How do you reckon with a career as polarizing as Adam Sandler’s? If you account for inflation, the 53-year-old zhlubbyman comic actor has starred in 18 movies that have each grossed more than $100 million worldwide, beginning in 1995 with Billy Madison. That’s more than Ben Stiller; more than Jim Carrey; more than Will Smith; more than Tom Cruise.
In the same time period, only two movies that he’s starred in and produced have received higher than a 50 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes — Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer (though both are inflated by extremely positive DVD reviews). Sandler, who in 2019 marks 30 years of making movies, has 11 Razzie nominations for Worst Actor and 11 acting nominations from the People’s Choice Awards. It’s the dichotomy that has followed Sandler is whole career:
The critics hate him, but audiences love him.How do you reckon with a career as polarizing as Adam Sandler’s? If you account for inflation, the 53-year-old zhlubbyman comic actor has starred in 18 movies that have each grossed more than $100 million worldwide, beginning in 1995 with Billy Madison. That’s more than Ben Stiller; more than Jim Carrey; more than Will Smith; more than Tom Cruise. In the same time period, only two movies that he’s starred in and produced have received higher than a 50 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes — Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer (though both are inflated by extremely positive DVD reviews). Sandler, who in 2019 marks 30 years of making movies, has 11 Razzie nominations for Worst Actor and 11 acting nominations from the People’s Choice Awards. It’s the dichotomy that has followed Sandler is whole career: The critics hate him, but audiences love him.
This split arguably stems from the type of movies Sandler chooses to make — big dumb comedies. Film critics are in the business of being (and seeming) smart, and that is at odds with Sandler’s intent as a filmmaker. That disconnect isn’t unique to Sandler — from the Three Stooges to Jerry Lewis to Mel Brooks to Jim Carrey (save Liar Liar, oddly enough) to MacGruber, there’s been a lot of great comedic work beloved by many but not by reviewers at the time of release. The difference is that when Sandler makes (as in, stars in and produces) a movie, it’s exclusively big and dumb. Though I clearly disagree with the critical consensus on specific movies, I wouldn’t say they are constantly wrong. (I also wouldn’t say the popular opinion is constantly right; this is not a list in order of box-office gross.) Film critics are judging Adam Sandler’s movies against every movie; this list is about judging against themselves.
The thing I ultimately came back to when approaching this list is that Sandler has had an unprecedented amount of control over the movies he has made. Excluding some early work and the straight acting gigs with more serious directors, Sandler has written or rewritten essentially every movie he’s been in (though he often doesn’t take a writing credit) and served as an executive producer on all of them since The Waterboy.
Since The Wedding Singer, he’s hand-picked the directors (and often, according to an interview with Norm Macdonald, essentially co-directed). He’s worked with the same few guys over and over — Frank Coraci, Steven Brill, and Dennis Dugan have combined to direct 17 Sandler films — and he’s famously, and increasingly over time, filled the cast with friends and past collaborators. He’s never had to waver from this approach because of his continued success.
And right when it seemed like things were taking a dip, with four sub–$100 million grossers in five years, between 2011 and 2015, he signed a four-picture deal with Netflix that turned into an eight-picture deal that let him continue with even more freedom. As a result, when he does appear in other people’s movies, it’s not part of an attempt to raise his status in Hollywood, since he already gets to do whatever he wants. It’s driven by a desire to push himself, to try something new, to make new friends, to never stop working.
SOURCE : Vulture.com
