Uncut Gems / Adam Sandler's Worst Movies

Growing up in the 90s, Adam Sandler was a name I knew very well. I grew up watching a lot of his earlier movies and really enjoyed them at the time they were released. Movies like The Waterboy, Big Daddy, Mr. Deeds, and Billy Madison were movies I watched over and over again when I was younger because I thought they were hilarious. Looking back now that I'm older and time has passed, a lot of those movies aren't as funny as I remember them being, some of them actually being pretty terrible. A lot of people say Adam Sandler used to be really funny back in the 90s and his movies were really good, but a lot of those people haven't gone back to watch them and see how they haven't really held up. Recently Adam Sandler starred in a movie critics are raving about and are calling Adam Sandler's performance "legendary". I figured before I review this new movie of his and see if his performance really is as good as they say, I'd go back and look at some of his worst performances ever in some of the worst comedy movies ever made. So here's the list of my five worst Adam Sandler movies in all of their glory.

5. PIXELS

Pixels was the last big movie released theatrically by Sandler's production company Happy Madison. Shortly after this movie's release, Sandler entered into his big contract with Netflix and stayed out of the theaters since then (thankfully). This movie was loosely based on a short film by Patrick Jean where iconic arcade games came to life to destroy a city. In this movie, the same basic concept happens, except we have to put up with Adam Sandler the whole time. Adam Sandler plays an old loser who once almost won an arcade tournament when he was young. In this universe, Kevin James is the president and he asks for Sandler's help when arcade game characters come from space and start destroying cities around the world. Adam Sandler doesn't even really try in this movie and it's obvious. Some of the actors around him are trying to do something with the terrible script, mainly Josh Gad and Peter Dinklage, but it's not enough to make this movie worth watching. The only good thing here is the special effects, but even that's not enough to make this movie interesting. The idea of the movie sounds like it could have been fun, but they just waste it with a terrible unfunny script and bad performances. 

4. Eight Crazy Nights

The thing that sucks the most about this movie is how beautifully done the animation is on such a terrible movie. The movie mostly consists of Adam Sandler doing annoying voice-over work and lots and LOTS of poop/fart/piss jokes. The idea of making a good animated movie for Hanukkah is cool, but this doesn't do anything with that idea. The movie isn't even about Hanukkah at all, so the title of the movie is really misleading. The main character in the movie is incredibly unlikeable, which is done on purpose at first. The problem is when he finally has the turn at the end of the movie, it doesn't really make much sense since it's rushed and doesn't feel earned. He's a giant asshole the entire movie only to turn good in like the last few minutes for no reason at all. 

3. Jack and Jill

Adam Sandler dresses up as a lady and does a high pitched voice. That followed by a bunch of poop, fart and race jokes and you have the movie, Jack and Jill. There's also this really weird part of the movie that's just a giant commercial for Royal Caribbean Cruises and feels not only at a place but so obvious as a dumb way for the movie to make money off of advertising. Actually, there's a lot of advertisements in the movie that they don't really try very hard to make subtle. Coca Cola, Dunkin Donuts, Royal Carribean and Sony products are all blatantly shown off to the camera. People like to hate on Adam Sandler, especially in his later years, for setting his movies in tropical locations as a way to take a vacation with his friends while filming movies. Most of the time the settings for the movies don't really feel that important to the plot, so I get why people feel that way. It's really bad here when it feels like a completely out of place advertisement for a cruise line. The only slightly decent part is Al Pacino's weird performance because he's Al Pacino and what the hell is he doing in this movie. 

2. Grown Ups 2

This movie starts with a deer pissing on Sandler and ends with Sandler burping, farting and sneezing at the same time. 5 stars.

Okay, but actually this movie is about as pointless as a movie can get. Everyone here is phoning it in and it's obvious. It sucks to see some talented funny people like Chris Rock and Maya Rudolph in this movie do absolutely nothing. Nick Swardson and Kevin James are possibly the two worst comedy actors of all time and they are the worst part of this terrible movie. Nothing in this movie feels like it's saying anything about life or growing up or having a family. It's got no real plot and it's basically just a bunch of joke scenes randomly put together to make a 101-minute movie, which is just about the amount of time a theatrical movie has to be. None of the characters are likable and none of the jokes really land. Usually, Adam Sandler movies have at least one actor who seems to be trying in it like Josh Gad was in Pixels or Steve Buscemi in his older movies, but this one has NONE. 

1. That's My Boy

This movie is gross. It makes fun of statutory rape and incest in a really disgusting way that's not at all funny or interesting. Adam Sandler gives his worst performance here, and that's saying something considering all the bad movies he's been making for the past two decades. The problem here is that his sense of humor, or at least the writer's sense of humor is awful. The weird thing is that the writer of this movie also created one of my favorite comedy shows called Happy Endings that was still on air when this movie was released. It's strange how the same writer who worked on a show with lots of clever jokes and lovable characters made one of the worst unfunny movies ever. Of course, this is also a Happy Madison production, so there's a good chance they had their hands all over the script for this movie. One thing I'm happy about is that this movie didn't ruin Andy Samber's career because he is way more talented than this movie showed and honestly, so is Adam Sandler when he actually tries and isn't making movies under his own production company. Which leads me to his latest performance...

Uncut Gems

Uncut Gems is the latest movie by the Safdie brothers, who previously made the really good movie "Good Time". This time they teamed up with Adam Sandler, who they desperately wanted for this part in a movie they've been trying to make for over a decade. The movie follows Adam Sandler's character named Howard Ratner, who owns a jewelry store in New York City. Howard is quickly introduced as a fast-talking man who can talk his way out of any situation and is very charismatic. He's always looking for the next thing to sell or bet on to make more money, and it seems like he loves the rush of betting and working deals with big customers. As the movie moves at a quick pace, you wonder if Howard can keep up with all his deals and bets because as a viewer I felt like I could barely keep up myself. 

Right of the bat the movie starts at a fast pace and barely slows down throughout its run-time. You follow Adam Sandler's character as he's making deals and placing bets and making the wrong enemies and it all starts to build anxiety in me as a viewer. It's an uncomfortable feeling that doesn't go away until the very end of the movie. Adam Sandler's performance really drives this movie, with his great fast-talking character that's constantly running around and getting into new situations that add more anxiety to the viewer. The rest of the cast are all top-notch as well, especially this newcomer Julia Fox, who plays Sandler's girlfriend. She does such a great job at playing off of Sandler's fast-talking character and using that against him in some ways. All the characters just feel so real and are very well written. The dialog is fantastic and it's what makes this movie so believable and the characters so enjoyable. 

The film is shot amazingly too, really adding to the anxiety the story is giving the audience. Especially later in the movie where certain things happen to up the stakes, it really helps amp up the tension with specific camera shots and of course the movie score. I find it hard to really find anything wrong with this movie, though maybe with a rewatch I'd notice more things. The thing is, the movie does a good job of keeping you interested I didn't really notice a lot of flaws. Maybe that's because the movie doesn't really have many. The one thing I'd say is maybe bad about this movie is that I don't really want to rewatch this movie anytime soon because of the amount of anxiety it gave me, almost feeling uncomfortable at times. Of course, that was exactly what the movie was going for and it did it masterfully. 

This is one of those movies I think is a must-watch. The performances are all really great, the movie is fast-paced and really keeps you interested in the story the entire run-time and it's just different from anything I've seen recently. One of the best movies of the year (2019) for sure. It also shows that when Adam Sandler is working with people that actually care about their movies, he can actually give a great performance. Movies like this one, Punch-Drunk Love and Meyerowitz Stories prove that.