is laughing all the way to the bank – assuming there is a bank capable of processing the $73m the comedian pocketed in 2023. That total – which he clocked up as star and producer of three comedies for Netflix – makes himBums on seats – or eyeballs gazing at Netflix – are no guarantee of quality. Yet it’s hard to think of an A-lister whose popularity and critical standing are as out of kilter as Sandler’s. Netflix subscribers love him.
But is there anything more enjoyable than a middle-of-the-road one? As a comedian, Sandler is always upfront about his determination to entertain. His movies are silly in the extreme – consider 2016’s about two schlubs who fake their deaths only to accidentally take on the identity of wanted criminals.
Yet Sandler never feels the material is beneath him and goes about his job with infectious enthusiasm. There is, moreover, a thread of sweetness running through his CV. He and Drew Barrymore had genuine chemistry inSandler’s humour is not sophisticated, and can have fnar, fnar Benny Hill overtones.
Her remarks were written off as the outburst of a stroppy starlet who had got above her station. Today, we can agree that she had a point. Sandler, by contrast, is still doing what he always has – churning out puerile comedies that land like a balm for over-stimulated brains.He’s no Mel Brooks or Larry David. But his humour was made for Netflix. Sometimes, all you want is to put on a low-brow giggle extravaganza about a prat-falling man-child and let the world’s woes melt away.