Certificate 12. 117 mins. Comedy/Romance. Starring Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Bella Thorne, Emma Fuhrmann, Alyvia Alyn Lind, Braxton Beckham, Kyle Red Silverstein, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Zak Henri, Joel McHale, Terry Crews.

Lauren Reynolds (Drew Barrymore) is a single mother with two sons, 13-year-old Brendan (Braxton Beckham) and nine-year-old Tyler (Kyle Red Silverstein), who have been let down badly by her unreliable ex-husband (Joel McHale).

Single father Jim Friedman (Adam Sandler) lost his wife to cancer and is now primary caregiver to three daughters, 15-year-old Hilary (Bella Thorne), 12-year-old Espn (Emma Fuhrmann) and four-year-old Lou (Alyvia Alyn Lind).

Fate conspires to throw Lauren and Jim together on a disastrous blind date.

The parents vow never to see each other again and take their respective broods on a South African safari adventure.

As luck would have it, they are forced to share the same family-sized suite. Battle lines are drawn between the dysfunctional Reynolds and Friedman clans, but animosity mellows into unexpected attraction between Lauren and Jim.

Blended is a romantic comedy of mismatched single parents that fails to recapture the magic of Sandler and Barrymore's first pairing in The Wedding Singer.

The leads catalyse screen chemistry, which feels more like sibling affection than simmering passion, and their couple's first kiss looks awkward. Younger cast are more convincing in underwritten roles especially Bella Thorne, who transforms from tomboy into prom queen after a visit to the resort's spa in a scene reminiscent of the 1999 teen romance She's All That.

Ivan Menchell and Clare Sera's script has a few nice moments of laughter and heart-warming sentiment including some surprisingly moving discussions between a father and his children about grief and remembrance. Unfortunately, tenderness is offset by exaggerated physical comedy and cloying sentiment, which shamelessly manipulates our emotions.