Chris Rock

In Grown Ups 2 (2013), Chris Rock has an ease with Adam Sandler and the rest of the cast that briefly makes their company agreeable. The sequel asks us to accept that ease in place of better jokes. We were irritated by the mugging, because it kept prolonging material that had already run out. Rock shares the blame here; being comfortable with the other actors does not give him much to play.

The energetic, preacher-like delivery of his stand-up puts pressure on a line, and his social observation gives that pressure a purpose. Bring the Pain (1996) established him as a major comic voice, but acting had already offered a different task: Pookie, a drug-addicted informant in New Jack City (1991). Family animation followed with Marty in Madagascar (2005). Those parts ask for quite different things, which makes the limited demands of Grown Ups 2 especially frustrating.

Top Five (2014), which he wrote, directed and acted in, is the more useful place to look for his comic judgement. Its personal satire draws on his own experience, giving us a reason to seek out Rock beyond his forceful delivery. The later dramatic lead as Loy Cannon in Fargo (2020) also takes him away from simply supplying laughs alongside familiar faces. We would not reduce him to the relaxed ensemble player, even when that is how an undemanding film uses him.

We can see why the relaxed company might appeal for a while. The car wash in Grown Ups 2 supplies some welcome silliness, and we would not ask Rock to make every comedy a personal statement. But the repeated bodily jokes and dutiful family lessons leave his presence doing too much of the work. There is little here that needs his particular way of delivering a line. Start with Top Five; the reunion can manage without us.