Cady's Take:

50 First Dates tells the story of Henry Roth (Adam Sandler), a Hawaiian veterinarian who avoids commitment at all costs. His tune soon changes once he meets Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore). Lucy, unfortunately, has this slight memory problem due to a car crash. Every day, she wakes up with no knowledge of her life since the accident. If Henry wants to woo her, he's going to have to do it over and over again, "meeting" her for the first time each and every morning.

There's an element of Groundhog Day here. Both films feature characters that repeatedly live the same day over and over again. But, I enjoyed both of these films. 50 First Dates is a pleasant surprise, a light-hearted Sandler movie that should appeal to broader audiences but still easily satisfy his core base of fans.

I also have to add that Sean Astin, best known as Sam from “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and Mikey in “The Goonies”, is quite humorous as Lucy’s steroid-abusing younger brother with an annoying lisp.

With bits of humor, enough romantic moments and some excellent cinematography in the locales of Hawaii, the film is definitely worth a watch for the whole family. And perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that the film doesn't resort to an easy cheat at the end. It plays things straight, and still manages to satisfy.

There is no denying it – Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore have serious on-screen chemistry. Sandler plays playboy Henry who meets and falls in love with a girl who simply cannot remember who he is. Lucy (Barrymore) was in a car accident that destroyed her short-term memory and leaves her unable to remember the charming man who meets her for breakfast each morning.

This movie reminded me more of “Memento” at least as far as how it dealt with memory loss. I have seen it compared to “Groundhog Day” which is true in tone, and the element of the same day being repeated over and over. This works as a romantic comedy, and I liked watching Henry woo Lucy each day. This is definitely a Sandler movie with obligatory crude jokes and the omni-present Ron Schneider, but this is a sweet story and the characters are sweet as well. Sean Astin is hilarious as Lucy’s brother Doug and her father is played by one of my favorite character actors Blake Clark.

This is a very watchable movie – one you can rent again or watch when you run across it on TBS. I love Sandler and Barrymore together and I can only hope they continue making movies together. Yes, there are logical issues with the way they deal with the memory loss but this is the kind of movie you can just enjoy because it is sweet and lovely. Perfect date movie.