Adam Sandler as both 'Jack and Jill'

"Jack and Jill" contains long stretches of squirm-inducing tedium in which Adam Sandler riffs and ad-libs far longer than he should, as if he thought that wearing a dress would immediately turn anything he did into comedy gold.

Playing Jack Sadelstein, an L.A. ad exec (and family guy, married to Katie Holmes) dreading the annual holiday visit of his twin sister Jill (also Sandler), the actor is obviously having fun. But the party doesn't include the audience.

The film radiates a smirking, self-satisfied vibe, and Sandler goes so far over-the-top as Jill -- a whiny, needy New Yorker -- that I was gritting my teeth 15 minutes in.

Sandler is a capable actor: He's done good, sometimes surprising work when he's paired with a strong director (Judd Apatow's "Funny People," Paul Thomas Anderson's "Punch-Drunk Love"). But left to his own devices (and paired here with Dennis Dugan, who has directed many of his pictures, from "Happy Gilmore" to "You Don't Mess with the Zohan"), Sandler reverts to his worst, laziest habits. He forgets that what might have been tolerable in a "Saturday Night Live" skit becomes excruciating when stretched to feature-film length.

I might not have been able to make it all the way through "Jack and Jill" if it weren't for a fascinating performance from Al Pacino playing himself as an arrogant, show-off manipulator. He pitches a fit onstage when someone's cellphone goes off during a performance on Broadway and talks to his staff in gibberish to make people think he can speak foreign languages.

Why isn't he as irritating as Sandler? Because in a comedy pitched at such a high volume, even Shouty Al fits right in. Pacino isn't trying to be funny. He plays everything completely straight, and that's what draws your attention.

In "Jack and Jill," though, the biggest joke of all is on you.

PLOT L.A. ad exec dreads his twin sister's holiday visit. RATING PG (mild language)

CAST Adam Sandler, Al Pacino, Katie Holmes, Eugenio Derbez

LENGTH 1:31

PLAYING AT Area theaters

BOTTOM LINE Excruciating (save for Pacino)

Sandler's grossest (at the box office)

Will "Jack and Jill" make this list? Here are Adam Sandler's five best opening box-office grosses.

1. The Longest Yard (2005) $47,606,480

2. Anger Management (2003) $42,220,847

3. Big Daddy (1999) $41,536,370

4. Grown Ups (2010) $40,506,562

5. Click (2006) $40,011,365

Source: boxofficemojo.com