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Click (2006 film)

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Click
Film poster for Click
Directed byFrank Coraci
Written byMark O'Keefe
Steve Koren
StarringAdam Sandler
Kate Beckinsale
David Hasselhoff
Sophie Monk
Christopher Walken
Music byRupert Gregson-Williams
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release dates
Australia June 22, 2006
United States June 23, 2006
United Kingdom September 28, 2006
Running time
107 minutes
LanguageTemplate:En icon
BudgetUS$70,000,000

Click is a comedy/drama/fantasy film directed by Frank Coraci. It was released on June 23, 2006. Click tells the story of overworked Michael Newman (Adam Sandler), an architect so wrapped up in his job because of his boss (David Hasselhoff), that his family is forced to take the backseat. He gets a "universal remote" from an eccentric engineer (Christopher Walken), and finds he can literally control the universe around him. It began filming in late-2005 and was finished by early-2006.

The screenplay is written by Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) is a loving family man who just wants to be promoted to his boss' partner in an architectural firm so that he can spend more time with his wife and kids. Late one night, after arguing with his wife and having trouble locating his TV remote control, he gets angry and drives to Best Buy and Staples to buy a universal remote control. Finding both stores closed, he enters Bed Bath & Beyond. Then, he makes his way to the "Beyond" section, where he meets Morty (Christopher Walken), an eccentric inventor. Morty takes Michael to the "way beyond" storeroom and gives him a one-of-a-kind universal remote control, which Michael believes to be an ordinary remote. He is warned by Morty that it is "non-returnable."

To Michael's amazement, he finds out that the remote is literally universal: it controls the universe, and interprets his wishes, even learning to anticipate them. It allows him to alter time and reality. After having some fun with it, he decides to do something serious and fast-forward to the promotion that he thought to be 3 months away. When he fast-forwards, 14 months go by instead. When discovering this, he refers to his boss by saying, "It took that bastard a year to promote me?" The remote is "smart", and self-programming based on past experiences. The remote is automatically programmed (by his usage of it) to skip or fast-forward through sickness, foreplay, showering, traffic, arguments with his wife, and promotions. In each case, he is alive but on "autopilot" during the interim, so he has no conscious experience of what happened. When he figures out that is the way the remote has been programmed, he tries to destroy it, but it keeps regenerating somewhere on his body.

He goes to work wearing his bathrobe on his daughter's bicycle to avoid automatically fast-forwarding through traffic or showering. When he arrives at work on his first day as his ex-boss partner, his ex-boss queries his lax dress-code and is convinced by his explanation. Michael's ex-boss calls him a revolutionary man and says "You might even be CEO of this company some day." After that, he winds up being fast-forwarded 10 years to the year 2017, where he finds drastic changes have happened in his life. His wife has divorced him and married his son's former swimming instructor; he's become grossly overweight from eating Yodels; and, on arriving at his home, he finds his son has followed his example and started gaining weight too, while his daughter is a skimpily dressed party girl type. He gets into a fight and is knocked unconscious by the dog which has replaced his previous dog. Having had a medical check because of his concussion and having been diagnosed with cancer, he is fast forwarded through a period of serious sickness. When he wakes to consciousness after his sickness, he is no longer fat, but flabby after liposuction, which he underwent because, as his ex-wife says, he was the only man ever to actually gain weight on chemotherapy. They begin to argue, so Michael's remote then fast-forwards him another six years into the future; to the year 2023. His father has died. He rewinds to when they last met, and finds he acted very rudely to his father, with a hurtful remark about how he always knew the secret of the old man's lifelong parlor trick, which was biting off a piece of a coin. He fast forwards to stand at his father's gravestone. A particularly crucial moment arrives when Morty reveals his true identity: the Angel of Death. He then says he is sorry to have taken Michael's father's life.

Michael then fast forwards seven years into the future, to arrive at his son's wedding in 2030. There, he hears his daughter calling her mother's new husband "Dad" and is overcome with a heart attack. He passes out and awakens (still in 2030) in a hospital, with his kids by his side. His son informs him that his own honeymoon will have to take a backseat until his situation at work is under control. Michael immediately becomes fearful of his son going down the same path as he. He tears himself off his lifesaving instruments (despite Morty's warning) and walks out to catch up with and warn his son of the possible consequences should he continue to prioritize work over family. Surrounded by his family, he lies dying in the street while it is raining. Not before reconciling with his family and having his wife tell him she still loves him (and pointing the middle finger at his wife's new husband) , Michael dies.

He then wakes up in Bed Bath & Beyond, realizing that it was all a dream. Michael is so happy to be back that he drives to his parents house, tells his dad that he loves him and he wants to know how he does the coin trick. He then goes home and tells his wife and kids he loves them and that they are going on a 4th of July camping trip as a family. Michael finds the familiar remote control on his counter, with an attached note from Morty stating that he decided to give Michael a second chance. Michael now knows what to do with the remote. He chucks it in the garbage, and the remote doesn't reappear.

Remote features

The film shows that the remote control’s features include:

Pause
Causes everyone and everything but Michael (and Morty, near the end of the film) to freeze in place. Michael sometimes assaults people while they are paused; they feel sudden pain and suspect nothing.
Fast forward
Can be used to accelerate other people or the family dog (who apparently do not notice this change). When used on Michael’s life, puts him on auto-pilot during the skipped interval. (While on auto-pilot, Michael cannot change his habits. His wife notices when he has been on auto-pilot for a long period, but nobody else does.)
Rewind
Cannot undo anything, but allows Michael to revisit (without changing) the past. The Michael with the remote control is separate from the Michael in the revisited time period and can walk in and around the revisited scene unnoticed. It is revealed in the graveyard scene that Michael can only rewind to scenes in which he was present at that time.
Volume control
Used to silence a barking dog (who apparently does not notice his bark being suppressed). Also used on a man playing and singing loud music in a traffic jam.
Language selection
Options include, but are not limited to English, Spanish and Japanese. Produces a perfect translation, unlike the garbled output of real machine translators. Michael uses this in combination with volume control to eavesdrop on prospective Japanese clients and learn what they think of his proposal; this helps him win their account. He also uses this to break the tedium of a seminar by switching everyone’s language, including his own, to Spanish. (Michael is the only one aware of either change.)
Color adjustment
Michael experiments with this on his own complexion. He has a bit of fun by changing his skin color to Green, Purple and Yellow (Green being the Hulk, Purple being Barney, and Yellow being Scurvy). Seems to work only with hue (although the saturation increases greatly during his experimentation). Other people notice his "tan."
Aspect ratio selection
Choices are normal, wide and panoramic. Michael uses this to make his boss much shorter and fatter; his voice also changes correspondingly. (No one but Michael is aware of the change.)
Main menu
This includes scene selection and bonus features such as a making-of and a running commentary (voiced by James Earl Jones).
Picture in Picture
Michael uses this while Janine is complaining. When the button is pressed, a picture of Hideki Matsui of the New York Yankees hitting a three run home run shows up at the bottom right corner of the screen. (only Michael can see this)
Mute
Similar to the volume control but much faster. It is shown when the man (played by Terry Crews) in the Chevrolet Corvette C6 is singing annoyingly and loudly to Working for the Weekend and Michael Newman smiles and presses mute and chuckles at him after he has no sound.
Memory
The remote remembers your actions with the remote and will automatically act according to your previous using of the remote. For example, when Michael tells the remote to fast forward through a cold, the remote remembers this and automatically fast forwards through any sickness. This proves to be one of the major problems of the movie as Michael gets cancer and is automatically fast forwarded 6 years. It also remembers your actions in life so the remote immediately "knows" how to make yourself act when in auto-pilot.

Similarities to It's A Wonderful Life

This film was deemed by critics a "20th Century remake of It's A Wonderful Life" (if this were true, then this film would've been Adam Sandler's second remake of a Frank Capra film, his first being Mr. Deeds. Here is a list of the similarities:

  • Both Michael and George have dead-end jobs but desire something more.
  • They both contemplate suicide but Michael contemplates it light-heartedly ("Fast food shortens your life.")
  • Both Michael and George get angry at their children before they experience life without them.
  • Both Clarence and Morty are angels. Morty is the Angel of Death. They also both have the power to pop up at anytime, anywhere.
  • Both Clarence and Morty give George and Michael the answer that shows them what their lives are really like. For George, it's the glimpse to see what the world would be like without him. For Michael, it's a remote that controls his universe.
  • Both Michael and George don't believe what's happening to them after they meet Morty and Clarence.
  • Both Michael and George see their wives before they return to their normal lives.
  • The sequence of Michael celebrating his return back to his normal life is extremely similar to the way George celebrated when he returned back to Bedford Falls: they both hug the first person they meet after they realize all is normal and they both slap and are happy to see their cars again.
  • Both Michael and George get a note from their angels at the end of the movies.

Template:Endspoilers

Cast

Box office

As of August 17, 2006, Click has grossed US$135,105,606 in the USA and US$20,611,901 outside the USA, with a total gross of US$155,717,507.

Pop Culture References

  • Michael has a Wendy's hamburger in the beginning of the film.
  • Michael, before entering Bed Bath & Beyond, is disappointed after seeing that Best Buy and Staples are closed.
  • The O'Doyle family in the movie is a reference to the family in Billy Madison.
  • Morty's recommendation that Michael "go to a happy place" is a reference to Happy Gilmore.
  • In the flashback to Michael and Donna's first kiss, Janine is wearing a Bart Simpson T-shirt. This would have to mean their first kiss took place in at least the early-1990s as The Simpsons products had yet to be marketed before, and also because Michael and Donna's song, Linger by the Cranberries, was released in 1993.
  • Also, one bar patron is shown wearing a Misfits patch on his jacket
  • In the same flashback, Michael wears a J. Geils Band T-shirt. Sandler sang one of their songs ("Love Stinks") in The Wedding Singer.
  • When Michael first uses the menu function on the remote, the theme songs from Match Game, The Price is Right, Family Feud, and The $25,000 Pyramid can be heard. Adam Sandler had previously had a memorable fight scene with The Price is Right host Bob Barker in Happy Gilmore as well as a cameo appearance on the show in 1996.
  • A Donkey Kong arcade machine can be seen in the same flashback scene.
  • There is a similar scene in the Family Guy episode, "North by North Quahog" where Peter Griffin goes to the "Beyond" section of Bed, Bath and Beyond. However, as mentioned in the commentary on the DVD, the script for this movie was written at least a year before that episode of Family Guy aired.
  • When Mike leaves Bed, Bath, and Beyond at the end of the film, a McDonald's restaurant can be seen in the background.
  • In the beginning of the film, Mike's kids like to watch Dragon Tales, and a year later, they have an obsession with CSI.
  • During the traffic jam in the beginning of the film, a detour sign for I-495 can be seen. The road is known to have some traffic interruption at any given time.
  • The song the man is singing in the traffic scene where Michael turns down the man's voice is "Working for the Weekend" by Loverboy

Trivia

  • The Bed, Bath and Beyond that is used for exterior shots is located in Hawthorne, California.
  • Most scenes takes place in 2006, 2007, 2017, 2023 and 2030. Various flashbacks take place in other years including the 1970s.
  • Michael initially believes that the effects of the remote are hallucinations fueled by cough syrup.
  • The band that was seen on the TV during the year 2017 resembles the Gorillaz in many ways, especially with the looks and that sound. That is a humorous indicator of what the music might be in the future.
  • When Michael arrives in 2023, the TV screen showing the news and Michael has the Freedom Tower in the background, and it can also be seen at wedding scene in 2030. A duplicate one is also present, although this is technically incorrect since the current plan for the Freedom Tower only includes one very large tower. In the same shot, a 147-year-old Brooklyn Bridge is seen.
  • Rob Schneider makes a cameo as Prince Habeeboo (in makeup) in the beginning of the movie. Schneider appears in most of Sandler's films and vice versa. In a deleted scene from the DVD, Prince Habeeboo says "you can do it," a phrase often said by Schneider in cameo appearances in other Adam Sandler films.
  • The camping trip was at Lake Winnipesaukee. This is an actual lake in New Hampshire. Adam Sandler was raised in Manchester, New Hampshire. Lake Winnipesaukee is also referenced in Sandler's "Thanksgiving Song."
  • The film was shot using the high-definition Genesis (Panavision) camera.
  • Walken plays Morty, the angel of death. He played the same role as the Archangel Gabriel in the movie The Prophecy, 11 years earlier.
  • Winkler previously has collaborated with Sandler in The Waterboy and Little Nicky.
  • The DVD and Blu-ray versions were released on October 10th, 2006. The Blu-ray version is the first ever dual-layer release.
  • Mors, mort- is the Latin word and stem meaning death. Morty is the Angel of Death.
  • In the German version, the commentary is said to be spoken by Arnold Schwarzenegger and is actually spoken by Thomas Danneberg, who dubs Schwarzenegger in his movies. James Earl Jones is not as famous in Germany.
  • Sandler's father's "quarter trick", is the same trick done by David Blaine in his street magic show 1
  • When Sandler enters the Bed, Bath and Beyond, he asks if they had a Universal Media remote, which they didn't. Ironically, after the movie came out in theaters, Bed, Bath and Beyond started to sell Universal Media Remotes at their stores.
  • In the year 2017, as Michael was getting out of the car, the radio announcer read a schoolyard joke referring to Michael Jackson which said Michael Jackson, the first man to clone himself, is suing, himself, for molesting, himself.
  • In the year 2017 when Michael wakes up fat, the fat body was real and computer animation put Adam Sandlers head on the double, in other scenes where Adam Sandler wears clothes he wears a fat suit.
  • The film was actually set in New York City but much of it was shot in Los Angeles, with a few glitches such as seeing palm trees, which cannot grow in New York, along with a dinner with Japanese investors on a rooftop hotel in Manhattan, was actually a rooftop in central LA, Library Tower is clearly seen several times in the background.
  • Drew Barrymore was originally set to play the role of "Donna Newman", but later dropped out because of a scheduling conflict and because she had already worked with Adam Sandler twice.
  • Lauren Graham was offered the role of "Donna Newman" but turned it down and because she was going to shoot the sixth season of Gilmore Girls during the time that Click was going to go into production.

Music

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