) to their youth, the filmmakers should have taken lessons from the effects crew for X-Men 3 . In Click , it looks awful - wax-like and artificial. It's a little thing, but sometimes it's the little things that linger.

While Sandler has more room to grow before he's considered for an Oscar nomination, he has moved beyond the angry-boy-in-a-man's-body phase. He's comfortable in this role, which might not have been true five years ago. Kate Beckinsale, despite being underused, is adorable, although I sort of miss the skintight leather garments. David Hasselhoff continues his recent trend of poking fun at himself at every turn. Rarely has anyone gotten more mileage from self-parody. Christopher Walken is Christopher Walken, although he tones down the weirdness a little. Finally, there's Sean Astin in a speedo - one of those moments I wish I hadn't been subjected to.

Click is flawed but, on balance, it works. It accomplishes what it sets out to do: tell an occasionally amusing, occasionally affecting drama about how adults often lose sight of what matters. There's no subtlety in the approach, but there wasn't any in either A Christmas Carol or It's a Wonderful Life , either. There's more to the film than meets the eye from the commercials and trailers, but the question lingers for Sandler's fans (those who keep his movies at the top of the box office): Is that a good thing or not? For me, there's no question it's the former.

Comments Add Comment

• Princess Bride, The (1987)
• City Lights (1931)
• This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
• Feast (2006)
• Dumb and Dumberer (2003)
• Freddy Got Fingered (2001)
• Uncut Gems (2019)
• 50 First Dates (2004)
• Punch Drunk Love (2002)
• Mixed Nuts (1994)
• Pixels (2015)
• Just Go with It (2011)
• Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
• Vacancy (2007)
• Aviator, The (2004)
• Van Helsing (2004)
• Pearl Harbor (2001)
• Underworld: Evolution (2006)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• Antz (1998)
• Annie Hall (1977)
• Envy (2004)
• War with Grandpa, The (2020)
• Prophecy, The (1995)

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

• For Parents
• For Educators
• Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

• Get the app
• Movie Reviews
• Best Movie Lists
• Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

• Best TV Lists
• Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
• Common Sense Selections for TV
• Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

• Book Reviews
• Best Book Lists
• Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

• Game Reviews
• Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

• Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

• Podcast Reviews
• Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

• App Reviews
• Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

• YouTube Channel Reviews
• YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

• Preschoolers (2-4)
• Little Kids (5-7)
• Big Kids (8-9)
• Pre-Teens (10-12)
• Teens (13+)
• Screen Time
• Social Media
• Online Safety
• Identity and Community

Explaining the News to Our Kids

• Family Tech Planners
• Digital Skills
• All Articles
• Latino Culture
• Black Voices
• Asian Stories
• Native Narratives
• LGBTQ+ Pride
• Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

• Parents say (9)
• Kids say (98)

Based on 9 parent reviews

Silky movie with heartwarming message

This title has:

Report this review

A fun fantasy., amazing film, great moral but some risky scenes, cool movie, good comedy film 12+.

"Family Comes First"

What You Need To Know:

(PaPa, B, FR, M) Mixed pagan worldview with light moral elements and moral premise in a theologically liberal Jewish family, including a couple references and allusions to God and supernatural powers, a moral message that family comes before work, plus off-color humor and plenty of foul language as selfish protagonist must go through some hard life lessons; 27 obscenities, including one “f” word and one “f” word cut off, two or three strong profanities, and six light profanities; light comic violence; depicted animal lust and depicted sex between married couple in silhouette, plus joke about woman getting a sex change operation; upper male nudity and rear male nudity in silhouette; alcohol use; smoking ; and, lying, father neglects his family and boss manipulates a colleague.

More Detail:

CLICK, Adam Sandler’s new comedy, has many allusions to that great family movie classic, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Regrettably, it’s also got a contemporary, liberal attitude that allows for a lot of off-color jokes and foul language. The main moral message of the movie is that family comes first.

In the story, Sandler plays young Jewish architect Michael Newman. Michael is trying to become partner at his firm, but his boss keeps taking him away from time with his family.

Trouble with all the remotes in the house inspires a frustrated Michael to make a late-night trip to get a “universal remote.” The electronic stores are closed, however, and Michael ends up at Bed, Bath and Beyond. After lying down on one of their display beds for a moment, Michael notices a door labeled “Beyond.” There, he meets a ruffled service attendant named Morty, played by Christopher Walken, who gives Michael the latest, most mysterious universal remote you ever saw.

Back home, Michael learns that the remote is a real universal remote. He starts using the remote to mute the barks of the family pet dog, to speed through arguments with his wife and to speed through the boring parts of his family life. Michael uses the remote to close a big deal with some Japanese clients, but his boss delays his promised promotion until Michael finishes the designs for the deal. So, Michael speeds up his life until he gets to his promotion.

Back home, however, the remote starts automatically speeding up through the kinds of family time that he started skipping earlier. Michael soon finds himself skipping whole years of his life, which gets darker and darker the older he gets.

CLICK is like one of those comical TWILIGHT ZONE episodes where the character makes a deal with the Devil but gets more than he bargained. Like those episodes, it delivers a couple positive moral messages at the end. There are, however, several visual references to dogs trying to have sex with toys and a couple human sex scenes done in silhouette. The movie is also full of foul language throughout, including one “f” word.

As the movie’s moral premise notes, family does indeed come first; but, as Christians know, God and Jesus Christ come before family.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.

• TN Navbharat
• Times Drive
• ET Now Swadesh

Click Movie Review: Navigating The Emotional Struggles Of Mistreated Children

Updated Feb 2, 2024, 00:30 IST

Share this Article

Critic's Ratings

Comedy,Drama

Release Date

About Click

Click movie review : plot dynamics, click movie review: performances, click movie review: direction, click movie review: final verdict.

entertainment news

Latest Movies

Diganth Manchale,Sangeetha Sringeri,Sampath Mythria,Yash Shetty,Cockroach Sudhir,Vajrang Shetty

Critic's Rating

Comedy,Drama,Thriller

2 hr 7 mins

Bharjari Gandu

Kiran Raj,Yasha Shivakumar,Ramesh Bhat,Nagesh Rohit,Veena Sunder,Rakesh Raaj,Surekha Venkatesh

Drama,Action

2 hr 13 mins

Sathish Ninasam,Rachitha Ram,Aditi Prabhudeva,Nagabhushana N S,Shivaraj K R Pete,Poornachandra Mysuru

Horror,Drama

Avatara Purusha 2

Sharan,Ashika Ranganath,Srinagara Kitty,Sudharani,Sadhu Kokila,Ashutosh Rana

Fantasy,Thriller

2 hr 4 mins

Munawar Faruqui Gets Furious After People Throw Eggs At Him During Eid Celebration - Watch

Bade Miyan Chote Miyan Box Office Collection, Movie Review & Release LIVE Updates: Tiger Shroff Has THIS To Say About Film

Diljit Dosanjh On Sikh Representation In Bollywood: 'They Didn't Show...'

Maidaan Release Is Not Postponed Due To Humbug Litigation

Gauahar Khan’s Son Zehaan Turns 11-Month-Old On Eid, Actress Pens Special Note

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

After a group of criminals kidnap the ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, they retreat to an isolated mansion, unaware that they're locked inside with no normal little girl. After a group of criminals kidnap the ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, they retreat to an isolated mansion, unaware that they're locked inside with no normal little girl. After a group of criminals kidnap the ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, they retreat to an isolated mansion, unaware that they're locked inside with no normal little girl.

• Matt Bettinelli-Olpin
• Tyler Gillett
• Stephen Shields
• Dan Stevens
• Kathryn Newton
• Giancarlo Esposito
• 2 User reviews
• 6 Critic reviews
• 57 Metascore

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia Angus Cloud 's final role before his passing in July 2023. Although production wasn't completed until months after his death due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, Cloud still managed to film all of his scenes before production was shut down.

Abigail : [from trailer] What can I say? I like playing with my food.

• Connections Features Pantry Panic (1941)

User reviews 2

• Apr 7, 2024

New and Upcoming Horror

• How long will Abigail be? Powered by Alexa
• April 19, 2024 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Official Instagram
• Project X Entertainment
• Radio Silence Productions
• Wild Atlantic Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 49 minutes

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed

• facebook-rs

‘The Sympathizer’ Turns a Bestseller Adaptation Into a TV Tour de Force

By Alan Sepinwall

Alan Sepinwall

In the opening seconds of HBO ‘s adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s bestselling novel The Sympathizer , the pay cable giant’s familiar logo is transformed so that, instead of evoking a television set turning on, it becomes part of a reel of 8mm film. The miniseries, about a North Vietnamese double agent (Hoa Xuande) in the mid-Seventies, is filled with the sights and sounds of movies being played for an audience. Sometimes, it’s within the action, like how an interrogation by South Vietnamese police of a Viet Cong spy happens onstage at a Saigon movie palace, the projector aiming a glaring light at the suspect, while cops in the theater seats comment on the action like it’s a film they’re watching. Sometimes, it’s a stylistic device, where we hear the sounds of the reel rewinding or fast-forwarding when the story takes an abrupt chronological turn.

Editor’s picks

The 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 50 worst decisions in movie history, every awful thing trump has promised to do in a second term.

The story is presented as the Captain’s confession to the commander of a North Vietnamese reeducation camp, looking back on his time undercover as a South Vietnamese secret policeman; his stint in America after the fall of Saigon, sent by his handlers to keep an eye on the General (Toan Le); and the eventual return to southeast Asia that lands him in the camp, atoning for his many sins. And even within that framework, The Sympathizer giddily careens through time, sometimes because the Captain’s attention has wandered, sometimes because his interrogator wants more context. 

This Russian-nesting-doll approach, hiding pieces of the narrative inside other pieces, could easily get confusing. But it never does, for a few reasons.

Jerrod Carmichael Opens Up About His Complicated Relationship With Sex: ‘I Use It to Escape’

After crushing on tyler, the creator, jerrod carmichael is uncertain about their friendship, jerrod carmichael had a crush on tyler, the creator, so he invited the rapper to the emmy awards.

The contortions of the plot also work because Park is such an arresting and inventive visual storyteller. With his last TV project, the AMC miniseries The Little Drummer Girl (*), he toggled between classical Hollywood filmmaking and a rawer and more verité approach, each looking stunning in its own way. Here, he and the directors who follow him (Fernando Meirelles, who just did Apple’s Sugar , and English director Marc Munden) take an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to things. Beyond the recurring movie projector motif, there’s the way that images from difference pieces of the Captain’s story bleed together even when he’s not skipping around in time. Sometimes, sequences are shot to look as realistic as possible. Other times, they deliberately look phony, to help illustrate the many lies the Captain is telling, and the many ways Hollywood has gotten the subject of Vietnam so wrong. And occasionally, it just looks jaw-dropping, like a sequence where the bus to the General’s plane has to maneuver around North Vietnamese artillery shells, the explosions increasing until it looks like the Captain and Bon are racing into Hell itself. No idea is deemed too strange, yet it rarely seems self-indulgent. 

(*) Interestingly, that’s also a espionage story frequently presented in filmmaking terms, like when Florence Pugh’s handler tells her, “I am the producer, writer, and director of our little show.”

(*) The one character who largely doesn’t view him that way is his sometime-girlfriend Sofia Mori, played by Sandra Oh . And even her feelings on the subject are driven by larger questions about assimilation, since she’s of Japanese ancestry but born in America, and thinks of herself first and foremost as a Californian.  

But if the character is at times written as a walking thesis statement, Xuande plays him with just the right mix of wry humor and vulnerability. To everyone else, the Captain is an abstraction. But as far as he’s concerned, this inability to feel at home anywhere — not Vietnamese enough in Saigon, not white enough in America, a man lying to his best friend but while also no longer thinking or acting like his true colleagues from Hanoi — is a real, painful thing he can never get away from. Xuande, an Australian actor who hasn’t done much American work prior to this, commands the screen, finds ways to signal with his face all the things the Captain can’t allow himself to say aloud, and holds this whole weird story together. He’s great.

Even with that performance, those visuals, and that sense of humor, there are occasions — particularly in the finale, which largely takes place at the reeducation camp — where The Sympathizer , like its hero, gets too lost in its own head. More often than not, though, it works very well, despite the high degree of difficulty that would come with any adaptation of the book.

Trump Allies Try to Convince Supreme Court He’d Never Order Hit on Rival

Jojo siwa is trying too hard to shock us, shohei ohtani's former interpreter negotiating guilty plea: report, lostprophets singer and convicted pedophile ian watkins stabbed in prison.

The first episode of The Sympathizer debuts April 14 on HBO and Max , with additional episodes releasing weekly. I’ve seen all seven episodes.

Ice Spice Will Make Acting Debut Alongside Denzel Washington in Spike Lee's 'High and Low'

• Spice meets Spike
• By Larisha Paul

Disney Files Motion to Throw Out Gina Carano Wrongful Termination Suit on First Amendment Grounds

• Courts and Crime
• By Althea Legaspi

Ryan Gosling Is Ready to Ride Off Into the Sunset While Blasting Chris Stapleton in 'SNL' Promo

‘romeo & juliet’ star receives support from over 800 black actors decrying ‘racist and misogynistic abuse’, john cena can confirm there are 'certainly rumors' about vin diesel and the rock's 'fast and furious' beef.

• Peacekeeper
• By Jon Blistein

Most Popular

Jodie foster pulled robert downey jr. aside on their 1995 film set and told him: 'i’m scared of what happens to you next' because of addiction, where to stream 'quiet on set: the dark side of kids tv' online, sources claim john travolta is ‘totally smitten’ with this co-star, stevie j shows the world what a "real" diddy party looks like, you might also like, market nostalgia, mip london scepticism, premium telenovelas and event non-fiction: 10 takeaways from miptv and canneseries, charles & colvard makes strategic shift amid tough business conditions , the best swim goggles for men, according to competitive swimmers, peter dinklage cast in ‘wicked’, shohei ohtani could be cleared by a mizuhara guilty plea.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

‘Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy’ Review: A Scary Look at the Potential Soldiers of a Second Trump Reign

The followers of Christian Nationalism want a theocracy. Stephen Ujlaki and Chris Jones's chilling film suggests that another Trump presidency could help them get it.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

• ‘Back to Black’ Review: Marisa Abela Nails Amy Winehouse in Every Look, Mood and Note in a Biopic at Once Forthright and Forbidding 2 days ago
• ‘The People’s Joker’ Is a Comic-Book Fantasia More Authentic Than Just About Any Comic-Book Movie 4 days ago
• ‘The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem’ Review: A Netflix Doc Smartly Tells an Internet Hate Story: When 4Chan Met QAnon 5 days ago

In 2017, Trump, once he took the reins of power, was constrained — by the other branches of government, and by the rule of law. He didn’t become the explicitly, committedly anti-democratic figure he is now until the 2020 election, when his declaration that he was actually the winner, and that Joe Biden had stolen the election, became the new cornerstone of his ideology. In the intervening period, Trump has been setting himself up to rule the United States as an authoritarian leader, and that meshes perfectly with the goals of Christian Nationalism, a movement that’s built around the dream of transforming America into a theocracy: a Christian nation ruled by a higher power than the Constitution — that is, by the will of God, as interpreted by his white Christian followers.

The alliance between Trump and Christian Nationalism is a profound one. Progressives tend to be focused, to the point of obsession, on the hypocrisy of the alliance — the idea that men and women who are supposedly devoted to the teachings of Jesus Christ could rally behind a sinner and law-breaker like Trump, who seems the incarnation of everything they should be against. The documentary fills in their longstanding justification: that Trump is seen as a modern-day version of King Cyrus, a pagan who God used as a tool to help the people. According to this mode of opportunistic logic, Trump doesn’t need to be a pious Christian; his very recklessness makes him part of a grander design. The Christian Nationalists view Trump much as his disgruntled base of working-class nihilist supporters have always viewed him — as a kind of holy wrecking ball.    

But, of course, that’s just the rationalization. “Bad Faith” captures the intricacy with which Trump, like certain Republicans before him, has struck a deal with the Christian Right that benefits both parties. In exchange for their support in 2016, he agreed to back a slate of judicial appointees to their liking, and to come over to their side on abortion. Trump’s victory in 2016, like Reagan’s in 1980, was sealed by the support of the Christian Right. But what he’s promising them this time is the very destruction of the American system that they have long sought.   

The most chilling aspect of “Bad Faith” is that, in tracing the roots of the Christian Right, the movie colors in how the dream of theocracy has been the movement’s underlying motivation from almost the start. In 1980, when the so-called Moral Majority came into existence, its leader, Jerry Falwell, got all the attention. (A corrupt quirk of the movement is that as televangelists like Falwell, Pat Robertson, and, later on, Joel Osteen became rich and famous, their wealth was presented as evidence that God had chosen them to lead.) But Falwell, despite the headlines he grabbed, wasn’t the visionary organizer of the Moral Majority.

That was Paul Weyrich, the owlish conservative religious activist who founded the hugely influential Council for National Policy, which spearheaded the structural fusion of Christianity and right-wing politics. He’s the one who went to Falwell and Robertson and collated their lists of supporters into a Christian political machine that could become larger than the sum of its parts. The machine encompassed a network of 72,000 preachers, it employed sophisticated methods of micro-targeting, and its impetus was to transform Evangelical Christianity into a movement that was fundamentally political. The G.O.P. became “God’s own party,” and the election of Reagan was the Evangelicals’ first victory. We see a clip of Reagan saying how he plans to “make America great again,” which is the tip of the iceberg of how much the Trump playbook got from him.

Randall Balmer, the Ivy League historian of American religion who wrote the book “Bad Faith,” is interviewed in the documentary, and he makes a fascinating point: that there’s a mythology that the Christian Right was first galvanized, in 1973, by Roe v. Wade — but that, in fact, that’s not true. Jerry Falwell didn’t deliver his first anti-abortion sermon until 1978. According to Balmer, the moment that galvanized the Christian Right was the 1971 lower-court ruling on school desegregation that held that any institution that engages in racial discrimination or segregation is not, by definition, a charitable institution, and therefore has no claim to tax-exempt status.

This had an incendiary effect. Churches like Jerry Falwell’s were not integrated and didn’t want to be; yet they also wanted their tax-exempt status. It was this law that touched off the anti-government underpinnings of the Christian Right, much as the sieges of Ruby Ridge and Waco became the seeds of the alt-right. And it sealed the notion that Christian Nationalism and White Nationalism were joined at the hip, a union that went back to the historical fusion of the two in the Ku Klux Klan’s brand of Christian terrorism.

“Bad Faith” makes a powerful case that Christian Nationalism is built on a lie: the shibboleth that America was originally established as a “Christian nation.” It’s true to say that the Founders drew on the moral traditions of Judeo-Christian culture. Yet the freedom of religion in the First Amendment was put there precisely as a guard against religious tyranny. It was, at the time, a radical idea: that the people would determine how — and what God — they wanted to worship. In truth, Christian Nationalism undermines not only the freedoms enshrined by the Constitution but the very concept of free will that’s at the heart of Christian theology. You can’t choose to be a follower of Christ if that belief is imposed on you.

Reviewed online, April 2, 2024. Running time: 88 MIN.

• Production: A Heretical Reason Productions, Panarea production. Producers: Stephen Ujlaki, Chris Jones. Executive producers: Peter D. Graves, John Ptak, Mike Steed, Todd Stiefel.
• Crew: Directors: Stephen Ujlaki, Chris Jones. Screenplay: Stephen Ujlaki, Chris Jones, Alec Baer. Camera: Bill Yates, Pilar Timpane, Trevor May. Editor: Alec Baer, Chris Jones. Music: Lili Haydn, Jeremy Grody.
• With: Peter Coyote, Elizabeth Neumann, Randall Balmer, Ken Peters, Eboo Patel, Katherine Stewart, Samuel Perry, Russell Moore, Rev. William Barber II, Linda Gordon, Jim Wallis, Lisa Sharon Harper, Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove, Anne Nelson, Brent Allpress, John Marty.

More From Our Brands

The 12 best-smelling laundry detergents of 2024, from dedcool to glamorous wash, a ‘shark tank’ star’s sky-high n.y.c. penthouse seeks $38 million, shohei ohtani could be cleared by a mizuhara guilty plea, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, ahs: delicate turns back the clock, unmasking another familiar foe, verify it's you, please log in.

Review: ‘The First Omen’ plays to the faithful, but more nun fun is to be had elsewhere

• Show more sharing options
• Copy Link URL Copied!

“The First Omen,” as it happens, is neither the first “Omen” (1976’s half-loved horror hit ) nor the first “Omen” reboot (a misbegotten 2006 attempt ). It’s not even this spring’s first movie about nuns in trouble and baby bumps in the night; that would be March’s “Immaculate” starring an unbound Sydney Sweeney , a film that compares favorably to this one for being crazier, gorier and ultimately more defiant.

But “The First Omen” does have a certain swagger, like it was the only evil-pregnancy thriller in the world. Let’s credit debuting feature director Arkasha Stevenson (a former photographer for this paper) with the stylishness to pull off a potent sense of atmosphere and the kind of lovely period detail that deep studio pockets can fund but rarely have cause to summon. The movie is set in the seething, hippified Rome of 1971, a shaggy backdrop straight out of Federico Fellini’s “Roma” or, more aptly, Dario Argento ’s post-Manson masterworks “The Bird With the Crystal Plumage” and “Four Flies on Grey Velvet.”

Traipsing into these lushly hued shadows is Margaret (Nell Tiger Free of “Game of Thrones”), a wide-eyed novitiate who is quickly supplied with the type of companions that naive Americans typically get in these movies. There’s a kindly-but-clearly-malevolent mentor, Cardinal Lawrence ( Bill Nighy ), a louche, sexually experienced roommate unlikely to be taking vows anytime soon named Luz (Maria Caballero) and a spooky overseer, Sister Silvia ( Sônia Braga ).

Margaret, it is hoped, will be able to connect to the wayward generation currently protesting in the streets. (“A rejection of authority,” sighs Nighy’s cleric — as scripted by Stevenson, Tim Smith and Keith Thomas, this is a film that often says the quiet part out loud.) But mainly we’re waiting for the creaking, clanking scaffolding mishaps of “Omen” movies of yore: the rooftop suicide leaps and mark-of-the-beast reveals. Those moments do arrive, confidently, in ways that fans will tick off approvingly without ever being wholly traumatized by.

There is a genius at work here, though: the makeup and prosthetics designer Adrien Morot , elsewhere the creator of the vicious robot girl in “M3GAN” and an Oscar winner for “The Whale.” Morot has a gooey ball with these full-to-bursting wombs; one nightmarish image, surely pushing the R-rating to the limit, shows an unlikely clawed digit emerging from where delivery doctors would anticipate a crowned head. (I can’t wait to watch this on a plane.)

The 27 best movie theaters in Los Angeles

We’ve mapped out 27 of the best movie theaters in L.A., from the TCL Chinese and the New Beverly to the Alamo Drafthouse and which AMC reigns in Burbank.

Nov. 22, 2023

How long will it be before Margaret, teetering around in heels at a disco, suffers a mysterious pregnancy that somehow manifests in weeks, not months? Don’t question “The First Omen” too hard. Its dark magic, such that it works, functions in sensory impressions: the gravelly basso of “ The Witch” star Ralph Ineson’s voice (a special effect in itself) or the choral doom of Jerry Goldsmith’s original score from 1976, revived to fine effect.

The problem, of course, is that you know where this is going. You even know, somehow, that the final word uttered in the film will be a boy’s name, famous to even non-horror fans. A prequel to one of the most conservative movies of the 1970s, “The First Omen” is destined to disappoint anyone hoping for something a little more imaginative. It brings us straight to Gregory Peck’s ambassador, detailing a backstory we never needed in the first place. But it mainly speaks in a language of suspense, not jump scares, and if you ever wanted to spoil an omen with an omen beforehand, it should get you converted for a couple of hours.

'The First Omen'

Rating: R, for violent content, grisly/disturbing images, and brief graphic nudity Nunning time: 2 hours Playing: Now in wide release

More to Read

Review: Easing into a feral frenzy, Sydney Sweeney proves a hard habit to break in ‘Immaculate’

March 20, 2024

Sydney Sweeney is in a new horror film. She wants to remind us how dorky she is

March 12, 2024

Review: Set thousands of years before civilization, ‘Out of Darkness’ is eons-old horror by the book

Feb. 9, 2024

Only good movies

Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

Joshua Rothkopf is film editor of the Los Angeles Times. He most recently served as senior movies editor at Entertainment Weekly. Before then, Rothkopf spent 16 years at Time Out New York, where he was film editor and senior film critic. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Sight and Sound, Empire, Rolling Stone and In These Times, where he was chief film critic from 1999 to 2003.

More From the Los Angeles Times

Company Town

Margot Robbie boards Lionsgate and Hasbro’s ‘Monopoly’ movie as producer

April 10, 2024

Renée Zellweger and Hugh Grant are reuniting for fourth ‘Bridget Jones’ movie

‘Joker 2’ trailer: Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga lead twisted, musical fever dream

‘The Beast’ explores the heart of loneliness, in Los Angeles and beyond