The Netflix original flick – which will be the first of the four in Sandler’s contract – will star Sandler, staples like Steve Buscemi (who has finally managed to evolve his creepy image from Sandler flicks into a new creepy image via his starring role in Boardwalk Empire) and Rob Schneider (seriously, does this guy have a career outside of Sandler movies?). Also in the loop are Taylor Lautner (with whom Sandler has already worked on Grown Ups 2), Oscar nominated actor Nick Nolte, country singer and judge on The Voice Blake Shelton, and comedian Whitney Cummings.
The cast list is part standard Sandler crew and part mish-mash of current hot names. Also said to appear in the movie will be Dan Aykroyd, Will Forte, Nick Swardson, Terry Crews, Jon Lovitz, Luke Wilson, Steve Zahn, Danny Trejo, Chris Parnell, Lavell Crawford, and – wait for it – Vanilla Ice. It’s like a 120-minute cameo fest. I’m surprised Drew Barrymore’s name isn’t in there somewhere.
Related: Adam Sandler ditches theaters to star in four exclusive Netflix movies
Production is set to start in February, and the movie will take on a comedic Western theme with Sandler in the lead role as a man who grew up on an Indian tribe after being orphaned as a child. Many of the actors will play his half brothers – presumably five of them to make up the sextuplet of ridiculosity. Other key roles include Nolte as Sandler’s biological father, Trejo as the leader of a rival gang, Shelton – who just recently showed his comedic chops hosting Saturday Night Live – as Wyatt Earp, and “Ice” as Mark Twain. Yeah, Mark Twain.
Is working with Sandler a good or bad move for Netflix?
Forbes, after all, just named Sandler the top overpaid actor of 2014. One could argue that a great deal of the movies Sandler has made since his heyday of the ‘90s have been ridiculous – and not in a good way. Admittedly, we were huge Sandler fan back in his Canteen Boy, Opera Man, guitar Hanukkah Song singing days on SNL. And even into the stupidity that was featured in movies like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore. Have any other movies since been able to generate so many one-liners? And come on, the guy managed to get Bob Barker to call him a bitch on the big screen!
That said, Sandler probably reads that Forbes list, and other comments like these, while soaking up on the sun, margarita in hand by the pool in his multimillion-dollar villa. (OK, so we don’t really know if he has a villa, nor if he likes margaritas, but you get where we’re going with that.) Point being that even if every movie Sandler has made over the past decade or so seems to be the exact same movie (insert slightly modified storyline here) they still make truckloads of money. Add male camaraderie with a twinge of silliness and a dash of hot female bodies, and you’ve got a winning formula that Sandler has managed to perfect to a T. Grown Ups 2 was widely panned by critics, yet made close to $250 million at the box office – and cost just $80 million to make.
Netflix may have hit the jackpot by partnering up with Sandler. A lot, however, will hinge on Ridiculous Six. It looks like Sandler has rallied a stellar ensemble cast in hopes of making it a must-see, even if it’s name could be indicative of its quality.
