Adam Sandler was an early inspiration for me when it comes to comedy. I had his early films from Billy Madison to The Longest Yard on repeat throughout my childhood to my teens. I loved everything Sandler did, and it was an odd occurrence for me to learn that Sandler's movies were and have always been highly panned by critics. Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Waterboy, The Wedding Singer, Little Nicky and 8 Crazy Nights were all instant classics to me, and to this day still stand as such. I can go back and watch any of them and enjoy them to this day. However, I can't deny I became soured on Sandler's films beginning with Grown Ups.
It was a cross-section of time where Adam was hitting his mid-40s and I was hitting my mid-20s. Sandler was making what he wanted to make like he always had been, but it didn't have the same message or tone his early works did. How could they? Every film Sandler has done somewhat reflects on where he was in life at the time. When making Billy Madison, Sandler's first big film was written and performed by Sandler in 1995 while he was 29. I loved this as a kid but it's undeniably a little juvenile. Which isn't a dig as much as it is an observation. Madison, a young immature rich kid was a perfect role for Sandler at the time. Billy's antics were Sandler's comedic strengths. Outrageous, loud, and intense tomfoolery. Which also worked for Happy Gilmore and Bobby Boucher. And he could play more down-to-earth roles like Robbie Hart, Sonny Kofax and Longfellow Deeds.
But these movies all featured main characters that were young. Finding young love. Coming-of-age stories. Billy Madison and The Waterboy are excellent coming-of-age stories. Billy has to repeat school to learn to be more of a grown-up and when Bobby Boucher learns to stand up for himself and do what he wants and not what his mother wants, he becomes his own man. Little Nicky is similar to these two but he's the son of the devil. The Wedding Singer is a wonderful story about young love and relationships that don't work out the way young couples expect them to. All very youthful stories, explains why I was a big fan growing up. But Adam grew up, and when you are grown up as opposed to growing up, your art takes a different tone, and it as someone who was still very much growing up, didn't work for me.
I wouldn't follow Sandler as closely and would only watch a movie here and there. But recently working with one of my clients as their caregiver, one of their favorite things to do is watch movies, and generally, they like comedy, as it's light and fun to watch most of the time. So we watched a lot of Sandler films, because they are generally light and fun. Even the more recent Netflix ones I generally find to be at least fun. I don't know what a lot of critics expect out of comedy movies. Comedy is way subjective so ultimately ratings should be taken with a grain of salt. One thing Sandler gets accused of is only hiring his friends, and that is supposedly a bad thing. I have thoughts.
After 5 years of performing improv, while it's very fun to play with new people, nothing really beats performing with long-established partners or just close friends. Now I've always hated the sentiment of making movies with your friends being a bad thing. As established I'm a Sandler fan, but I'm also a big Kevin Smith fan. Ben Affleck, Jason Mewes, Jason Lee, Jeff Anderson, Brian O'Halloran, Walt Flanigan, and Bryan Johnson serve as Kevin's version of Sandler's Rob Schneider, David Spade, Steve Buschemi, Allen Covert, Jonathon Loughran, Peter Dante, Blake Clark and Nick Swardson. All people listed here are funny and have played really fun roles in the movies their friend casts them in. Whether they get work outside of their movies is irrelevant as they do a great job when they get the chance. Another argument is that it takes away chances from other actors to work. Which, no it simply does not. This business is a who do you know business, and if they have people they like to work with and they do a good job, they'll get cast. Adam wants to work with his friends, Kevin wants to work with his friends, critics hate them both, which I hope doesn't bother them. It doesn't bother me, I just really dislike the rhetoric that hiring your friends is a bad thing.
As I've found my fandom of Adam Sandler again, and appreciate his latest works more than I have in the past, to see him win a prestigious award, where all of his friends got to roast him and show him tons of love, it was pretty touching. He deserves an award, whether people don't like his movies or for whatever reason, he's worked in comedy for a long time. Seems like a very giving person and a wonderful friend to have. Seeing Idina Menzel sing as Sandler's Operaman character was a delight, and there were so many wonderful stories about him shared. A comedy icon and an early comedy hero of mine. Well deserved sir, congratulations.
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