Punch-Drunk Love: Totally changed my opinion of Adam Sandler

★★★★--Saw this at the IU Cinema on Valentine’s Day, a perfect date night. Maybe my favorite Adam Sandler movie, depending on the day. Either that or Uncut Gems or Jay Kelly. This, however, was the one that was most interesting. For people that weren’t alive or paying attention back in 2002, it’s hard to stress the degree to which Adam Sandler’s performance was shocking. I’ve walked out of multiple Sandler movies. One, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, I actually asked for my money back. Sandler was thought of as an unhinged physical comedian. That was his schtick and that’s all we got for the decade from Airheads up to this. Extremely funny, but niche and not serious. PDL plays to his physical gifts and lets him tone it down. That is until his character explodes, which happens multiple times throughout the film. 

My rubric is one star each for acting/casting, story, creativity, and signature/style. I then have one for vibe. I’m a pretty easy grader. No half star bullshit. Fucking commit. This is four stars because the story is a bit thin and doesn’t do a great job of making you believe that someone could be instantly in love with Sandler’s character, Barry Egan, despite his many red flags. Cast and characters are amazing though. 
 
Philip Seymour Hoffman is incredible. One of his best smaller roles as a wannabe tough guy. He talks big on the phone and when people are walking away, but when confronted, he doesn't want any part of that. When him and his cronies try extorting Barry for calling a phone sex line, Barry wants them to lay off. Hoffman's character goes apocalyptic. "SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP! Shut up; will you SHUTUP SHUTUP! SHUT SHUT SHUT SHUT SHUTUP... SHUTUP! NOW!" he says. It's over the top but amazing. Dude steals every scene. Emily Watson is fine as the love interest. Luis Guzmán is always underrated. And Gayle "The Snail", aka Mary Lynn Rajskub, is great as Barry's overprotective, only slightly less neurotic sister. 
 

Only other person I'll mention is Robert Smigel, who plays Barry's dentist brother-in-law. In my mind he is a comedic genius. He's the voice of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, was a long-time Saturday Night Live writer, and was the mind behind SNL's "TV Funhouse" cartoon shorts. If you haven't seen those, they are pretty incredible. They include classics like the crowd-pleasing The Ambiguously Gay Duo, The Michael Jackson Show which probably wouldn't fly today, and my personal favorite The All-New Adventures of Mr. T ("I need work, fool!"). In addition, he co-wrote, mostly with Sandler (who also starred), Hotel Transylvania and Hotel Transylvania 2 (which I love), and Leo... And the unfortunate You Don't Mess with the Zohan. It's also worth mentioning his work on the brilliant The Dana Carvey Show, a magical, incredibly funny show that kicked off the careers of Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert. It was insanely controversial, but amazing, and Smigel was a big part of its "success". It only last about a month because all the drama surrounding it. 
 

It’s mid-tier Paul Thomas Anderson, but that means it is just fantastic instead of an absolute classic. In my mind, One Battle After Another and There Will Be Blood are battling it out with Zodiac, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood as the greatest film of the century. The Master, Licorice Pizza, Inherent Vice, and Phantom Threadare all five star movies for me. Below those I have Punch-Drunk Love just below those incredible films. I’d rate that and PTA’s previous two, Boogie Nights and Magnolia, as four-star flicks, and his first, Hard Eight, I’d put at three. Just my personal list though.
 
PTA is one of the best when it comes to the balance of needle drops, sound, and score. It’s an emotional language in this film. The song “He Needs Me” makes the dude feel fragile and vulnerable. Even though I have no patience for dudes who can’t take care of themselves, that need a mom out of their lover, Barry Egan gets a little bit of a pass. That said, there is no way that this could end happily for him. Sort of the Titanic problem. For it to be a real love story, dude has to die because there is too much shit for them to overcome.
 
Overall, it is a very sweet and tender love story. First time I remember talk about autism on film where the person wasn’t treated like a superhero, which was pretty cool. Sandler does a great job of making you feel the dude’s social anxiety and frustration. Good balance of danger and humor that really makes you go through a lot of emotions during its runtime, and after. And it is visually stunning.

Top 10 of 2025: 7. Jay Kelly

★★★★★--Movie about looking back after a lifetime of success and realizing you fucked up. Watched this the day before my sister’s wedding. A wedding I was officiating. Seemed like the best movie possible going into the occasion. 

George Clooney plays title character Jay Kelly, who is a famous actor much like George Clooney who also starred in all the same roles the real George Clooney starred in. Things get pretty meta. He is always wonderful, this maybe especially so. Noah Baumbach directs. Wrote it with Emily Mortimer who plays Jay Kelly’s hairstylist.

 

Rest of the cast is star-studded. Adam Sandler knocks it out of the park as Jay’s manager Ron. He has a wife back home, played by director Greta Gerwig (who is Baumbach’s real life wife), but he also has unresolved history with Jay's publicist Liz, played by the ageless Laura Dern. Billy Crudup is an actor/former friend of Jay’s that he screwed over to get his big break. Elvis’s granddaughter Riley Keough is Jessica Kelly, Jay's elder daughter, while Grace Edwards is Daisy Kelly, Jay's younger daughter who he did a little bit better of a job raising. Stacy Keach plays Jay’s dad. And Patrick Wilson plays actor Ben Alcock who is also an A-lister managed by Ron but is not quite on Jay’s level of stardom.

 

While I loved it, it kind of lost me in the last 30 minutes before correcting course to stick the landing. This wonderful meditation on aging, legacy, power, perception, family, stardom, celebrity, celebrity worship, friendship, brotherhood, betrayal, and guilt. Yeah, it’s pretty great.

Hubie Halloween is the okayest movie of all time

I’m asexual, but that girl’s making me hella horny. Adam Sandler movie. It was fun, but I don't think I laughed but maybe a handful of times. I think that was mostly at Maya Rudolph. Love her. Oh, and when all the news anchor ladies (one of whom was a news anchor in real life and was fired for breach of contract for appearing in the film, which is some bullshit) were dressed as Harley Quinn. Maybe once or twice at Steve Buscemi. Overall it was a good time, but I'm not gonna remember it a year from now, and it's not super rewatchable like Billy Madison or some of his other best films. 

Rotten Tomato Consensus: Viewers immune to its star's charms won't find it much of a treat, but Hubie Halloween is sweet enough to satisfy fans of Adam Sandler's antics.

Gist is that this sort of idiot played by Adam Sandler named Hubie Dubois, sweet guy, like fucking lives for Halloween in his hometown of Salem, which he fucking loves the shit out of. Yeah, he gets bullied constantly. Slowly, those bullies start to disappear. Foul play is indeed going down though Hubie suspects there is a supernatural element at play. Hubie shares a lot of DNA with Bobby Boucher from The Water Boy. Same voice and demeanor. Basically a lovable idiot.  

Movie stars Adam Sandler. Still a fan. I know he had a few duds in there, but generally, his movies are still enjoyable. Also in the flick are Kevin James, Julie Bowen who is the love interest and was the love interest in Happy Gilmore, Rob Schneider, Kenan Thompson, Shaquille O'Neal, and Steve Buscemi. Bullies include Ray Liotta (whose always a dick), Maya Rudolph (she's the best), and Tim Meadows, among others. Best cameo though was from Ben Stiller who reprises his role as Hal L., the raging orderly from Happy Gilmore. Sandler's wife and kids are also in the movie, which is pretty endearing. 

Ok. Quick bone to pick. I usually don't pick a whole lot of nits, but after Hubie saves the day at the end, we cut to a year later. Hubie is now the mayor of Salem. That means that he would have had to get elected the previous year, like a week after most of the movie goes down. Pretty sure that he would have already had to do a bunch of stuff to get on the ballot at that point with early voting and all. Plus he no time to campaign. Must have been one hell of a write-in situation. But, yeah, not really the point of the movie, I guess. 

For me, the MVP of the movie was Salem. I'm totes going there for Halloween some year. Town really gets into it with its history and everything. Looks to have a carnival-type atmosphere. They know how to do it up. 

Murder Mystery is the greatest movie of all time

Murder Mystery.  Part of this whole Adam Sandler is cool again thing from Netflix. I like it and I dug the movie. Right in my wheelhouse. Love Agatha Christie. Love a whodunit that doesn't take itself seriously. Been on a big Adam Sandler kick. Totally my schtick. With that in mind, not too surprising that I would think that it was the greatest movie of all time... And here we are. Critics hated it for the most part but I enjoyed it even though Sandler's character was sort of schmuck and Aniston is finally starting to age, though she still looks great (if a little white trashy, which I assume was intentional).

Rotten Tomato Consensus: Murder Mystery reunites Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler for a lightweight comedy that's content to settle for merely mediocre.

The first 20 minutes of the movie are a depressing mess with Aniston and Sandler's characters, who are married, sort of getting into it because Sandler doesn't do anything and is like the stereotypical embarrassing lazy, generic romcom dude. They've been married for 15 years and he still hasn't taken her on their promised European honeymoon because he is not only lazy, he is also cheap... and a liar. He tells her has had a promotion to detective but he is really just a cop. All this is sad and dumb.

Also, there is a character that plays this Maharishi or some such shit, that uses his spirituality and status as a guru to get laid. There is a term for this in Hinduism I remember learning in Intro to Religion freshman year of college but can't recall it anymore. It's real bad when it comes to rebirth as this is super fucking low but obviously pretty fucking common. This character, played by one Adeel Akhtar who is in that canceled Fox show Ghosted and was one of the terrorists in the mockumentary Four Lions. This guy. Not sure if I fucking hate the shit out of this character or not. He has his moments when I do, that's for fucking sure, but overall, I think I don't know what to think.

But then we get on the plane and Aniston meets some rich dude played by one Luke Evans--a handsome guy whom I only recognize from The Hobbit movies and was apparently in that new horror flick Ma which I haven't gotten around to seeing yet--when she sneaks into first class. He owns the airline or his uncle (Terence Stamp) does or something and befriends the two, inviting them to this shit show yacht trip with all these rich celebrities and shit that his dad is about to disown and announce he is leaving everything to his young wife who was once engaged to Evans. Right before signing his will, though, the lights go out and he gets got. Next thing we know people are dying all over the place.

The movie is at its best when Aniston and Sandler (I feel he wins the movie) ham it up as idiot Americans just along for the ride. They are ridiculously out of place for everything except the last 10 minutes of the movie. They dress like assholes, say dumb shit, and just look like classless idiots. Best with this is when Stamp's character goes through his relationship with all the people he is cutting off, saying shit like, "I gave you a career in film," "you saved my life in a suicide bombing assassination attempt 30 years ago," "you have led my race team to however many Formula One Championships," and so forth. When he sees them and is all, WTF are these idiots doing here. Evans character insists they stay, the rich dude is like, fine, I don't care, I do not care, you are all cut off. He, again, stabbed to death, and we get some solid physical humor with the general guy that saved him from assassination pulling out the knife. Sandler is like, probably want to leave that where it is, and he stabs it into the dead guy again. Hilarious.

I mean, the movie is what it is. If you liked shit like Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery, which I fucking love, then this is your fucking jam. Not into Murder on the Orient Express or And Then There Were None? First off, what the fuck, man? And second, you're not going to like this shit.