I'm not an Adam Sandler fan-boy or anything, but I think he gets kind of a weird bad rap. Is his record for comedy that bad, compared to our popular comedic actors? What great comedy actor has such a more stellar batting average than Adam Sandler?
The guy has what, 6-7 true abominations in his filmography? And I totally agree those may be irredeemable.
But he's made a LOT of movies. He's made a good handful of inspired comedies, a handful of strong dramatic or semi-dramatic roles, and the vast majority of his work is just mediocre, forgettable comedies. Unremarkable either for good or for bad...which is what makes up the majority of all comedic actors' resumes. I'd say his absolute shit-bomb % isn't any higher than most comedic actors.
I think the key to the resentment, is that he's remarkably bomb-proof. Comedic actors have a pretty short shelf life and generally aren't allowed too many crapfests before Hollywood pretty much abandons them. Look at someone like Chevy Chase, literally at the top of his field, really made all his classics from 1980-86. But he made The Couch Trip and Funny Farm in 1987, and his run was over (save a Vacation sequel or two that leveraged an established property).
Do guys like Dan Ackroyd or Eddie Murphy have that much more crap-free resumes?
I'd say that the backlash against Sandler is mainly because he is SO prolific and has been able to keep making movies even beyond some real crap. You're not supposed to be able to do that. It probably also has to do with HOW his bad movies are bad...they are infantile, puerile and borderline offensive in a way that a bad Steve Martin movie, let's say, was not.
I guess you could hold up a guy like Bill Murray as the counter to Sandler's career, but Bill Murray never wanted to be a broad comedic actor, and actually started avoiding broad comedy as soon as he could. Good for him, but I don't think you can really compare a guy who made like 12 straight broad comedies to somebody who's made like three times that many.
