So the gimmick in "Click" is that a guy gets hold of a magic remote-control device for real life that lets him mute unpleasant people and dialogue, skip all the bad stuff and fast-forward through everything tedious. Such a wonderful concept. If only they passed one out to everybody at the door of this movie.

	Tracy Bennett photos Adam Sandler finds he can fast-forward and pause his real life with a magical remote control in "Click." Click photo for larger image. 'Click' Rating: PG-13 for language, crude sex-related humor and drug references. Starring: Adam Sandler, Christopher Walken, Henry Winkler. Director: Frank Coraci. Web site: www.sonypictures.com/movies/click Family Film Guide

The latest collaboration between Adam Sandler and director Frank Coraci ("The Wedding Singer" and "The Waterboy" came before), "Click" offers a hero who is a workaholic architect (Sandler) too busy to see his wife (Kate Beckinsale) and kids, let alone figure out all the different controls for his plethora of electronic appliances.

Conveniently enough at the local Bed, Bath & Beyond outlet, he stumbles upon the ultimate universal remote (in the "Beyond" section, of course), and it is bestowed upon him free o' charge by salesman-from-beyond Christopher Walken.

Talk about miracles -- this thing is a domestic and professional godsend. It lets him not only silence barking dogs and carping wives but also skip two-year waiting periods between promotions, as well as travel and back and forth through his life -- advancing or rewinding -- at will.

Ah, but the magic device turns out to be a hand-held HAL 9000: It starts controlling Sandler, instead of the other way around, anticipating his choices on autopilot and deciding which things in life he'll experience and which he'll just skim or skip.

Adam Sandler and Christopher Walken star in "Click." Click photo for larger image.

Neither the remote-control device nor the plot device is exactly new: Half a dozen old TV shows and sci-fi stories employed the same trick. Walken is always fun to watch, but he and his part are knockoffs of Christopher Lloyd in "Back to the Future." Henry Winkler and Julie Kavner are adequate, if not riotously funny, as Sandler's parents, while Beckinsale is fine (and perfectly beautiful) as his perfect wife -- all essentially stereotypes.

So who ever said originality was part of the successful Hollywood formula? Nobody. But incest is not necessarily best (except for De Niro and Scorsese) when recycling. Sandler and director Coraci have been friends since they were teenagers, while co-writer Steve Koren and Sandler go back to their "Saturday Night Live" sketches together. Their mutual admiration society has affected their collective judgment in "Click," whose results -- intended to be hilarious -- are only occasionally so, and whose expensive special effects (to render life in the year 2016) are underwhelming.

"Click" is, I suppose, an improvement on "Big Daddy" but not up to "Punch-Drunk Love." Which leads us to the age-old or New Age-old question, "'S up with Adam?" I am a Sandler fan, not foe, who still thinks that his absurdly idiosyncratic Opera Man -- inter alios "SNL" characters -- are among the funniest of video creations. At this point in his big-screen career, he should be ready, willing and able to make some new and better script choices.

This lame vehicle -- fraught with flagging foolery, flights of flatulence and fake sentimentality -- should be tried and convicted under the literary lemon law.