Thirty years after their high school (basketball) championship, five buddies return to the camp where they once created fond memories together, along with their wives, children, etc. Reliving their experiences from childhood and working through some of their current problems and idiosyncrasies, the five friends discover that the things which once held them together are values that they still hold dear (even if they fell away from them along the way). If all of that sounds straightforward and dramatic, then you might also keep in mind that Adam Sandler helped write the script that he and the likes of Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider now saunter through.

I've been a Sandler fan for a while but I keep waiting for him to be as funny as he was in Happy Gilmore or Billy Madison or even Mr. Deeds. This movie isn't the one. But the way that Sandler gathers the troops for this one and rallies them in a battle against the forces of aging and stagnant regression is something to enjoy. I'm a Rock fan, too, and he's almost the straight man to the rest of these guys. Spade and Schneider are their normal moronic selves, while James is the loveable goofball. Sure, their wives have some balance to provide here, but the way that the story plays out, this is mostly about the men.

I think the main thrust here, outside of the bodily humor and sex jokes, are the topics that revolve around aging, roles, and the like. Rock's character is the stay-at-home dad who gets dogged by his wife, his kids, and his mother-in-law; Schneider is the guy who can't maintain a relationship and now adores his much older girlfriend; Sandler's dad can't stand the sense of entitlement that his kids are developing while he watches his wife jetset away from the values he thought they shared. Not terribly funny, is it? If you consider your life enough, you'll probably find some similar patterns. But, like I said, the guys involved mean that the laughs will roll down, too.

I've got two "takeaways" from this one. The first is that there's a difference between growing up and growing old, between aging and becoming elderly, between maturing and becoming stunted. These guys learn they can still have fun, they can still be who they are supposed to be, and yet, they don't have to stay the same. In fact, they can't really mature or become who they're supposed to be if they're stuck "fronting" for what they used to be. But the second listen is of an "alternate" view...

On the other side of changing and maturing, there's the recognition that the group comes to that they've fallen away from some of the values that they used to have. They are like the many folks in middle age who recognize that they were raised with values and principles (maybe even in church) and that they reached a point in adolescence where they turned away from all of that. They wish they could go back, and realize they can't. But then they discover that the thing that they thought they were fleeing (maybe God?) has been waiting them all along, and that there's no shame in returning to where they've been supposed to be all the time.

Grown Ups is better than you might expect, but maybe not as funny. It's a cross between Spanglish and Billy Madison. It might make you laugh but it will definitely make you think.