Adam Sandler May Once Again Ruin My Life

And so it sets upon me, emerging from the darkest craters of the streaming landscape and rising high, blocking out the sun, blocking out the very essence of hope, and blanketing my life with an unescapable shadow.  Mortality cannot save me from this fate, a promise of peers, a promise that rests on me the albatross.  Without ability to inhale, all constricts my shell, bringing me down to the bare framework of existence and beckoning my lack of certainty in identity and fate.  I am a victim of that which I have fed myself, the beast that I let loose to destroy and tear asunder.  Weeping and gnashing of teeth...

Yep, it is the time of year to review Netflix's annual Adam Sandler movie, The Week Of.  Ever since he entered into the unholy union with the streaming giant I have had to watch and review a new Adam Sandler film since December 11, 2015.  It kicked off with The Ridiculous 6, which I gave a very rare zero star rating.  The movie did everything it could do to snag that rating, and it wasn't the fist Happy Madison to get the zero star.  Bucky Larson nailed that one.  In 2016, it was the action comedy The Do-Over.  I think it may have had action, but I can assure you that it did not have comedy.  Half star for that one.  And last year it was Sandy Wexler.  While my podcast co-host Christopher gave it a massive two stars (thanks to the performance from Jennifer Hudson, who I agreed was magnetic), I could only be bothered to give this incredibly annoying character, along with Rob Schneider once again giving us a racially stereotypical performance, half a star.  Three films and a cumulative score of one star out of four.

This isn't something new to Netflix.  Sandler has been delivering a mean-spirited brand of comedy for a long time, settling for scripts that make the third Austin Powers movie look like a revelation.  My favourite of his movies lately was Pixels, but we can thank Peter Dinklage for that.  Every now and then we get a reminder that he is actually super talented when he blesses us with performances like he did in Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected).  Leading into the deal with Netflix, Sandler had put out near offensive efforts acting or writing in movies like Jack and Jill, and Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star.

I really don't want to write Sandler off, but he has an absolutely horrid track record.  His films go for the easiest jokes possible, rely on cameos to a level similar to Zoolander 2, insults people who look different, and includes Herculean product placements and advertisements for companies.  I'm not asking for anything sophisticated.  I enjoy goofy humour, but it needs to be based off of something.  It can't just be scenes with kids peeing on things or kids swearing.  That's not a joke in itself, yet Sandler treats it that way.  His sense of humour is so base that native American actors left the set of Ridiculous 6.  It is also the sense of humour that had Schneider in brown face for some reason in that movie.

It could be my own fault that I have to watch and review the latest Sandler movie.  I may have said that all Netflix originals would be reviewed for The Movie Breakdown podcast.  I obviously wasn't thinking about what exactly that would mean at the time.  I want Sandler to prove me wrong.  He has the ability to do so, but he doesn't seem to put forth the effort when an easy stroll is all that's needed to fulfill his obligations.  I must do what I need to, and I hope that I will have a good time.  History tells me that the odds are against me.  I am thinking the run time will make a mockery of me and I will lose part of my sanity in this endeavour.

REVIEW: The Do-Over

As I sit here htikning about writing a review for Adam Sandler's latest film, The Do-Over, I figured that I would put the sae attention into the quality of the review as they put into the making of the film.  That means what I write is what I write..  No going back and editing things, leaving the mess where it lies and expecting that it will be good enough for general consumption.  That seems to be the approach that director Steven Brilll put into it, so it is the same effort that the review will get.  I would apologize about the spelling and grammar mistakes, but since there is no apology forthcoming from the makers of the film, I will follow suit.

The movie is about two best friends of former years who meet at a hgighschool reunion.  We have the geeky bank manager, Charlie (David Spade), and Max (Adam Sandler) who we will quickly come to understand is just  a bit of a dick.  Well, that is an understatement.  He is a giant knob.  Much like other Sandler movies, he pays someone who just isn't that relatable.  This is the case with Max, as he is a self-centred bucket of mean spirit, which is a good summary for the film proper.

With adam Sandler movies, you can generally make a list of things that you will expect to see and then check them off as they happen.  Will there be meanness towards children?  Check.  Will there be urniation jokes?  Check, there is urination sprayed everywhere.  Will there be massturbation jokes?  you betcha.  Will it make fun of people who look different?  Yeppers.

This is the problem with his films (or one of the problems with his films): they cater to the lowest of juvenile humour and do so in the same repeated ways.  Essentially it feels like if you have seen one of his recent films, you have seen them all.  There appears to be no effort really put into them, and that is something that netflix should be conscernded with.  They have an exclusive movie deal with Sandler, and so far what hwe have gotten is The Ridiculous 6 and this current pile of misguided humour in The Do-Over.

I suppose I have not talked at all about the plot, but what would be the point of that?  As the movie rolls along the plot becomes more convoluted and dumber with each sequence.  I am already writing at a dumbed down level right now, and I don't want to sink any deeper in the abyss that I have tread.

If you were looking for meaningful analysis about this movie, I am sorry but that is just not going to happen.  I have more important things to do right now, such as cut my fingernails.  Seriously, they are clicking on the keys of my laptop right now and it is driving me insane.  I should also pet my cat and then clean the litter box, in that order specifically.  Little John McClane does not need to have my sweaty, litter spattered fingers running through his bad-ass coat.

If you are a fan of Adam Sandler movies as a whole, I am sure you will like The Do-Over.  It is billed as action/comedy, although, if you ask me (and in a way you did by reading this), there is too little of either element to stick it in either genre.  If things like homophobic gags and scenes with sweaty testicles are not your thing, then you can just forget about watching this movie.