Whatisan Adam Sandler movie, for that matter?
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How do you reckon with a career aspolarizingas Adam Sandlers?
This split arguably stems from the bang out of movies Sandler chooses to make big, dumb comedies.
Film critics are judging Adam Sandlers movies against every movie; this list is about judging them against themselves.
Hes never had to waver from this approach because of his continued success.
I got into it to make people laugh and have fun with my friends.
Almost all of his serious work has served to subvert and/or complicate his fundamental character types.
This is not a curve.
I ranked Sandlers movies not by which was the best movie (again, whatever that means!)
but by which was the best at being an Adam Sandler movie.
And, as you already know, since you looked before you read this intro,Clickis No.
His sweetness and sensitivity are nowhere to be found in his goofy, charmless performance.
Allen Covert, a college buddy, appears alongside Adam, kicking off a long history of collaboration.
46.The Cobbler(2014)
Adams worst collaboration with an acclaimed director.
Instead, it landed as a tone-deaf slog.
45.Bulletproof(1996)
An opportunity missed.
*
When Damon Wayans hostedSNLin 1994,Sandler suggested they do an action comedy together.
Not too long after, he sent Wayans the script for what would becomeBulletproof.
Still,Bulletproofsuffers from a problem thatll hamper much of Sandlers work: its rating.
As Dickersonis said to have put it: The movie was castrated.
44.Pixels(2015)
At some point, you get too old to play a man-child.
A couple years ago, I wrote about howthere is an ideal age for a comedians persona.
Beginning withBilly Madison, Sandler hadbeen in aGroundhog Daylike cycle of playing versions of the same man-child.
); Sandler was too much of a regular guy to be seen as collegiate.
Sandlers movies depend on you caring about his character because theyre played by your pal Adam Sandler.
Its probably no mistake he hasnt done one like it since.
At least Chris Rock is pretty funny in it.
In almost all of these movies, he and his love interest fall for each other immediately.
Just Go With Itis the opposite.
Adam Sandler plays a successful plastic surgeon and Jennifer Aniston his assistant.
If you dont like Adam Sandler,Mr.
Deedsis a more watchable movie than many of the films ranked above it.
Thats because there is so little Adam Sandler in it.
If anything, hes incredibly skeptical but accepting of it.
That changed when Sandler gained clout: Covert has a huge part inMr.
This phenomenon also feeds into his perceived laziness.
To be clear, this also isnt good, but it is more specific than that hes lazy.
Thats just not the case withMr.
40.I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry(2007)
An offensive portrayal of straight people.
Now that thats out of the way: This movie sucks, and Sandler sucks in it.
Its just a bummer.
Same for the use of tired gay stereotypes.
God, this movie.
Its like ifBlack Mirrorwas written by your grandfather.
I wish director Jason Reitman had just released a short film of their 20 minutes.
Specifically, the film includes two of the best dramatic scenes of Sandler career.
The first is his first interaction with a sex worker.
And you could tell.
In a painfully obvious film, Sandler was able to convey something more complicated.
38.Airheads(1994)
The first time Sandlers charm found its way to the big screen.
Airheadsis a watchable movie.
Ostensibly a comedy, though not really funny, its a perfect movie to watch on cable.
Peter Travers,in his review of the film, called Sandler a red-hot screen find.
Bedtime Storiesis Sandlers one and only live-action foray in PG.
Its a surprising fact.
And there are moments inBedtimes Storieswhere Sandler does seem like a natural.
I was kind of scared of it,he told Coming Soon.
I had to just create a guy, and I wasnt sure I could do it.
I was pretty sure onPunch Drunk LoveI could do it.
This movie, every time Mike [Binder] would tell me, Hey, you might do it.
I hope I can do it.
I sure want to.
I dont want to let you down.
The result was mixed.
(Not to mention its another failed attempt at a New Yawk accent.)
Still, the problems in Sandlers performance seem ultimately the fault of the uneven script.
It was a noble failure.
35.Spaceman
Experimenting demands failure.
Sandler fails inSpacemanin a similar way as he does inReign Over Me.
Its not all Sandlers fault, as some blame goes to the director who cast him.
Sandler was aware that he was maybe not the most natural fit for the part.
My instincts not very quiet.
In real life, Im pretty jumpy I get going quick.
Things get me heated quite quick,he told Polygon.
Considering how little I thought the film worked, why is it so relatively high on the list?
Thirty years into his career, Sandler is in a full experimental phase as an actor.
In the miss, you really can appreciate how big Sandler is trying to swing in 2024.
The problem withGrown Upsis that it was too ambitious.
Excluding a two-hander here and there, Sandler mostly made solo-protagonist movies up until this point.
(Why, yes, itdoespass the Bechdel test; a surprising number of Sandlers films do.)
It seems they might have succeeded in that goal but failed to convey that joy onscreen.
It would take him a few more at-bats before hereallynailed his version of big-cast movie.
33.The Ridiculous 6(2015)
Watch.
If that person puts onThe Ridiculous 6, they will have a nice time.
Its essentially if the fart scene fromBlazing Saddleswas an entire movie, and its kinda really funny at times.
In that regard, there was a real missed opportunity in how the film treated its Native American characters.
Ultimately, the jokes dont feel like they pointed at the stereotypes as much as they utilized them.
Ethnic humor has been a fixture of the lowbrow for decades, if not centuries.
32.Thats My Boy(2014)
The Sandman gets dirty again.
Still, when Sandler fans discussTMB, its about how it represented a return to dirty, dirty form.
After watching all of Sandlers films, the PG-13-ness of them becomes frustrating.
In that aspect,Thats My Boy(whichoriginally received an NC-17) feels a bit more swashbuckling.
This is the further.
At one point, Sandler gives one of his own fingers a blow job.
Then he brings another one of his fingers into the action and givesita blow job.
And he trades back and forth, making some realistic and unrealistic noises.
It is very funny andreallyfeels like the Adam Sandler who made all those early albums.
The problem is this movie is very confusing.
The other major problem is David Spade is horribly miscast as an ineffectual dweeb.
30.Blended(2014)
One of the most and least mature of Sandlers movies.
Upon rewatching, however, Im even more impressed.
This isnt just a mature storyline for a Sandler movie but for any mainstream comedy.
This maturity, however, is surrounded by some of the absolute worst jokes in any Adam Sandler movie.
Worse yet is the portrayal of the Africans, which multiple critics compared to minstrel shows.
29.Murder Mystery(2019)
Aniston and Sandler find a winning, natural chemistry.
If anything,Murder Mysteryshows Sandler taking Anistons performance lead.
Bring onMurder Mystery 2!
In that, its fine.
Rarely has Sandler felt this in the pocket with quips and zingers.
You miss the tension.
When he farts in someones face onscreen, as he does in this lists No.
So, it goes.
You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a Hollywood elder statesman.
At 56, nearly 40 years into comedy, Sandler has done it.
This is how he won.
27.Little Nicky(2000)
Ahead-of-its-time movie and not always in a good way.
By 2000, Adam Sandler was on a roll.Billy MadisonbegatHappy Gilmore.
From there he stepped it up, made some more money withWedding Singer.
What did he use his newfound comedy superstardom to do?
It was a bomb the likes of which he wouldnt see again for another 12 years.
Again, thats a positive: Sandler is good at being annoying!
26.Spanglish(2004)
Sandler is tremendous in an important role in his evolution.
If it was before that, Frank Capra wouldve hunted him down and got him.
These movies offer a unique perspective into Sandler as an actor; you see how the director sees him.
Its like a painter knows they need a certain sort of yellow.
As Brooks mentions in the quote above, in this movie it was Sandlers sensitivity he needed.
The movie sometimes flips and flops with its seriocomic tone, but Sandler seems locked in when others arent.
He plays the sort of guy all his characters are trying to be one day.
He has grown up.
He has a successful career but also a close relationship to his family.
He is overly sensitive but not anti-social.
25.Hustle(2022)
A tribute to his favorite sport foretells a potential middlebrow pivot.
The best example of this cultural shift is the legend of Sandler as a pickup-basketball player.
In those games, hes not Adam Sandler, but hes notnotAdam Sandler either.
Occasionally, highlights make their way online, showing the Sandman as a willing and gifted passer.
In basketball, as in comedy, Sandler just wants to see others score.
Hustlefeels like an outgrowth of those warm feelings.
Though he gets a couple good screams and moments of pathos, his achievement is tonal.
The result is pretty good.
Its a very watchable movie, especially if youre interested in basketball.
This isnt a crime.
What is most notable is thatHustleis a Happy Madison production.
Sandler plays a failing-to-self-actualize father who is being held back by bullies.
If so, I suggest you check out theJack and Jillentry below.
24.Jack and Jill(2011)
A dumb movie that knows its dumb.
I get it in principle.
Whatever bad taste is, its this.
There are cheap laughs, sure, but there are intentional laughs.
We are gods with anuses, wrote Ernest Becker in the Pulitzer PrizewinningDenial of Death.
Take this cut from his second album,What the Hell Happened to Me?
It really is a very stupid movie.
More often than not, they dont see one.
Id be like, You have to watch this!
and my friends or parents would be like, I dont know.
It just seems stupid.
I would always say, Yeah, but they know its stupid.
Theyre choosing to be stupid from a place of intelligence, and therefore that is making me happy.
Im aware that we are only halfway through and Im spending this much time onJack and Jill.
This is the longest entry in the whole dang thing.
BecauseJack and Jillis the reason I made this list.
You know, working on this thing, I found myself having a lot of conversations about Adam Sandler.
Some people were curious, wanting know what late-era films they skipped that they actually should watch.
Others we simply incredulous.
More people than I expected just found Adam Sandlers career confusing.
Here, in the entry forJack and Jill, Ill make a run at answer that question directly.
My feeling is this question is based on a few incorrect assumptions.
As hard as it may seem to people, Adam Sandlerlikeshis own movies.
Thats why he made them.
Of course, withUncut Gemsgaining award buzz, the question again appears.
I found the result really powerful.
Which Sandler responded in the way he is in interviews: understated, humble, apprehensive.
How the hell is that supposed to happen?
I mean, these guys are incredible.
Sandler doesnt need critics for anything.
He doesnt care about his reviews.
But what you see in this clip is a person, like many artists, dying to be understood.
Again, its not about the money; its about the people, and specifically people laughing.
More people saw and laughed atJack and JillthanPunch-Drunk Love.Jack and Jillwas a success.
The result has been, asBlank Checkput it perfectly, an arm wrestle for auteurship.
Whatever power struggle may have happened behind the scenes, the product was not infected with any bad vibes.
However, much of the comedy comes from the animation rather than scripted jokes and vocal performances.
and isby farthe most all over the place.
Yet, it somehow works.
It just has everything.
Its madcap and weird and all around a freaking blast.
Its full of really strong, really funny bits and silly non sequiturs.
For nearly 25 years, there was a certain expectation of Adam Sandlers career.
But what happens when the Sandman doesnt make movies like that anymore?
He had something to prove, comedically.
Nearly 30 years and multiple lifetime-achievement awards in, he clearly no longer does.
Instead, he suggests he likes discovering new challenges, likeUncut Gems.
You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvahexplores these themes more deeply.
I never would have thought of that joke or that approach.
In early 2020, comedy writer and podcasterTom Scharpling posted online a script for a thirdGrown Upsmovie.
No one asked him to do it.
He just thought the idea was too good not to write.
Im happy he did.
Its brilliant and subversive and funny, while still keeping very much to the tone of Sandlers movies.
Its almost as if afterUncut Gems, he wanted to give his fans the least stressful movie he could.
Thats because of the screams.
Screaming is his top comedic superpower.
And Sandler screams a freaking ton inHubie Halloween.
Heres the interesting part, though its never in anger.
And yet, despite all of this, Hubie remains the least angry character Sandler has ever played.
Hubie is just nice and good.
He sees a kid dressed as a zombie and screams.
He sees an inflatable vampire out his windows, he screams and breaks the window with his trusty thermos.
Its pretty ingenious and, in my estimation, works every time.
Its also just really sweet.
This is where it gets interesting, maybe.
[Affixes tin foil hat.
Now Sandler just wants people to be kind.
Doesnt that seem like a political allegory when I explain it!?
Sandler has never felt less antagonistic.
17.Anger Management(2003)
A perfect setup for one of the funniest movies in the canon.
Adam Sandlers most problematic fave.
And Nicholson, with his perfect late-career IDGAF attitude and body, is the perfect bear poker.
Will Adam Sandler win an Oscar one day?
WatchingThe Meyerowitz Stories, it sure seems possible.
Thats not something Id say about any other of the male comedy superstars of his generation.
The result will be a lot like hisThe Meyerowitz Storiesrole.
For Baumbach, it was a no-brainer.
I dont feel any relationship to that debate [of whether hes a good actor],Baumbach toldNewsweek.
Ive always really liked him.
It was clear to me how good he is.
When you sit down with him and meet the guy, theres such a depth of sensitivity.
Its the part that erased the question of whether his other serious turns were flukes.
Adam Sandler is a good actor.
15.Grown Ups 2(2013)
Just friends hanging out; exactly as imagined.
Its probably a similar perspective that landed it at No.
5,268 onVultures ranking of every movie of the 2010s.
This will give you an example:
Adam Sandler movies are often escapist.
He creates movies where you wish you were Sandler getting to make the movie in the first place.
There isnt much cinematic value to it, but it is fun to imagine being invited to it.
In that regard, the film is a tremendous success.
Because its traditionally a medium for kids, animation allows for a certain amount of directness.
Its the pit they climb out of over the course of every movie.
), as it gives his movies depth.
Its a point Id quibble with, but either way, that sentimentality feels appropriate in this context.
Rewatching the films in order, it was the first to make me cry.
13.YouDont Mess With the Zohan(2008)
Sandler finds some of his best comedy in specificity.
Sandler represents an interesting point in Jewish representation in film and the assimilation of Jews into mainstream American society.
You Dont Mess With the Zohanis radical by contrast.
A disclaimer: The film was originally written in 2000 and delayed after 9/11.
Though far from dogmatic, the overall politics dont hold up great.
But again, Sandlers comedy isnt malicious as much as misguided in its representation.
Well, maybe not evil but at least cynical where he would normally be idealistic.
Most important, it is his first drama to intentionally lean into Sandlers taste for playing annoying people.
And, fuck, Sandler is so good at all of it.
Besides being his best character performance, Sandler has never seemed more natural in a role.
Im feeling like this guy, he told Pitt.
I really did my back story.
I worked hard at this character, knowing the way he thinks and where he goes.
I knew the guy.
Though similar to my perspective of Sandler the dreamer, the self-actualizer, it reads a bit more cynical.
11.Sandy Wexler(2017)
A very sweet tribute to getting to make entertainment with your friends.
Sandler is a very loyal guy to his friends (Kevin Nealon).
I have enormous, enormous affection for him (the producer Scott Rudin).
Such a menschy, sweet person (Judd Apatow).
Really down to earth (Nick Swardson).
Hes a great guy (Spade).
I love, love, love him!
(Paul Thomas Anderson).
He really cares about people (Kevin James).
Very generous with his own praise and support (Robert Smigel).
Hes very loyal (Herlihy).
Incredibly loyal and nice (Conan OBrien).
His level of loyalty is unparalleled (Netflixs chief content officer, Ted Sarandos).
If he goes somewhere, Ill go with him, no matter where (Schneider).
Anything for Adam (Barrymore).
But Id argue, as will always be with Sandler, he is understating it.
Having fun with friends his loyalty to them is one of the main creative drives of his career.
(Terry Crews is particularly funny as a professional wrestler who rocks his opponents to sleep.)
The result is the sweetest movie of Sandlers career.
If hes making movies to make people laugh and have fun with his friends,Sandy Wexlersucceeds at both.
Barrymore is especially winning playing a character who falls in love 50 times in the same movie.
Sandler, possibly because his parents remained together, approaches this from a much more traditionalist point of view.
Love is no longer a thing you work toward but something you work at.
Its not a noun, its a verb.
Sure, it sounds cheesy, but Adam Sandler is cheesy.
9.Happy Gilmore(1996)
Sandlers angry clown on full display.
There is, however, more to it.
Every fancy director whos worked with Sandler will point to this as why the decided to work with him.
Its not a sensitivity in conflict with his rage, but at the core of it.
Its how the movie tries to explain the arrested development he plays so well.
But it also deepens him.
Sandlers characters act out owing to a tremendous need to be loved, appreciated, understood.
Sandler became a better actorrightafterHappy Gilmore.
He just needed a movie where he could get it all out.
And thats why its here on the list.
What Sandler got instead was the chance to work with a director who really knows him.
Apatow justknewwhat Sandler could do, and the result is one of the richest performances of his career.
What performance?,critics might respond, suggesting the Sandman was just playing himself.
The irony being that that very feeling is proof of how good Sandler is in this movie.
Yes, there was a degree of self-awareness here, but of a different sort.
Anyway, the point is they are different.
He seems more vulnerable, more present, more connected.
I havent talked that filthy in front of people,he said in an interview.
Sandlers characters end movies better than they started, even if its only a little bit.
7.The Week Of(2018)
Sandler masters Dad-Adam in one of his most ambitious pictures.
In reality, theyve clearly been a creative reinvigoration just when he needed it.
However, apparently another legendary director was the touchstone.
That word alone out of Adams mouth verite.
The whole thing is shot handheld, for Gods sake!
In many ways,The Week Ofis a fully formed vision of late-career Sandler.
Sandler has slowly but ever increasingly moved from playing to man-children to dads.
Not dad-children; just dads.
Dads that are equal parts sweet and heavyhearted.
It came together slowly Big DaddybegatSpanglishbegatClick and dramatically peaked withThe Meyerowitz Stories.And all of this went intoThe Week Of.
Similarly, how his movies are produced reflect the themes of the movies themselves.
Also, as theTimesprofile noted, he created a schedule to take and pick up his children from school.
6.The Waterboy(1998)
Adam Sandler at his funniest.
After that,Wedding Singergrossed $80.2 million.
But then,The Waterboygrossed … $161.5 million!
Which is a lot!
When you account for ticket inflation, it is still Sandlers biggest movie.
Hell have more dynamic performances to come, but he was never funnier.
5.Big Daddy(1999)
Adams sensitive side breaks through.
Thats when I really thought,I have to find this person.
I have to work with this person.
WhyBig Daddyworks so well is because that outside force is an actual child.
In that way,Big Daddypredicted the parts Sandler would go on to play later in his career.
4.Billy Madison(1995)
Sandler tries to show his generation how to grow up.
Adam Sandler famously didnt really do interviews for decades.
That assumption was then confirmed to him by the reviews forHappy Gilmoreand almost all of his subsequent movies.
Billy Madisonthey slammed, and I didnt expect it, he tells Patrick.
The thing is, thats most of Sandlers movies.
Billy Madisonwas the first of these movies and its purest distillation.
His exuberance was infectious, and still is all these years later.
You know the lines: Conditioner is better.
Stop looking at me, swan.
3.Punch-Drunk Love(2002)
An auteurs beautiful tribute to Adam Sandler movies.
Around the release ofPDL,Paul Thomas Anderson and Adam Sandler went onCharlie Rose.
Rose asked PTA what inspired the film.
This is not to say you could see Sandler acting.
His sweetness became more shy.
His temper, while still funny, became a bit more scary.
His self-loathing became full-on clinical depression.
In total, you get to see Sandler figure out how to become a much more internal actor.
I, especially after watching his films in order, see it a bit differently.
Its allowed him to continue to both sharpen and add nuance to the picture of who this archetype is.
These other films dont get into the depth of his loneliness and depression, but its there.
Have you watchedThe OA?
Thats what Adam Sandler does.
2.The Wedding Singer(1998)
Adam finds his equal and a more mature version of himself.
You are both children, he said in his signature deadpan.
You are both ageless, so you seem like a little boy and she seems like a little girl.
I wouldnt say the phrasing is ideal, but it is insightful.
Sandler and Barrymore share a similar childlike innocence that can be very useful for this particular genre.
Its exciting to see people who just dive in wholeheartedly, free of neurosis.
Ironically, this was Sandlers most mature work to date, if not ever.
And its incredible how good he is in this.
Its our first glimpse of him as an actual actor.
Hes particularly good at being present with Barrymore and having the story play on his face.
It helps, of course, that Barrymore is great and is given a ton to do.
Its the only other movie I considered to top this list.
When you watch those three breakout films in a row,Wedding Singerfeels like the fully evolved form.
Even the way the character grows up feels more complicated, more subtle.
But it still didnt feel right to put it at No.
Of course, I was excited.
This was an Adam Sandler movie!
You watch every Adam Sandler movie and there is a clear value system.
AndWedding Singer, when judged by that measurement, comes up a tiny bit short.
There arent the same amount of dumb jokes and, even when they happen, they arent as dumb.
And a subtle lesson about what it means to be a grown up?
Sandler movies are about a clear takeaway.
These things are not one in the same.
The latter would suggest a universal idea of what is good and bad.
The former is about treating Adam Sandler Movie as a sort of genre onto itself.
Adam Sandler movies tell you how youre supposed to watch them, if you so choose.
That movie … is …Click.
Youre getting it all.
Youre getting a high concept, escapist premise with a neat heros journey arc.
(Rob Schneider is also in it, doing what he does in these movies.)
The moments between Sandler and Henry Winkler and Julie Kavner as his parents is genuinely lovely and poignant.
Youre also getting Sandler at his absolute saddest in a Happy Madison movie.
I dont like that.
Im glad when its over.
But Id rather go to work and fart in Hasselhoffs face.
There are a couple ways to interpret this quote.
I read it as him saying that he wants to ensure he enjoys making movies.
MakingClick, Sandler learned the lesson his character does for better or worse.
I love that one, Sandler responds.
I dont know if Siskel and Ebert would put it up there, but I love it.
Well, I put it up there not that Id expect Sandler to care.
Thats not why he got into making movies.
*An earlier version of this article misstated that Bulletproof was PG-13.
It was released as a Rated R movie but edited down before its release.
