YMMV / Click

• Base-Breaking Character: Michael. As expected from an Adam Sandler character, fans find him sympathetic and funny, while detractors find him obnoxious and unlikable.
• Broken Base: Easily one of Adam Sandler's most divisive movies. Is this a funny, legitimately heartfelt flick, or is it an obnoxious and melodramatic gross-out comedy with the usual gripes people have with Sandler's works, in addition to having a rather unsympathetic protagonist?
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Michael farting on Ammer's face is pretty disgusting, but it loops back to funny when Ammer thinks he had literally eaten shit.
  • Michael realizing he became unhealthy after 17 years? Rather heartbreaking. Michael playing with the excess fat from his stomach? Hilarious.
    Michael: It's my flap. I'll do whatever the hell I want with it!
• Cult Classic: This is often considered a classic film by Adam Sandler fans, saying that this perfectly brings out his dramatic side and shows his funny story-telling.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • For the first half of the film, it's a typical Adam Sandler comedy, and the second half is more drama-orientated. This may seem tonally inconsistent, but it can also be intentional. This is because the comedy half had things go Michael's way, since he finished architectural projects early or avoided unnecessary moments with the universal remote. When it shifts into drama, the accumulated consequences from repeated uses of the remote rear its ugly head, alienating his wife and father from him, being a terrible role model for his son, and eventually dying from heart failure. In conclusion, the first half represented the short-term happiness, while the second half is the long-term sadness.
  • The reveal that Morty's the Angel Of Death seems like an Ass Pull, but think about his role in the film. Giving the Jerkass protagonist the ability to see his future, where he alienates everyone he loves and dies miserable and alone to get him to change his ways. Sound familiar? Besides what song comes into your head when you think about Christopher Walken?
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • There's a joke about Kevin Federline, still married to Britney Spears, getting a job and the two having even more kids together. This movie came out the same year they got divorced.
  • The film came out 3 years before Michael Jackson died from cardiac arrest and made a joke that, not only was he still alive, but he'd managed to clone himself in the scenes set in the mid-late 2010s, as well as suing himself for molesting himself (in reference to the sexual abuse allegations against him).
  • The cameo by Dolores O'Riordan singing "Linger" at Ben's wedding, taking place in the late 2020's / early 2030's, became this after her untimely death in 2018.
  • The Nostalgia Critic pointed out that Ted's grave says he died in 2021 and wondered if the movie predicted COVID.
• He Really Can Act: While the film is goofy, Adam Sandler did the Tear Jerker scenes really well.
• Jerkass Woobie: Michael, once he realizes how his negligence has affected both his loved ones and himself, especially after realizing he blew off his father right before he died and when he himself is dying from a heart attack while trying to make amends with his son.
• Karmic Overkill: Kevin is a brat who makes Michael miserable, but Michael setting Kevin to get beaten by his mom by lying about him smoking is a little too harsh for a kid whose main flaw is boasting about his family's wealth.
• Magnificent Bastard: Morty, the Angel of Death, starts off as a friendly Bed, Bath & Beyond backdoor worker hiding an advanced remote from the market. When workaholic Michael Newman buys it, Morty warns him that the product can't be returned and will program itself based on its usage. This causes Michael to fast-forward through his life, even trying and failing to destroy the remote. Morty later reveals that he is sending Michael through a Bad Future to teach him the value of family. Despite his trickery, Morty genuinely regrets taking the life of Michael's father, Ted, and grants a dying Michael a second chance at life.
• Memetic Mutation: There's a trend of photoshopping the main poster to change what Sandler is holding and changing the title accordingly, usually with incredibly silly results.
• Nightmare Fuel: While the movie is far from horror-like, the revelation of Morty is the Grim Reaper comes off as rather shocking, especially with how the scene plays out.
  Morty: I'm an angel, Michael.
  Michael: W-Wait, I thought an angel's supposed to protect people.
  Morty: But I'm the angel of death. It was your father's time to go.
• Older Than They Think:
  • The idea of a remote that can change the world has been done before in Goosebumps. With the same title, no less. Though the protagonist in that story wasn't willing to learn his lesson and wound up paying for it.
  • The basic plot of a man who finds a way to speed up time, only to throw away his whole life too soon, can be seen in the Adventures from the Book of Virtues story "The Magic Thread."
  • That is also the main plot of Italian children's book L'Orologio Azzurro ("The Blue Wristwatch"), published in 1994.
  • Christopher Walken had previously played the surprise Angel of Death in Madonna's 1992 video "Bad Girl".
• One-Scene Wonder: Terry Crews as the guy singing Loverboy's "Working for the Weekend" in his car when he and Michael are stuck in a traffic jam.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Seeing Jonah Hill as the 17-year-old Ben.
  • Katie Cassidy (Supernatural, Taken, Arrow) is Michael's daughter as an adult.
  • A young Cameron Monaghan plays the Newman family's next-door Jerkass neighbor Kevin O'Doyle.
  • This film features the children of Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson. Hoffman's son Jake plays the adult Ben and Nicholson's daughter Lorraine plays the teenage Samantha.
• Squick: "WE'RE IN MY MOM'S VAGINA!?", uttered when he rewinds with the remote. Also doubles as a Funny Moment.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: First, look at Squick above. Then, remind yourself that the movie was nominated for two Kids' Choice Awards. And won one of them (Favorite Actor).

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