Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Sandler's trademark

Yesterday we arrived at my daughter's place, where we're staying for a few days before flying off to England. I was too tired to do anything much on the computer or to read, and so I finished up watching an Adam Sandler movie, something I'd rarely do. I've seen others in the past, and they're a puzzle to me. Invariably they're loaded on the side of crudity, even including children in the crudity. (There's an Asian character in this movie who has nothing to do with the story; his sole role is to make crude comments on what's going on.) Plainly Sandler appeals to a certain audience, because he's certainly popular enough to keep making movies. The audience doesn't seem likely to be a young audience either; perhaps it's the middle-aged beer-drinking boys' night out audience. But I'm not sure that the movie I saw last night was likely to appeal to such an audience, since it's a romance; though anyone less likely to strike me as romantic is Sandler.
The movie was 50 First Dates, and in it Sandler plays a crude marine biologist who has two even cruder off-siders. One is either a man or a woman - no one seems sure which - who has a mouth like a cesspool. The other is played by Sandler regular, Rob Schneider, who plays a Hawaiian with half a dozen young sons constantly in tow. He not only speaks crudely (often in front of the boys), but acts even more so. Drew Barrymore is the girl Sandler improbably falls in love with, and Sean Astin plays her dorky brother. Dan Ackroyd makes some occasional appearances - and of course is given some crude lines.
There are some funny moments, though most of them are overdone. There are even some funny lines - between the crude ones.
I saw Sandler on Rove one night. He was almost as crude in that interview as he is in the movies, which makes you think he feels this is an okay way of life - and performance. At the end of this particular movie there's a dedication to his Dad. He hopes that he'll always make his Dad proud of him. You have to wonder what his dad was like if Sandler thinks these movies do him proud.

1 comment:

Mike Crowl said...

Thanks for the info, though the word 'trademark' here is being used in a different sense: as 'a distinctive mark or feature particularly characteristic of or identified with a person or thing." In other words, as the sort of thing you'd expect a particular person to do, or, in this case, the way in which Adam Sandler tends to act in his movies, as well the kind of movies he makes.