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I don't expect much from Adam Sandler. Haven't for a long time. So when he surprises me with something this vile, an applause is necessary. After all, it might be the last one he gets for a while.

Click is not really a movie. Sure it has a plot, characters, lavish sets, something that resembles a story arc, but it is not what many would consider a typical film. No, Click is a showcase for Sandler. It's a gag reel with a central theme. When Peter Sellers died, they made Pink Panther movies by assembling all the outtakes. That's what Click is, but Sandler is still living (physically, if not mentally).

Sandler plays a character like all his other characters: a man so hugely flawed that one mixed drink might start a chain reaction that will either land him in the clink or at Death's door. Early in the film, some hooligan teens aggravate him to the point that he has to chase them down frothing at the mouth. Later he'll punch his boss, terrorize the neighbor kid, kick/neuter a swim coach and break wind in Knight Rider's face. I find it troubling that there's an audience for his humor. In Big Daddy he placed sticks on park paths to watch the in-line skaters crash; in Click he allows the neighbor kid to take a baseball in the face. These jokes are coarse and angry, and they come from a guy who's peddling himself as a heroic father. Grow up.

With Click, as with all his other films, Sandler plays the troubled hero, the guy who creates his own conflict if only to resolve it with a fist to some guy's teeth. Here he is Michael Newman, an architect trying to make partner at a prestigious design firm. As the movie begins, affectionately stereotyped Japanese and Arab businessmen request his skills for a building. The jobs allow him to go home and treat his sweet family like garbage: he's late for a swim meet, blabs on the phone during a fireworks display, cancels a camping trip, ignores his children's drawings ... these kinds of dad treatments are so clich?hey can be purchased in bulk at Sam's Club.

The setup for the magic remote control, the central device in the film, is so cheap and ineffective that to introduce it worse would require it to simply appear in the film with no transition whatsoever, as if a reel of the movie were omitted during its assembly. Michael, in a tizzy, can't turn the TV on amid a design break so he heads to Bed, Bath & Beyond to find a universal remote. Never mind the Best Buy he passes because, after all, Bed, Bath & Beyond is where everyone goes to get their electronic devices.

In the store, past the bed and bath nooks, he finds the beyond, where Morty (Christopher Walken) provides him with a universal remote control, a remote that can actually control the universe. Click volume down and the dog's bark is muted. Click fast forward and skip a fight with the misses. Click the menu button and up pops a menu of Michael's life; the commentary track is spoken by James Earl Jones. What he doesn't realize is that the remote is smarter than he thinks and it will remember what he wants to skip through, be it an intimate moment with his wife (Kate Beckinsale), his morning shower, the rush-hour commute, illnesses or the lengthy pining for a promotion. If any of these events begin to happen, the remote kicks in and fast forwards until their done. Before Michael knows it, he's an old man watching his family grow older and further away from him. The film ends in the distant future, when nurses wear blue foam hair and wedding bands resemble the androgynous members of The Cure.

Click is basically It's a Wonderful Life with punching, farting, dog-on-duck intercourse and sex jokes. In it Sandler's Michael learns how important he is in his own life the same way Jimmy Stewart's George Bailey stopped taking his life for granted during the holidays. But Sandler is no Stewart. And I don't think Stewart would have backed over the neighbor's toys with such glee.

Sandler's material is getting worse. The dialogue especially seems to suffer. The children are all given the kind of dialogue that only a grown-up would write: "Dad, are you ever going to finish the tree house? It's been two months." The kid is 5; not only should he care more about the box the TV comes in more than the tree house, but his concept of time should be limited to "today" and "forever." And Sandler's own dialogue is as wooden as his talent.

Surprisingly, though, David Hasselhoff has a rather remarkable role as Michael's boss. It is a sad fate when Hasselhoff outperforms anyone. Or anything -- like rocks or paperclips or spoons. Like Alec Baldwin, Herr Hasselhoff knows how to play up his faults, quirks and misgivings for the betterment of comedy. I want more.

And then there's Walken, the greatest non-actor who's ever lived. I'm convinced Walken could perform at a preschool puppet show and be absolutely riveting. It would be the puppet show to end all puppet shows. In Click he steals every scene. That's typical of any Walken film.

Walken and Hasselhoff aside, I don't recommend this film. It's not that funny, and its central purpose is to give Sandler flex time in front of a camera, to show us how tough he is and to show how his humor is better than everyone else's. His humor is crude and stupid. His jokes contain the kinds of laughs he's repeated again and again in his entire catalog: man gets mad, man punches, man becomes nice and saves the day.

If that's your thing, then tune in. Otherwise, just click right past it.