Think of the great “Saturday Night Live” alums and you’ll quickly recall Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Eddie Murphy and maybe even Will Ferrell if you worship at the altar of Ron Burgundy.
But what about Adam Sandler?
The comic actor’s career keeps chugging along, witness his latest comedy, “Grown Ups,” opening today.
I explore the comic actor’s longevity over at Box Office Magazine.
Personally, I’m still not on board with Sandler Nation.
I interviewed Sandler in the mid-90s when he performed at my college, Radford University. He was humble and warm, although his career had yet to truly explode.
Since then, he’s established himself as a bankable movie star able to bring the raunch (“Happy Madison”) as well as the nostalgia (“The Wedding Singer”).
But while I’ve enoyed Sandler’s pairings with Drew Barrymore, his brand of humor leaves me cold.
The Sandler Method involves plenty of mindless slapstick combined with a man-child fury I find off-putting.
What’s worse, the gags in his movies are typically lazy, rarely developing complex scenarios to amuse us.
That’s exasperating because Sandler has a small comic army at his disposal, what with his “SNL” connections and a team of repertory players including the affable Rob Schneider.
Watching a Sandler comedy always makes me wonder how much time it took to bang out the screenplay.
I can’t help but root for a comedian who appears to stay humble despite his fame, someone who rarely puts his foot in his mouth and is never tied to embarrassing tabloid stories.
Now, I wish he would hunker down and make a comedy worth his fame.
NOTE: WWTW was unable to screen “Grown Ups” and won’t be posting a review this weekend.
(Photo: Salma Hayek and Adam Sandler star in “Grown Ups,” a new comedy about five childhood friends who reunite to mourn their old basketball coach. Columbia Pictures)
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
His best comedy was probably 50 First Dates, because (a) it had an actual plot rather than the typical series of lazy gags and semi-funny one-liners, and (b) it took an interesting premise and actually did something with it.
Like alot of comedians, he usually plays some version of himself, which gets old really quickly. Although he did stretch somewhat with Punch Drunk Love, with surprising success. He needs to start showing us something new in his films, and soon.
I admire him for stretching – I just wish I found him funnier and he took greater advantage of his power/clout to make wittier movies.
And, yeah, “50 First Dates” turned out to be surprisingly good. A real shocker.