The Ridiculous 6 - Review Thread

Maybe it was my low expectations. Maybe seeing it for "free" on Netflix helped tremendously. Maybe it was both. But the Ridiculous 6 isn't the equivalent of being shot after a poker match in the wild west.

Is there lots of juvenile humor? Of course. Does the cast consist of Adam Sandler's friends? Of course. Are there random cameos by celebrities and has-been's? Of course. But all of these things can work if there's a story to support it. Sandler has never been a great writer. Even his "classic" movies had sitcom-style plots. But when the scripts were well-written, it didn't matter that they were silly. Billy Madison is a stupid movie. Happy Gilmore is a stupid movie. That doesn't bother most people because they liked the story and the characters and went along with the pre-teen humor. In the years since, Sandler has failed to meet those standards because either the scripts suck or he refuses to acknowledge his age and the stories and characters suffer because of it. Audiences can accept a 29-year-old playing Billy Madison. They're not gonna accept a guy in his 40's clinging on to the Billy Madison persona. That may be starting to sink in for Sandler because, in the Ridiculous 6, he moves on and tries something a bit different.

He plays a white man who was raised by Native Americans. On the eve of his wedding, he's reunited with his biological father, played by Nick Nolte, and learns that if he doesn't get $50,000 in 10 days, his biological father will be murdered. And so, he sets off on a journey to get the money and along the way meets his 5 half-brother's. They're played by Rob Schneider, Taylor Lautner, Jorge Garcia, Terry Crews and Luke Wilson.

Schneider gets a lot of hate for leeching off Sandler, but he's not a bad actor. Lautner is surprisingly good and funny as a hillbilly type character. Jorge Garcia is unrecognizable, and also very good, as a feral-esque person. And Terry Crews and Luke Wilson do their usual schtick which is not bad. Wilson, in particular, has a funny bit as Abraham Lincoln's bodyguard. The cast also includes Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Vanilla Ice as Mark Twain, which is a lot funnier than it should have been, and John Turturro as the inventor of baseball. The baseball scene is probably the highlight of the movie. It's the cleverest thing that Sandler has written in ages - or maybe ever.

So with a decent script, an age appropriate role for Sanler, and some memorable humor, the Ridiculous 6 isn't as bad as critics and most of internet will tell you. Adam Sandler is an easy target and the Ridiculous 6 isn't gonna change anything. 15 years ago, people would have been okay with this movie. Now, they're looking for an excuse to hate it and Sandler just lets them. All he needed to do was not cast his friends and move away away from the potty humor. Maybe he'll try that next time. He does have 3 movies left in his Netflix contract.