Dear Adam Sandler,
This is not a fan letter; I’m sure you get thousands of those every year. I’m not really fond of your work as a whole; I thought you had some funny characters on “Saturday Night Live,” love your song “The Lonesome Kicker,” and I enjoyed a few of your movies when you didn’t act like a total jackass, like “The Wedding Singer” and “Punch Drunk Love.”
But for the most part, I have seen almost none of your hit movies, and the “comedies” I have seen have been hideously awful. (I realize I’m a traitor to my generation for saying this, but it’s true.)
You have another smash on your hands now, “Grown Ups 2,” which has the almost unfathomable score of 7% positive on Rottentomatoes.com (That means 93 percent of critics who saw it hated it. Hard to do.)
And yet, despite every critic pooping on it, your new flick made $42 million at the box office this weekend.
So here’s my question Adam, from one Jewish New York Jets fan to another:
You have more money than you can possibly spend. You’re famous all over the world, and I imagine your life is pretty sweet.
You clearly have talent, so wouldn’t you rather make a good movie? I mean, wouldn’t you rather have people respect your work and consider you a craftsman, an artisan, a true actor?
You’ve made plenty of stupid guy movies; you’ve got that demo covered. Don’t you have any sense of pride, anything that deep down in your gut tells you to maybe make a piece of art that’s worth a damn?
Just imagine if you actually did interesting, quasi-serious films that challenged you as a thespian. Wouldn’t that be more fulfilling than churning out dreck like “Grown Ups 2?”
Think about it, man. Do you want a legacy of idiotic humor on your tombstone?
Just one guy’s opinion.
Hugs and kisses,
-Michael
**My father, who for the past few weeks has been following the George Zimmerman trial minute by minute (I’ve got nothing to say on the verdict, but Charlie Pierce as usual sums up my feelings, and those of millions of others, pretty succinctly right here), sent me a fantastic commercial the other day.
It’s from Evian water, and I couldn’t stop laughing at its creativity or sheer zaniness. It’s apparently been out for a few months but I haven’t seen it on American TV at all; maybe it was only airing in Europe?
I’m a Poland Spring man myself, but this makes me want to switch brands.
**Finally, I was saddened to hear of the death of Cory Monteith, who played Finn on “Glee.” I only watched the show for the first two seasons, but I thought Monteith was a pretty strong young actor, with serious vocal chops.
He also did comedy really well, whether it was in the greatest of all “Glee” scenes, when Kurt and the team do “Single Ladies” during a play, and brought depth to a role that could’ve been very shallow.
I have no idea if Monteith’s past drug problems are the reason for his death; what I thought about while reading Monteith’s obit is just how incredibly fast fame can hit a person. Here was a man who was doing bit parts in TV shows and movies, and all of a sudden gets on a mega-hit show, and his whole life changes overnight.
I’ve heard famous people talk about what an incredible narcotic fame can be, and I wonder if Monteith was one of so many who couldn’t handle the incredible life change that happens when you get famous.
Wide World of Stuff 