Kevin James is an agile physical comic with an approachable, vulnerable presence. We wish his films made more demands of him: Grown Ups 2 shows how little an agreeable performer can do with exhausted jokes.
Fi1m perspective
Kevin James looks comfortable alongside Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and David Spade in Grown Ups 2 (2013), sometimes agreeably so. He can make their company seem inviting even when the material is poor. That warmth matters, but his physical assurance and timing give us reason to expect more than a familiar face. We rate him as a comic actor; too many of his films ask too little of him.
The television years made good use of that approachable quality: in The King of Queens (1998–2007), his Doug Heffernan was a parcel delivery man. James's physical timing gave the familiar working-man role something more than a friendly face. In Hitch (2005), the lovelorn accountant Albert gave his vulnerability a place in a romantic comedy. In Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009), physical comedy became the main attraction, with James taking the lead as a shopping-centre security guard.
His repeated collaborations with Sandler have also brought the danger of everyone looking too pleased to be there. In Grown Ups 2, the car wash supplies a little welcome silliness, but the bodily jokes keep returning and the family lessons arrive dutifully. We were bored by the cast's prolonged mugging because it kept scenes going after their comic possibilities had run out. James shares the blame; his ease with the others occasionally makes them pleasant to watch, yet nobody seems willing to let a weak gag finish. A performer with his timing ought to recognise when there is nothing left to play.
The dramatic thriller Becky (2020), in which he plays Dominick, takes him outside the ordinary-man comedies that have so often employed him. He need not abandon comedy to find something more demanding. We would be just as interested in a comedy that gave his vulnerability more to do and trusted him to stop when the joke was finished. Start with Hitch for that softer side; Grown Ups 2 can safely wait.
Biography
Kevin James, born Kevin George Knipfing, is an American actor and comedian. He began his career as a stand-up comedian on Long Island in the late 1980s.
James rose to prominence playing Doug Heffernan on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens (1998–2007), for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2006. His film roles include 50 First Dates (2004), Hitch (2005), Grown Ups (2010) and Grown Ups 2 (2013) as Eric Lamonsoff, Pixels (2015) as Cooper, and voice work as Frankenstein in the Hotel Transylvania films (2012–2018). He later starred in the sitcom Kevin Can Wait (2016–2018).
