Before telling you what you already know... how awful The Ridiculous 6 is... I want to take an intimate look at Adam Sandler's career and just where it started to devolve, go backwards, and become a household name synonymous with that brush you keep behind your toilet for the hard to reach messes. He began on Saturday Night Live and while he was an acquired taste and his humor was a bit juvenile, you had to admit there was something uniquely funny about him. Others didn't seem to latch on (Phil Hartman actually left the show because he thought Sandler would bring about the downfall of SNL). His first big starring role was Billy Madison. While it's never going to be remembered as one of the comedy greats, those of us that grew up in the 90s know it to have some pretty funny parts. Then came Happy Gilmore, arguably Sandler's best movie he's ever (and will ever) made. In it was a perfect fish-out-of-water story that was equal parts smart and hilarious. Next came The Wedding Singer and it appeared our little immature (yet hilarious) idiot was starting to grow up and mature. There was no shit jokes, no fart jokes, hell, I don't even know if there was even a dick joke. It was a great romantic comedy and the humor holds up today. After that was The Waterboy, an extension of one of Sandler's SNL characters 'Canteen Boy', which should not have worked as a full-length movie, but somehow it did. It combined Sandler's slapstick humor with odd characters that just worked.
Following that was one of his other greats-- Big Daddy. This was definitely the sign that Sandler was a huge box office star, here to stay, and was certainly maturing as a comedic actor. Hell, the message of that damn movie was that you have to grow up sometime. Moving on, Little Nicky was a bit of a miss, but there's still more funny scenes than not funny scenes in the movie. After that, there was a bit of a lull with Mr. Deeds. It wasn't a good movie... not because it was so stupid and imbecilic and childish that no human could stomach it... but because it just wasn't funny. It was a little bit more serious (shocking, I know, but re-watch it and you'll see). But, then came two back-to-back hits (that were both very funny) with Anger Management and 50 First Dates. This is what we all assumed Sandler movies would become. He's grown up... he's doing adult films with more mature humor, but with those weird characters that would pop up as cameos or bit parts and say weird things but wouldn't detract from the overall comedy of the film. From there... well... it's a de-evolution... as big as one I've ever seen.
Spanglish was decent, but forgettable. The Longest Yard was a very funny film, but it was universally disliked by most people. Click was tonally off and missed the mark. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry was funny to Sandler fans, but was definitely not a mainstream comedy. And this is where I think Sandler really took steps backward. Up until Chuck and Larry, bodily humor wasn't really part of the Sandler shtick. But, it's almost as though Sandler realized his movies were getting a little too serious, he had to act more like a gross five year old, instead of an aging man. So, after that came Bedtime Stories (you can't hate on... it was for kids... but it was horrible). You Don't Mess With The Zohan, I personally thought was funny (probably because it was co-written by Judd Apatow), but there is still a scene where Adam Sandler catches a tossed fish with his bare ass. Funny People was a nice break, but doesn't count as a Sandler film because it was all Apatow. Until finally, Sandler just said fuck it with anything resembling comedy with his latest string of comedies such as Jack and Jill, That's My Boy, Grown Ups, Grown Ups 2, Blended, Pixels, and finally The Ridiculous 6. It's as if Sandler took the quirky weird homeless guy who bathed in the lake in Happy Gilmore, hit him a few times in the head with a hammer, and made every movie about that guy in different situations. And it's sad, because Sandler hasn't grown up, he's devolving further and further with each film.
Now, that isn't to say that he still hasn't come out with a few good films in the past few years. He has. But, these aren't Sandler-crew films. These are films by directors who have cast Sandler in their movies to which he's given great performances. Punch Drunk Love, Reign Over Me, Men Women & Children, and The Cobbler were all very enjoyable movies, but not really comedies any of them. When someone outside of the Sandler crew directs Sandler in a movie, it's decent. But, when it's him and his buddies sitting around a campfire farting and laughing hysterically because that's what amounts to a joke to them these days... it's difficult to stomach.
So, it's no surprise that The Ridiculous 6 is a shitbox of a film. I watched it for free on Netflix and I still feel like I was robbed of money. I walked into my bathroom and dropped a 20 in the toilet because that's what I deserve for watching it. Only Adam Sandler could waste a movie that has in it (I shit you not): Terry Crews, Jorge Garcia, Taylor Lautner, Rob Schneider, Luke Wilson, Will Forte, Steve Zahn, Harvey Keitel, Nick Nolte, Jon Lovitz, Whitney Cummings, David Spade, Danny Trejo, Nick Swardson, Vanilla Ice, John Turturro, Chris Parnell, Norm MacDonald, Chris Kattan, and Steve Buscemi. Literally every single one of these people are in this movie and not one of them made me laugh. The movie was legitimately as funny as a donkey with exploding shits-- which is actually in the movie. A donkey explodes shit everywhere... inexplicably... more than once. Sincerely, when was the last time shit humor was actually funny? When???
Here's the thing, though... I still really like Adam Sandler. I have no idea why. It might be the 12 year old in me watching Happy Gilmore for the 85th time that wants the guy to succeed. He's supposedly the nicest human being in Hollywood, and he loves doing movies with his friends. I mean, the dude keeps Rob Schneider employed... that's kinder than what most charities do. And, yes, each movie he does looks like everyone in it is having a blast and it's probably the most fun you can have on a set. I'm sure they make each other laugh so hard their sides hurt. But, it doesn't translate to the viewer. With each fleeting film, Sandler is ostracizing another group of audience that dies a little inside seeing each failure after another.
I watched three Adam Sandler movies this year: The Cobbler, Pixels and The Ridiculous 6. The Cobbler was a quiet little film that's pretty adorable, good for a chuckle or two and completely harmless. Pixels was like finding a ball of wet, hair mold in behind the sink in your kitchen, grabbing it, and having sex with it for hours. The Ridiculous 6 was pretty bad... but honestly not as bad as Pixels. Ridiculous 6 was just a misfire on all cylinders. Sometimes a movie will fail just because it doesn't live up to expectations. But when your expectations are at the lowest it could possibly be, and a film is still below that... that's when it's time to reevaluate your humor and start making movies for people today... not just yourself.
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