50 First Dates (2004) – 3.0

An unnecessary addition to the annals of average Hollywood romantic-comedy fare – which is to say, predictable, shallow, and insincere.  Adam Sandler plays Henry, a vet who falls in love with brain-damaged Lucy (Drew Barrymore), whose memory is reset each day as a result of a car accident involving a cow and a tree.  Set in Hawaii for no apparent reason, with a host of cutesy aquatic beasts, overweight, smack-talking, Polynesian locals, and a relentless soundtrack of terrible pop-song covers.  Dana Carvey did it better in the trifling Clean Slate (1994), and Bill Murray did it best in the now-classic Groundhog Day (1993).  Lacking either of these actors’ nuance or talent, Sandler comes off as the trite phoney he is.  With Sean Astin as Lucy’s loathsome, lispy toady of a brother, and Rob Schneider as Henry’s coarse island-native cousin.