WOULD YOU WANT ADAM SANDLER RAISING YOUR CHILDREN?

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

Adam Sandler's latest flush of the pop-culture plumbing, ``Big Daddy,'' is actually a sweet little rip-off of Charlie Chaplin's ``The Kid'' and its 800 or so imitators.

Sandler is back in the lovable loser mode of ``The Wedding Singer,'' which is always a welcome change from his other Neanderthal screen persona. The boy, played by 6-year-old identical twins Cole and Dylan Sprouse, is suitably sad-eyed and adorable - and good at substituting w's for r's (``wock n' woll'') in the way that makes women go ``aw.'' Even the inevitable upchuck is attractively candy-colored.

But since originality and sophistication never figured into the equation here, the only way to judge the success of this thing is by how long it allows Sandler's no-account slacker, Sonny Koufax, to set bad examples for the orphaned urchin in his charge. Happily enough, most of this mercifully brief slob comedy's running time is devoted to spitting instruction, Hooters references and bladder-relief jokes. Sentimentality and responsible attitudes don't reach egregious levels until the inevitable, climactic courtroom scene.

Koufax is an apparently brilliant law school graduate (the film's smartest joke, considering who plays him) who's opted for a one-day-per-week job as a New York toll booth attendant. He doesn't even need that work, since he's apparently invested the $200,000 settlement from a taxi accident lawsuit well.

Rather than appreciate his layabout logic, Sonny's girlfriend Vanessa (Kristy Swanson) frets about his lack of ambition. Shortly after his roommate Kevin (Jon Stewart) takes off for a long business trip to China, the illegitimate child Kevin didn't know he had appears at the bachelors' apartment. Naturally, Sonny figures pretending to adopt the kid will show Vanessa he's matured. Things don't work out as planned, but bonding ensues regardless.

Sandler and his regular writing partner Tim Herlihy worked consistently amusing behavioral humor into Steve Franks' screenplay. The clueless surrogate dad's solution to all spills, whether of container or bodily origin, is to cover them with newspaper; when the kid gets upset, Sonny makes him laugh by inflicting grievous bodily harm upon himself; uncertain what the rules are these days, he makes Julian wear swim trunks at bath time just to be on the safe side, etc.

Throughout all of this, Sandler works his doofus charm to the limit, then punctuates the proceedings with judicious explosions of his signature, psycho-comic anger. There's enough of both schticks here to satisfy fans of each gender. Indeed, Sonny's patient but persistent courting of a likable environmental lawyer (played by the always winsome Joey Lauren Adams) is almost romantic enough to raise the film a notch or two above pure infantilism.

The Sprouse twins strike a similarly nice balance between cuddly cute and obnoxious. And director Dennis Dugan improves here on both of his previous brat comedies, ``Problem Child'' and the Sandler-starring ``Happy Gilmore,'' letting more than an inkling of wit inform his obsessional interest in bad behavior.

Consistently chucklesome if hardly great comedy, ``Big Daddy'' suggests - in its superficial, overcalculated way - that Adam Sandler could even be funny once toilet trained.

Someday. When he grows up.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Big Daddy'' (PG-13; language).

The stars: Adam Sandler, Cole and Dylan Sprouse, Joey Lauren Adams, Jon Stewart, Rob Schneider, Leslie Mann.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Dennis Dugan. Written by Steve Franks, Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler. Produced by Sid Ganis and Jack Giarraputo. Released by Columbia Pictures.

Running time: One hour, 35 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Three Stars

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Photo

PHOTO Sonny (Adam Sandler) teaches young Julian (Cole and Dylan Sprouse) the art of discount grocery shopping in ``Big Daddy.''