In the possibly correct view of N.Y. Post critic Kyle Smith, Adam Sandler‘s Grown-Ups — which currenty has an 8% Rotten Tomatoes rating — was more or less sired by the lackluster commercial response to Judd Apatow‘s Funny People, in which Sandler played a realistic but somewhat dislikable comic. He didn’t like the vibe so he turned around and went full-whore commercial.

“Sandler (whose much sharper early comedies were unjustly maligned by critics) can be an interesting writer and actor,” Smith writes, “but whenever he gets spooked by the reception of grown-up work like last year’s Funny People, he becomes Hollywood’s real-life Billy Madison — skulking off to the least challenging path. In response, I was aching for a real-life Click, so I could fast-forward through the nullity and get on with my life.”