Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

Adam Sandler plays Barry Egan, a lonely, anxious man full of repressed rage, who attempts to court romance while finding himself the subject of extortion. The title is apt because this movie washes over you with colors and sounds that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, as dark and fucked up as it all is boiling beneath the surface. An absurdist romantic tale that still remains my favorite Paul Thomas Anderson film and one of Sandler's best roles to date.

5 pudding cups out of 5

Jay Kelly (2025)

Clooney plays a successful actor (wink wink) going through an existential crisis, who takes an impromptu trip to Europe, while his entourage follows him wherever he goes. It's a very "inside baseball" look at the entertainment industry, occasionally meandering and self-indulgent, but performances are strong and it's easy to get caught up in the glitz. It didn't quite work its magic on me, but it's a solid effort and an examination of a life lived good enough.

3 slices of cheesecake out of 5

Happy Gilmore 2 (2025)

Nostalgia can be dangerous. An overreliance on the past can be a handicap. There's no reason for some things to be revived except for purely sentimental reasons. This wasn't one of them.

This film features many callbacks accompanied by old clips cribbed from the first movie to make you remember how much you enjoyed that one and desperately try to recreate those old feelings. Most of the time, it falls flat.

My other complaint is that comedies are too long nowadays. It's completely self-indulgent for this to be two hours. Clip it at 90 minutes and leave out all the fluff. It ages better that way. 

I sound like an old fuddy-duddy now. I didn't hate everything about it, I just wish it tried to do something different. For some people, same-old will be perfectly acceptable. It just feels sadder when these people are in their 50s.

1½ gratuitous cameos out of 5

Happy Gilmore (1996)

Demonstrating he has range, Sandler's next headlining role had him portraying a failed hockey player with anger issues who channels his rage into his golf game in order to save his grandmother's house from foreclosure. He sparks a rivalry with the villainous Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald), while learning the skills of the game from the one-armed Chubbs (Carl Weathers). The humor in this movie is all over the map, but there are enough memorable moments to cement this as a classic and one of The Sandman's defining roles.

3 fores out of 5

Billy Madison (1995)

A completely spoiled, obnoxious, simple-minded moron is told he will have to go back and finish grade school in order to prove he is capable enough to take over the family business and save it from the evil asshole who would inherit it.

This was Adam Sandler's first major leading role, coming hot off his success from SNL, in which he pretty much played the same gibberish-speaking cretin. This stuff was funny back before it wore out its welcome and, in some ways, this is one of the best comedies Sandler ever made because it was still pure.

There are two ways to review a movie like this: One is with a critical eye and the other is based on how much I personally enjoyed it. How funny you find this is directly proportional to your willingness to laugh at utter stupidity. I find it fucking hilarious. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.

3 flaming bags of poop out of 5

Airheads (1994)

Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi and Adam Sandler play three dopey members of a struggling rock band who hijack a local radio station in an attempt to get their demo tape played on the air. The situation escalates quickly from there as hostages and cops add to the chaos. It's a decent enough set-up, but my main issue is that not much happens in the 90 minute runtime and the stakes feel low. Despite strong performances from all involved, it's neither clever nor memorable beyond the premise, while the overall execution is lacking.

2½ Beavis & Butt-Head cameos out of 5

Coneheads (1993)

Let's address the elephant in the room: Yeah, they look like butt plugs. Based on the popular SNL sketch, Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin reprise their roles as aliens from the planet Remulak who crash land on Earth and whose cover is that they're from France to explain their eccentricities. It's a one-note joke, but never short on creativity, and the practical effects are weird and cool. This one is an oddity, which makes it appealing to fans of bad media. It's the kind of bizarre approach that reminds me of The Addams Family at times. Jam-packed with so many bit parts from SNL alumni, I had to leave out half of the credits.

2½ rows of teeth out of 5

Spaceman (2024)

I wanted to like this movie more than I did. I tried. It has a lot of things going for it. Unfortunately, it just can't overcome the familiarity of its plot.

An astronaut on a solo mission to an uncharted destination misses his wife dearly. His mental state is deteriorating. Is he hallucinating that giant spider in the corner that he calls Hanuš? Given the fact that he's so far removed from reality, it's hard to know if anything we're seeing is genuine. Does it ultimately matter? Does anything matter?

It felt like this movie was on the verge of becoming something cosmic and profound, but then it soon became rather mundane. In the end, it's just another disappointing Solaris clone. I've seen one too many "man alone in a capsule" movies before and this wasn't one of the better ones. In fact, as a true lonely space cadet, it left me properly downcast.

2½ purple nebulous clouds out of 5

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 [2015]

Director Genndy Tartakovsky returns to direct the poorly rushed and inevitable sequel to the 2012 hit Hotel Transylvania.
This time around, Drac is afraid his grandson might not be the monster he wants him to be and crazy animated hijinks ensue as he and his creepy crawly buddies try to remedy this.
With it's lack of wit and focus on more silly childish gags, it seems the film isn't even trying to equal it's predecessor and is comfortable focusing only on keeping the attention of the younger crowd.  There's a few clever gags but it's mostly just fast-paced zaniness leading nowhere resulting in even lesser of a bite than the first film barely mustered up.

2½  road trips out of 5

PIXELS [2015]

With lowered expectations Chris Columbus' Adam Sandler sci-fi/comedy, Pixels, is actually pretty watchable as something mildly entertaining.
It is indeed a fantasy universe when it's folks like Sandler, Josh Gad, Peter Dinklage & U.S. President Kevin James saving the world from aliens who have taken the form of classic '80's arcade characters.
It'd be too easy to dismiss Pixels as simply dumb but it really is just that.   Sandler steps back, yawning, and allows Gad & Dinklage to steal every scene they're in which makes for the best bits in the movie (which still isn't much).  There was a lot of potential to get something as hilariously imaginative as Ghostbusters but instead we get another Evolution.
Funny how all three films mentioned in this review feature Danny Aykroyd.  Coincidence?

2 Paperboys out of 5

THE COBBLER [2014]

With strong leading performances from Peter Dinklage, Richard Jenkins and Paul Giamatti in his previous works, I found it odd that director Thomas McCarthy would pick Adam Sandler for his latest film, The Cobbler.
A depressed shoe repair man discover when he steps into someone else's shoes he actually physically becomes the footwear's owners.  With Sandler in the lead I was somewhat doubtful of this film, but McCarthy's previous movies all impressed me so that gave me some hope for this one.  That hope was diminished pretty quickly with this unbalanced disaster.  It can't decide if it's a McCarthy character piece or a juvenille Sandler flick and with that it never manages to join the two comfortably in the middle.  The former SNL funnyman is at his best when he's restrained, as he effectively proven before but there's far too many flashes of his manboy humor just threatening to boil over into this unfocused mess.

1 pickle out of 5

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA [2012]

Director Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Laboratory & Samurai Jack) makes his feature film debut with the CGI animated film, Hotel Transylvania.  

It's not necessarily a great film but the energy put into the animation and character design is enough to keep an eye on it.  Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg and Kevin James surprised me with some strong voice work that brought a lot to their characters and expressions.  It supplies a few chuckles for the adults but will mostly attract the younger viewers with it's upbeat and vibrant mood.

3 Sumatran Rat-Monkeys out of 5

Zookeeper (2011)

Dr. Dolittle meets Night at the Museum. Not exactly a happy marriage. Kevin James does his manic energy routine as the zookeeper trying to win back his ex, as the zoo animals attempt to show him their ways of getting a mate. This involves a scene taking a gorilla to TGI Friday's. It sounds stupid, but I actually laughed out loud more than I expected I would. Still more enjoyable than Mr. Popper's Penguins.

(Sidenote: Makes me wonder if kids will start jumping into bear and lion exhibits, thinking the animals will talk to them and be friendly.)

2.5 "fat man fall down, ha ha" shtick moments out of 5