Blended is one of those movies you don’t deliberately go out of your way to see but when you do happen to watch it you are somewhat glad that you did.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore together in The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates. Their chemistry was natural and the storylines well fleshed out and balanced with well-timed comedy. Blended, however, fails to transition into an Adam Sandler classic and instead manages to be an average family friendly movie you might drag out on a rainy day for kids between 9 and 15.

The movie opens with a blind date at Hooters between Jim (Adam Sandler) and Lauren(Drew Barrymore) and as you would imagine it is not a good first date. I actually found this part of the movie boring like they were merely going through the motions in order to get to the middle of the movie. It felt a bit clichéd and stagnant. But because it was Sadler and Barrymore I kept watching and waited for the story to pick up a little. Luckily it did.

As the plot progresses we learn that Lauren is an obsessively organised mother of two boys who does her best to raise her kids responsibly and keep them safe (despite their father Mark being no help at all and constantly not showing up to important events). As well as being organised at home Lauren also runs a business with her friend Jen called The Closet Queens (They organise peoples closet space).

Meanwhile, while all that is going on, we cross over to Jim’s side of the story. We learn that he is a widowed father of three girls, he works for a sporting goods store (or it might have been a camping good store… I didn’t really pay close attention to that) and takes his girls to the barber for their haircuts.

Long story short, some things happen resulting in both families sharing a week long holiday in Africa. They get in awkward situations, they joke, they bond, they learn, cue the credits.

While there are some sweet and endearing moments in Blended it doesn’t quite gel with the slapstick scenes, most of which seem to have been inserted into the script for the sake of comedy. (Eg there is a reference to 50 First Dates with a cameo appearance from  a character which adds absolutely nothing to the movie.)

So, would I rush out and buy the movie? Probably not. Would I watch it again? Yes I would.