The Adam Sandler Mystique

Roger Ebert a few hours ago tweeted a link to an article in the LA Times that states that this weekend, Adam Sandler's newest movie Just Go With It reached $100 million at the box office, his twelfth film to do so--further cementing Sandler's status, in Ebert's words, as Hollywood's most "dependably bankable star." By comparison, some of Sandler's contemporaries such as Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, and Eddie Murphy have to date each featured in movies numbering only in the single digits that have reached the $100M milestone. According to the Times, Sandler is lapping some of these guys--Ferrell, for example, who you may recall having seen in what seemed like quite a number of ubiquitous comic blockbusters over the past decade, has in fact just five $100M+ movies to Sandler's twelve.  Twelve. The race isn't even close. Ferrell seems to be fading away; most would probably agree that Murphy, Shrek cheques aside, has been done for quite some time; Stiller looked tired and spent in the abominable Meet The Fockers; ditto Wilson in the unfortunate Hall Pass; and Vaughn has been lying low--front row tickets at Chicago Blackhawks playoff games notwithstanding (or The Dilemma, which I had thought was upcoming but just found out actually opened back in January--touche). I remember being in my early teens going to see Billy Madison at the movie theatre; nearly twenty years have now passed and Adam Sandler is still cranking them out and raking it in with the same shtick he has used since I was young.

Financial implications aside, there is clearly something about Adam Sandler that makes him such a perennial draw. But who can explain the Sandler phenomenon? It seems popular to divide his work into two categories: one comprising his sillier, more mainstream fare (Madison, Grown-Ups, Mr. Deeds, etc) and the other his more 'artsy' features (Punch Drunk Love, Reign Over Me, Spanglish, etc). His 'artsy' films are generally not as lucrative, but as in the case of Punch Drunk Love or the more recent Funny People nevertheless proof that Sandler a) in fact has a decent dramatic sensibility and b) is endeavouring produce a counterbalance to the cash-grabbing fluff he fires off. Funny People in particular did a great job of giving Sandler a more introspective role as well as acknowledging, reflexively, the kind of shallow tripe he generally resorts to--via several self-parodying spoofs of said shallow tripe. But don't get me wrong: I often have a soft spot for the shallow tripe. And consistently, too--I've variously enjoyed Sandler's goof-off pictures, from Happy Gilmore to The Waterboy to Big Daddy to You Don't Mess With The Zohan. Fairly enough, sometimes I find his silly movies so grating I want to do harm to myself or others--Grown Ups comes to mind--though I have disliked some of his more 'respectable' films with equal vehemency, such as the dreadful Reign Over Me. And this is all just in my own opinion--Reign Over Me was a flop in its own right, but Grown Ups did quite well (it's one of the twelve) and as such I am certain there are people who swear by it.  I haven't seen Just Go With It but if and when I do my approval or lack thereof will be superfluous. The point is that, yes, these movies make lots of money, but the reason for that is that people want to go see them, and regardless of how empirically awful the movies are, for the grosses to climb as high as they do people must be enjoying them. Including me.

Given the latest news I'd like to take this opportunity to restate an ongoing prediction of mine: that years from now--if it isn't already--academia will be made of the strange power and mystique of Adam Sandler. I am as of yet uncertain what the angle(s) could be. Accounting varying opinions of movies that traverse a decidedly bipolar spectrum, the true effect and meaning of his work are difficult to qualify. The only definite is that a lot of them are really really popular. I recall reading somewhere about Humphrey Bogart that when he was actively making films people weren't really very high on him--today Bogart's now-iconic name (and visage) has been immortalized and is fondly acknowledged across what became a sprawling body of work. If I may be so bold (or foolish) as to compare, perhaps the future will be similar for Sandler's movies, if only in terms of appreciating the cultural impact. How much longer he can hold out at his current clip is anyone's guess, but as of the present time it is clear he's still got whatever it is that is apparently such a sure thing. Perhaps the dust will have to settle post-mortem--as it so often does--before anyone can set to making sense of it. Click: Adam Sandler farting in David Hasselhoff's face = $135 million box office. Who knew? Adam Sandler likes to act stupid, but I think maybe he did.

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