The Parent Trap remake (1998) was a transitional film, but Blended (2014) with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore is a fascinating, if flawed, case study. The film throws two fractured families together on an African safari vacation. It revels in the micro-aggressions of step-sibling rivalry: who gets the marshmallows, who controls the TV remote, the horror of sharing a bathroom. While critically maligned for its broad strokes, Blended correctly identifies that stepfamilies spend 90% of their time arguing about things , not feelings.