Totally agree. Truman was very well produced and acted. Click was dreck.
As to Adam Sandler pulling some scam … if people (movie goers, advertisers, investors) voluntarily give him money, then I don’t see how it’s any kind of scam. Only way to stop his kind of movies is to not give him the business, and I don’t.
A scam artist also gets people to voluntarily give him money. That’s why he is a scammer, and not a robber.
Scam implies some sort of fraud, some material misrepresentation has occurred.
Is this the crux of the issue?
Adam Sandler movies are made as cheaply as humanly possible, to the point of avoiding cliches that would cost money. They are also so packed to the brim with product placement that this provides another revenue stream. So even though Sandler movies cost the same to produce as comparable films, all the money is going into Sandler’s pocket in one way or another.
Or are moviegoers guaranteed a certain production value? I’m gonna start suing all those art house and indie films I see then, do you know their ticket prices and DVD prices are the same as blockbusters?!
The only solution here is for Sandler’s audience to notice the ultra low production values and say enough is enough and stop going.
Say you pay a guy to build you a house and he tell you it costs $300,000. You pay him and he keeps $250,000 for him and his friends and spends $50,000 to build you a house that is poorly constructed and shoddy and also covered with advertisements because he sold your wall space to different companies that paid him but you don’t get a dime of that. Did that guy commit a crime? Probably not, but at the very least he is sleazy and dishonest. Their thesis is that is what Adam Sandler does with his movies.
Argumentum ad hominem. This isn’t Great Debates, but whether or not the two are pretentious snots has no bearing on the validity of their claims about Sandler.
C’mon. They haven’t even noticed that he’s not funny.
I’d argue it that is fraud, but the homeowner is more like the movie studio. And are the studios complaining? They seem happy as Sandler’s movies are still money makers, why would they put up with this crap if they weren’t?
Lets say then that this shitty house is rented out to eager renters who rave about the qualities others hate. It rents at the same price as better houses, but the renters know what they are getting going in.
Is the builder defrauding the renters?
The argument that the guys make is that the movie misrepresents itself as a comedy movie, when it doesn’t have any of the work put into it that comedy movies normally have, and even has blatant advertising within it. This seems to them to make it worthy of being called a scam.
You can disagree with that view, but not because people go voluntarily. People going involuntarily is not a necessity, or even an attribute, for something that is a scam.
The Redletter guys don’t think that moviegoers are (or should be) guaranteed a certain production value. They in fact care much more about the thought put into the script than production values, as evident from their other reviews.
And also, they certainly agree that the solution is for people to realize how bad the Sandler movies are, and to stop going. That’s exactly what they are trying to achieve, in fact.
But where do you draw the line? No disputing taste and all that, maybe some people really enjoy brainless pap. I mean there is a lot of experimental music that sounds like it was recorded in a garage with nothing but a garbage can and screams, is that a scam? What is the line between scam and just poor craft.
BUT speculating on Sandler’s quality and review proof audience, I’d say they probably are people who grew up with Sandler’s earlier works and use his films as an excuse to get out and socialize with others in their age group to an inoffensive movie no one will object to. I think Sandler knows this, quality literally doesn’t matter it is just the name recognition.
This is the reason why Sandler and his Happy Madison production company are allowed to continue cranking out movies and get paid a shit-ton of money for it:
Film Budget Worldwide Gross Profit
Little Nicky | $85,000,000 | 58,292,295 | (26,707,705)
The Animal | $47,000,000 | $84,772,742 | $37,772,742
Joe Dirt | $34,000,000 | 30,987,695 | (3,012,305)
Mr. Deeds | $50,000,000 | $171,269,535 | $121,269,535
The Master of Disguise | $16,000,000 | $43,411,001 | $27,411,001
Eight Crazy Nights | $34,000,000 | $86,833,131 | $52,833,131
The Hot Chick | $34,000,000 | $54,639,553 | $20,639,553
Anger Management | $75,000,000 | $195,745,823 | $120,745,823
Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star | $17,000,000 | $23,794,648 | $6,794,648
50 First Dates | $75,000,000 | $196,482,882 | $121,482,882
The Longest Yard | $82,000,000 | $190,320,588 | $108,320,588
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo | $22,000,000 | $45,109,561 | $23,109,561
Grandma’s Boy | $25,000,000 | $37,856,991 | $12,856,991
The Benchwarmers | $33,000,000 | $64,957,291 | $31,957,291
Click | $82,500,000 | $237,681,299 | $155,181,299
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry | $85,000,000 | $186,072,214 | $101,072,214
Reign Over Me | $20,000,000 | $20,900,000 | $900,000
The House Bunny | $25,000,000 | $70,442,940 | $45,442,940
You Don’t Mess with the Zohan | $90,000,000 | $202,518,837 | $112,518,837
Bedtime Stories | $80,000,000 | $206,108,939 | $126,108,939
Paul Blart: Mall Cop | $26,000,000 | $227,126,523 | $201,126,523
Funny People | $75,000,000 | 71,585,235 | (3,414,765)
Grown Ups | $80,000,000 | $271,419,251 | $191,419,251
Just Go with It | $80,000,000 | $312,741,390 | $232,741,390
Zookeeper | $80,000,000 | $164,112,560 | $84,112,560
Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star | $10,000,000 | 2,529,395 | (7,470,605)
Jack & Jill | $79,000,000 | $149,673,788 | $70,673,788
That’s My Boy | $70,000,000 | 38,971,725 | (31,028,275)
Because most of them are crazy profitable. Note than when Sandler departs from playing a retarded man-boy in films like Reign Over Me or Funny People, the films are critically aclaimed (relatively speaking) but not very profitable.
If you ask why they cost $80M?
Sandler got like $25 M for Just Go With It. Jennifer Anniston got $10 M and I can’t imagine that it was cheap to hire supermodel Brooklyn Decker, Nicole Kidman, Dave Mathews and fly them all out to Hawaii.
But the film made over $300 M so it’s worth it.
Just Go With It made $300 Million? Fuck. That.