Adam Sandler – quite possibly the most fascinating person of our generation. You see, Adam Sandler is an enigma. He literally floats his way through life churning out subpar films. It doesn’t matter if you love or loath the Sandman; as long as you recognize his face and his stupid smug voice then the money keeps rolling in.
So why is Adam Sandler so goddamn popular? What is it about him that keeps us wanting more? Why do I have a deeply embedded hatred yet longing admiration for this man? I’ve made it my personal mission to get to the bottom of this. I have decided to review a different Adam Sandler film every week, to figure out once and for all who he really is. As we embark on his 53-film filmography, we will experience highs such as Click and lows such as Pixels. So join me now, as we review a classic Sandler piece: 50 First Dates.
When thinking about Adam Sandler, 50 First Dates (2004) jumps straight to mind. It’s one of those films you always used to see ads for on TV2 when they ran out of movies to play on Saturday nights. And to be honest, I don’t blame them. This film has the perfect trifecta of Sandman comedy: crude humour that serves no real purpose, lighthearted misogyny that makes every woman fall madly in love with this sexy man, and, of course, Rob Schneider.
This Hawaiian based rom-com has almost a documentary feel to it, showing Henry Roth (Sandler) swooning almost every woman he meets with his impeccable charm, goofy sense of humor and compassionate veterinary skills. This total skuxx finds himself infatuated with Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore), but encounters a curveball when Lucy has no recollection of meeting him or indeed any of their previous encounters. We soon find out that Lucy suffers from amnesia, causing her to wake up thinking that it’s October 13th every day. Henry does his best to try and work with Lucy to get her to confront the accident that resulted in her amnesia, as well as making her aware of everything that has happened between the two of them – essentially resulting in 50 first dates.
This film is a wild ride of emotions. It will make you gag, laugh, cry, you name it. The overall message is that nice guys don’t always finish last, and that even the skuxxest of skuxxes have their sensitive sides. 50 First Dates embodies a lot of Sandler’s ideologies, in that its humour mainly consists of fart jokes and making fun of people, yet audiences still love it. In one scene at the beginning, we see Sandler conspire with a seal to vomit all over a coworker who is portrayed as “gender ambiguous” (according to Wikipedia) just because they ate his sandwich. Like, who comes up with this? Who legitimately thinks bodily fluid jokes are the pinnacle of comedy? Adam Sandler does.