At some point next year, our screens will once again be graced by the comedic genius of Adam Sandler – man of many hats (and cringey movies). We don’t have a lot of details yet about what the Halloween-themed film will entail, but we do know who will be starring in it, and based on Sandler’s track record, that there’ll be at least five poop and/or penis quips.
The impressive cast list includes Julie Bowen, Ray Liotta, and Sandler familiars Steve Buscemi and Rob Schneider. And come on Maya Rudolph, you’re better than this! Then again, given how most of Adam Sandler’s comedies have made massive bank, there’s probably not a tonne of actors out there whose self-respect could compete with that paycheck. Even little Noah Schnapp of Stranger Things fame is the latest victim of the Sandler steamroller, and I can only begin to imagine what hijinks may be scripted for such an innocent-looking child actor.
Naturally, though, it wouldn’t be an Adam Sandler comedy at this point without Kevin James as his co-star. They’re like yin and yang, they complete each other. Only they’re not exactly opposites, so maybe this is more of a peanut butter and jam situation. Kevin James has credits on 10 of Sandler’s movies, a partnership so infamous that it was even goofed about during a Sandler cameo in Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Name a more iconic duo?
The thing about Adam Sandler is that his name never used to elicit a groan from your coworkers when mentioned aloud. Films like Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison still have their fair share of fart noises and general childishness, but the goofball slapstick felt fun and fresh to 90s audiences. Don’t worry, critics still absolutely dunked on the earlier films, but they prevailed and emerged as cult classics in spite of all the hit pieces. It didn’t yet feel like a social crime to switch off your brain and switch on The Wedding Singer.
But at this point we’re all a little exhausted. The worst part is that we know that Sandler is capable of great things! He’s taken on some critically acclaimed roles in indie, arthouse films, like Punch-Drunk Love or more recently The Meyerowitz Stories, and his role in the upcoming Safdie brothers production Uncut Gems is highly anticipated. On the flipside, you’ve probably never heard of any of those, because it’s movies like the Grown Ups franchise that have commercial success. Are we really giving Adam Sandler any incentive to branch out from his character comfort zone?
Because even though we moan and whinge about movies like Click or Pixels – for real, that scene implying that Josh Gad had sex with Q*bert still haunts me – we seem to secretly love them. They’re like the shame-eating of cinema. What else are you going to watch on a long-haul flight to drown out the sounds of a screaming child four rows down? When we spend our slow Sunday afternoons mindlessly guffawing at Kevin James segwaying around a shopping centre stopping bad guys, what message are we sending to the Hollywood executives?
Maybe we should be open-minded about this new holiday flick. His most recent work, Murder Mystery went gangbusters on Netflix, and was basically given a ‘Most Improved’ medal by the critics, so perhaps this is a sign that Sandler is changing things up. And if all else fails, you still know it’s going to be a bit of stupid fun to laugh at with your friends. What could go wrong?