Review of The Ridiculous 6 (2015) by Samichsupernova — 13 Dec 2015

I don't really get the hate for this one. It's nowhere near the level of "Jack and Jill" or that "That's My Boy" and closer in quality to "You Don't Mess With the Zohan", if not quite "Happy Gilmore" level.

I thought this was well-shot, decently acted, harmless fun for the most part, and unlike most recent Adam Sandler films, this one actually had something resembling a story, plus his performance as a knife-wielding purveyor of mystical **** is actually kind of badass.

The script isn't written by Shakespeare, but it's serviceable and let's be real, we're talking about Sandler here. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the cohesiveness of the story. As one might expect from a Happy Madison production, not all of the jokes hit their targets, but that doesn't mean there aren't some memorable sequences.

It was great seeing Harvey Keitel onscreen again. Terry Crews pulls off every reaction shot perfectly, proving his comedy chops, and Taylor Lautner goes all out in portraying the dumb brother with a heart of gold.

Rob Schneider has some fun moments, too, though Luke Wilson and Jorge Garcia are somewhat under-utilized. John Turturro's sequence as Abner Doubleday is a standout that points out how the rules of baseball seem totally arbitrary.

But it's Vanilla Ice as Mark Twain that steals the show IMO. I would normally give this film a 7 but I'm giving it an 8 to counter-balance all the negative reviews. Seriously, did the people who hated this really find nothing enjoyable at all? The gorgeous cinematography and decent soundtrack? The respectful treatment of the Apache? I'm not a fan of most of Sandler's filmography, but this was not a bad or unwatchable movie by any metrics.

In fact I'd say it's something of a return to form for him.