With the film already shrouded in controversy following several Native American actors publically leaving the set due to a racially insensitive script, the producers of Adam Sandler’s The Ridiculous 6 – the first in the four picture deal with Netflix – made the decision not to screen the film for critics before its release this week. Perhaps reviews matter less when a film isn’t released in cinemas, but still, nothing makes you appreciate how pointless film reviews truly are when realising the jarring disparity between the critical response to Sandler’s films, and their enormous box office takings.
Five of his latest films, Grown Ups (2010), Jack and Jill (2011), Just Go With It (2011), Grown Ups 2 (2013) and Pixels (2015) have 10%, 3%, 19%, 7% and 17% ratings respectively of Rotten Tomatoes. Despite that, they’ve made $162 million, $103 million, $75 million, $135 million and $80 million at the box office.
You’d imagine that it’s only the second set of figures that Netflix executives will care about. Having seen original television series like Orange is the New Black, House of Cards and Narcos achieve huge popularity, and films like the brilliant Beasts of No Nation garner Golden Globe nominations, the streaming service’s attempts to dominate the entertainment world may no longer be hypothetical aims, but a solid reality. Even though the days of box office monsters like The Waterboy, Big Daddy and The Longest Yard (which, adjusted for inflation, took almost $1 billion at the box office) might be behind him, Sandler is still a hugely bankable star that represents a massive coup for Netflix. No matter how bad The Ridiculous 6 is, and the three films that are to follow probably will be, people simply won’t cancel their subscription, but the armies of people that usually flock to cinemas for his films are sure to sign up.
The film itself is as dreadful as the chorus of negative reviews suggests and, in honesty, doesn’t deserve the dignity of a review, let alone any anger. The accusations of racial insensitivity are well founded, but it is after all a comedy (in the loosest sense of the word) and for me, should be categorised as satire, in as much as no subject should be off limits. But in the same way that you don’t really want to stay friends with the mate who recites Bernard Manning jokes, before brushing it off by saying it’s cool because he’s got Asian mates, it’s a film that isn’t funny enough to pull off the brand of humour it’s attempting. Blazing Saddles, which I want to cut my own fingers off for mentioning in the same breath as this, is the perfect example of a satirical Western using race as the subject of humour: it doesn’t just point a finger at other races and laugh at lazy stereotypes, but rather studies the small-minded attitudes of people interacting with the new black sheriff in a Western town.
Instead, Sandler gives Native America characters names like ‘Beaver Breath’ and ‘Goes Without Bra’ (because you can see her nipples… gettit?), and has a black character that can play the piano with his cock. Yes; honestly. It’s a disjointed, pointless, poorly written addition to Sandler’s endlessly crummy canon, which makes no use of a cast that includes Nick Nolte, John Turturro, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, and Steve Zahn. But for every great (though wasted) actor, we have appearances from the likes of Vanilla Ice as a rapping Mark Twain (who, dropping dollar bills during a poker game, actually says ‘Make it rain like Twain’) and the always-detestable David Spade as General Custer. Seth McFarlane is the only man that emerges from The Ridiculous 6 any better off. He wasn’t involved with it at all, but his similar comedy A Million Ways To Die In The West now looks sublime in comparison.
Adam Sandler may have been funny once, although in truth I can’t remember. It’s been so long since a film of his made me feel anything other than suicidal that it’s hard to judge, with even his older movies now tarnished by association. Although his appearance in Punch Drunk Love ensures you can never truly hate Sandler; however, even the enormous goodwill harvested from that film is starting to run low. Whether you want to judge The Ridiculous 6 on its racial controversy, its cast, your love of Sandler or anything else, there’s simply no denying the fact that, for a comedy, it is excruciatingly unfunny.
The Ridiculous 6 can be viewed on Netflix now.
The Ridiculous 6 Trailer
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