Did you know that one-minute of continuous laughing burns approximately 50 calories?

If you’re the type of person that monitors daily calorie intake, than it is safe to consume almost any item at the theater concession stand this weekend while attending a showing of Adam Sandler’s new romantic comedy, 50 First Dates.

Surprisingly, the film offers much more than predictable humor and will not only make you laugh uncontrollably, but it will also move, inspire and even bring an occasional tear to your eye.

Directed by Peter Segal, and written by George Wing, 50 First Dates is a romantic comedy starring Sandler as Henry Roth, a perfect bachelor willing to give up his life for the woman he loves. That woman happens to be Lucy (Drew Barrymore), a young and vibrant art teacher who suffers from short-term memory loss as a result of a car accident Henry is an Arctic marine life veterinarian with a carefully plotted future. When he’s not looking after sea animals at Sea Life Park in Hawaii, he is breaking the hearts of young beautiful tourists in search of a vacation romance.

Long-term relationships for Henry are out of the question until he lays his eyes on Lucy, who forgets everything that occurred during the course of the previous day when she wakes up the next morning.

The movie becomes exceptionally hilarious when Henry realizes that if he wants to win Lucy’s affection, he’s going to have to start over every day for the rest of his life.

Aside from the humor, the plot transforms into that of determination and inspiration as Henry does the unimaginable for the love of his life.

The acting performances in the film come off very well. Sandler has a natural ability to convince the audience of anything, no matter how ridiculous or outrageous the act might seem. Barrymore’s performance is captivating, realistic and probably the most honest and genuine of any of her recent films.

Rob Schneider plays the role of Ula, Henry’s best friend, who is also a large contributing factor to the film’s overall success.

And Dan Akroyd plays the doctor, reinforcing his stance as a comic genius.

The screenplay and direction is acceptable and can’t be judged too harshly; after all, this is a light-hearted comedy not aiming to become an Academy Award nominee. Wing does a nice job of writing all the funniest attributes of Sandler’s personality into Henry’s character, including an open-chord, guitar freestyle scene.

Perhaps one of the strongest points of 50 First Dates lies in the cinematography. The film was shot on the mountainous beaches of Maui. The director used a combination of wide and variant angle lenses to capture the island’s colossal mountain ranges and awesome cliffs overlooking the ocean.

Although the majority of the film uses standard camera-angled shots and basic camera movement techniques, the locations used in the film make up for any cinema graphical elements that might be missing.

So, if you want to burn some calories this weekend and enjoy the innovative humor of Sandler, then 50 First Dates will give you 50 good reasons to enjoy one hour and 50 minutes of Sandler at his best.