Not a super duper movie, but for once it’s not Adam Sandler’s fault! He reins in his inner moron to give a modest but adequate performance. In Hebrew his name, Sandler, means cobbler so it’s fitting that he plays the Brooklyn shoe maker resentfully hanging on to a business his father owned and abandoned when he abruptly left his family.
One night Sandler stumbles on a secret hidden in the basement: if you mend shoes using an antique machine, you can become the shoes’ owners simply by wearing them. This is just the escape he was needing – to slip into 
someone else’s skin, live a more glamourous life, see the city or even just the neighbourhood from someone else’s eyes. This is where The Cobbler becomes Freaky Friday. The body swap schtick means that Method Man gets to do his meanest Adam Sandler impression, and mostly fails. Dan Stevens does passably better, but his time in the film is short.
At any rate, this is a pretty neat party trick that fails to develop into anything exciting or worthwhile. In fact, the results lack any imagination whatsoever. You kind of feel like the director 
dangled the carrot, and then put the carrot in his pocket and walked away. Critics on Rotten Tomato have it sitting at a limp 9% although he’s got his mother beat, and his lover too (Reese Witherspoon played his angelic mother in Little Nicky; her film Hot Pursuit’s currently at 7%. Kevin James, who played his pretend boyfriend in Chuck and Larry, is sitting at 6% for Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2). Audiences, however, are much more generous with middle of the road reviews, calling it “watchable,” “potentially charming” and “a slight step up from Adam Sandler’s recent comedies.” Hear that? That’s the sound of ringing endorsements!
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
Somehow I’ve never even heard of this. Probably a good reason for that.
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LOL, I remember when this was being developed and some people thought it could be Sandler’s Oscar vehicle.
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ha.
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Terrible movie, but at least Sandler’s performance is perfectly unremarkable.
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Wait, a bad Adam Sandler movie which isn’t Adam Sandler’s fault? Madness!
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It’s surprising to see Sandler isn’r the guilty party for the terribleness of this film. Still, I think he should take a break. Maybe even a permanent one.
Great review!
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never been able to sit more than 5 minutes through a Sandler movie, how he got to make more than 1 movie is beyond me, he should have been retired (buried) after The Wedding Singer. Probably a pact with the devil.
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Reese Witherspoon is old enough to play someone’s mother?
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She was 15 years ago!
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This was easily the worst, and most disappointing considering the talent involved, film I saw at TIFF last year. So much wasted potential.
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I was never really drawn to Sandler’s attempts at dramatic roles (with the exception of Spanglish), not sure if I would watch this too. It sounds like he doesn’t do much in this movie.
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I saw the trailer for this one a few weeks ago and my reaction was “mnah”. Seems that reaction was fair, as pretty much every review has commented on how the film falls flat. Like really flat. Shame, though – cause it does seem like a pretty good idea. And Method Man is in it.
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I think the trailer makes it look good, better than it was!
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I hadn’t even heard of the movie til I saw the trailer on payperview in a hotel maybe a month ago. Elected not to spend $17 on it.
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Sounds awful, although I like this type of story in a fantasy movie – someone being under someone else’s skin (not sure what is exactly the English term for this – acting? 😀 ). My fave movie about that was Being John Malkovich. Too bad the Cobbler doesn’t go well..thanks for the review!
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It’s not the worst, but it’s nowhere near Being John Malkovich, that’s for sure!
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