Category Archives: Adam Sandler

Eight Nights of Hanukkah, Eight Entertaining Jews: Night #8

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This is what I found when I Googled “Adam Sandler Jewish.”

The old insult goes, “Jews run show business.” To that I say “thanks.” 

Jews make up about 0.2% of the world’s population yet they have always been a loud (emphasis on the loud) and prominent voice in film, television, music, and comedy. 

The next eight days are Hanukkah, which is not the most important Jewish holiday, but we do get presents. For each night of Hanukkah, I will share one Jewish entertainer who has had a big impact on me. For the eighth and final night of Hanukkah, let’s talk about Adam Sandler:


Out of all of the possible candidates (there were way too many), Adam Sandler seemed like the only possible choice for the final Jew of Hanukkah. 

It would probably be easier to write about how far Sandler has fallen. His last movie was “Grown Ups 2″ and “Jack and Jill” possibly set Jews back about 50 years. 50 years is nothing. We can recover. Instead, I want to talk about the Sandler I know, the one that I grew up with.

I recently purchased the Best of Adam Sandler which compiles some of his best sketches on “Saturday Night Live.” Watching it today seems almost surreal. I wonder if those live audiences knew while watching it that they were witnessing a future comedy superstar in the making. Yes, Opera Man still holds up. It’s hard to have a verdict on any sketch that also has Chris Farley in it though; he is pretty impossible to compete with.

After leaving “Saturday Night Live,” Sandler launched an extremely successful movie career consisting of a string of films that were panned by critics yet loved by every teenager and Paul Thomas Anderson. I am beyond proud to say that I can recite nearly every line from “Billy Madison” by heart. Despite the fact that Sandler is loud and obnoxious, the other characters still manage to be funny and produce some of the movie’s best lines (“If peeing in your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis”).

I could possibly understand why some people might be annoyed by “Billy Madison,” especially if it wasn’t one of their first introductions into comedy. Maybe you might consider “Happy Gilmore” juvenile, too if you are a bad person who hates fun. But “The Wedding Singer” is an undeniably great romantic comedy, a movie that is even more rewarding than getting paid in meatballs. In addition, “Big Daddy” is also more moving than it has any right to be. More importantly, his performances were good enough to get him cast in “Punch Drunk Love,” where all of that rage was targeted towards building something deeper. It really is a shame he hasn’t been in more movies like that since.

Since this is Hanukkah we are talking about here, I have no choice but to mention Sandler’s contributions to the holiday. He helmed “Eight Crazy Nights,” which to date is still the only mainstream Hanukkah movie that I can think of. Years before that, he made the holiday way cooler than it had any right to be with “The Hanukkah Song” (to date, three versions of it exist). A key line in the song is “so if you still feel like the only kid in town just like you and me/here are some people who are Jewish/just like you and me.” Sandler captures the sad feeling any Jewish kid might feel during the Christmas season (and I am guessing he experienced it, too, seeing as he grew up in New Hampshire). But the song is heart-warming and shows this sense of connection every Jew feels for another that is so hard to explain. To see another Jew succeed gives one a great sense of pride like they would for a close family member. And Sandler, during his best years, was our rock star. He is the real reason I felt like I needed to make a list for myself.

So while everyone else gets to decorate a Christmas tree, we get to sing “The Hanukkah Song.” I can live with that.

My Least Anticipated Summer Movies: 2012 Edition

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1. Battleship

I’m still trying to get over the fact that the trailer nearly ruined one of my favorite bands (The Black Keys) for me. “Battleship” has been the subject of ridicule for well over a year now. It might cause the world to implode if it actually turns out to be good. Regardless, I see this movie making huge returns at the box office, and spawning even more movies based on board games. The only thing I could ever admire “Battleship” for is the fact that it turned a board game with light up pegs into a movie about aliens. That takes some very uninspired chutzpah.

2. That’s My Boy

There was a time when Adam Sandler was actually funny. And the fact that I wasn’t even ten-years-old at that time doesn’t matter. In my mind, “Billy Madison” and “Happy Gilmore” are still classics. Also, “50 First Dates” is underrated. But really, what has happened to him? He seemed to be making a turn into new territory with “Punch Drunk Love” until he instead decided to make “Jack and Jill.” I did not laugh or even crack a smile once during this trailer. “That’s My Boy” also stars Andy Samberg, the comedy superstar responsible for The Lonely Island as well as one of my favorite comedies of the past decade, “Hot Rod.” To both Sandler and Samberg: please start making better choices after you cash your checks for this movie.

3. Ice Age: Continental Drift

I understand why so many sequels to “Ice Age” have been made. Studio executives want to make money and sequels to successful properties typically do just that. Turning movies into money is their job, after all. However, could they find some way to not give children such an inaccurate view of common historical knowledge? First, they suggested that dinosaurs existed during the Ice Age and now, they are doing the same with continental drift. This is why Pixar should be the only ones allowed to make animated movies.

4. Dark Shadows

Once upon a time, Tim Burton made original movies like “Edward Scissorhands” and “Ed Wood,” and not movies like “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Alice in Wonderland.” “Dark Shadows,” based off of the television show of the same name, is about an eighteenth century vampire (Johnny Depp) who ends up in the 1970s. That premise could be funny, but the trailer just seems to hint at a lot of jokes about disco and afros. Trailers have the tendency to be misleading, but “Twilight” has ruined vampires in the same way that Tim Burton has ruined Tim Burton. The only possible saving graces here are Chloe Moretz and Alice Cooper.

5. LOL

I can’t wait for the upcoming sequels “ROFL” and “YOLO.”

Movie Review: Funny People

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Judd Apatow is the comedy legend of our day. It seems that just about everything he touches turns to gold. After a few years of small producing and writing efforts, Apatow returns with his first directorial effort in two years with “Funny People.” At first, it might not seem like comic gold. But under its scratched surface, lies a diamond in the rough.

“Funny People” is probably Apatow’s most personal project to date. He incorporates real life experiences into every movie he does, but never so much as in “Funny People.” In fact, “Funny People” starts off with real footage of Apatow and Adam Sandler making prank calls when they were just starting off in the comedy business.
But forget reality, lets head off to movieland. “Funny People” is a dramedy about George Simmons (Adam Sandler). Simmons is based partly off the life and career of Sandler; he’s a comic legend who’s become one of the biggest movie stars in the world. He may have a big, beautiful home, but like Charles Foster Kane, that home is completely empty.
Now, Simmons has discovered that he has come down with a terminal disease. In his near-death experience, Simmons decides to seize the moment and reevaluate his life. First, he decides to return to his standup career. Then, he hires struggling young comic Ira Wright (Seth Rogen) to be his writer and something of an assistant. Next, he decides to win back an old flame (Leslie Mann) who is currently married to an Australian man (Eric Bana).
“Funny People” isn’t just a personal project for Apatow–it’s just as personal for Sandler. And because of that, he gives the best performance he’s given since “Punch Drunk Love.” However, “Funny People” isn’t as much of a flat-out drama as “Punch Drunk Love” was. Maybe it’s not seriousness that makes Sandler’s performance so good, perhaps it’s maturity. In “Funny People,” he’s just as funny as in classics “Billy Madison” and “Happy Gilmore.” However, here, there is a degree of self-awareness. The style of humor of George Simmons is something like the style of humor that made Sandler famous in the 90s. Those bothered by Sandler’s sense of humor won’t be bothered here.
A performance less acknowledged by critics is Rogen’s. He projects a high level of awkwardness, especially when Ira is struggling through stand up routines. It’s funny, but we’re not laughing at him; in a way, we’re cheering for him. Rogen also brings probably the most emotion he’s ever brought to a role when expressing his feelings towards George in their very rocky friendship.
The film contains a fine ensemble of comedians both old and very new. Apatow regular Jonah Hill is a scene stealer in his portrayal of a comedian who realizes the key to comic gold is YouTube videos of cats. Meanwhile, newcomers like Aubrey Plaza (“Parks & Recreation”) pull their own weight as well. Most surprisingly is how hilarious Eric Bana is. Then again, I shouldn’t be too surprised. Before becoming a serious actor, Bana was a standup comic Down Under, and even had his own comedy show.
Along with being a dramedy, “Funny People” is also a self-reflexive show business satire. It contains fictional movies and TV shows within a fictional movie. There are actors playing actors, and actors playing themselves. Many are celebrities you would never expect to be funny, yet it turns out a certain rapper who I won’t name happens to have a very good sense of humor about himself. Meanwhile, the movie within a movie “Re Do” and the show within a movie “Yo Teach!” show the somewhat dismal state of mainstream comedy.
Although all of these aspects of the movie–the actors, the satire, the drama–are all great, they all serve as part of the film’s bigger problems. The first real flaw with the film is that it’s too long. “Funny People” is around 145 minutes long, and you can feel every minute of it. Some scenes drag on too long. The film also tries to tackle way too much. It’s central focus should be the relationship between George and Ira, and George’s quest to win back Laura’s affection. However, the film also goes off trying to tackle Ira’s girl troubles, as well as the careers of a few other rising comics.
The only problem is, I don’t think I would want to remove a single scene from the movie because every scene is so good, every character is so fascinating, and every joke is so funny. The editors must have had a more difficult time than they could ever have imagined with this film.
But there is also another reason it would be impossible to cut a single scene out. The film isn’t meant to focus solely on George and Ira. “Funny People” is an ensemble film, and as an ensemble film, it must cover a wide amount of people rather than a small amount. Apatow decided with “Funny People” to make both a personal relationship film and a collage of the lives of assorted comedians.
So now I sit here, wondering whether to tell you to see or not to see this movie. Instead, I’m going to do what a good critic does best: give you my opinion, and then let you decide for yourself whether or not you should see it. This is a movie made for people who don’t just like comedy, but are diehard fans of it. Even if you’re not, you’ll still laugh at the brilliant stand up routines and be wowed at the human connections that Apatow’s career has become defined by. To put it in short, this is the first comedy epic I’ve ever seen.
On the Apatow Scale: 1. The 40 Year Old Virgin 2. Knocked Up 3. Funny People