Sandy Wexler (2017) and the Happy Madison Blueprint... Sort Of

When people hear the name Happy Madison, there are a few reactions that occur.  Two of the more common are “Hey! I like to laugh.” and “Ugh. Adam Sandler.”  The studio has churned out comedies since the late 1990s, with the occasional dip into a different genre.  More recently, they’ve had a deal with Netflix for Adam Sandler to produce and release movies through the online platform.  That has given way to The Ridiculous 6, The Do-Over, and, more recently, Sandy Wexler.

Sandy Wexler came out just over two weeks ago, on April 14^th.  Adam Sandler starred as the titular character, a talent manager in 1990s Los Angeles.  It was a mess of a movie that wasn’t bad enough to cause any negative outbursts, as movies like Jack and Jill can.  It also wasn’t good enough to be entertaining.  It was a bad movie that wasn’t interesting.  That’s where Sandy Wexler sits.

The story involved Sandy Wexler signing a new talent.  Jennifer Hudson played Courtney Clarke, a singer that Sandy discovered performing in a children’s show.  He helped propel her to superstardom by getting her into a recording studio, and fell in love with her in the process.  His other talent were alienated as Sandy denied his feelings for Courtney.  It would only be through embracing his love that he would rise to the high levels of management that he had the potential for.

This third movie in Adam Sandler’s Netflix deal was a perfect way to describe the Happy Madison model.  Throughout this post, I am going to go into six different aspects that help build Happy Madison films.  These details will be described through the six main talent that Sandy Wexler managed throughout the movie.  Most of these names will be recognizable from other Adam Sandler movies.  It’s how his movies go.

Amy Baskin (Jackie Sandler)

In the context of the movie, Amy Baskin was an aspiring actress that Sandy Wexler had been managing for a while.  She had children, and had been stuck in a career of commercial work.  Sometimes the commercials were for things that Sandy hadn’t told her about.  He had a way of lying or bypassing the truth to get people to do things that would help out his clients.  He treated his clients like family.

In the context of real life, Jackie Sandler is Adam Sandler’s wife.  She has a prominent role in Sandy Wexler because Adam Sandler provides roles for his family members.  His wife has been in many of his movies, all the way back to Big Daddy.  He met her on set, ended up marrying her, and put her in other movies including The Ridiculous 6, Bedtime Stories, and both Paul Blart: Mall Cop movies.

His nephew Jared Sandler has also shown up in a few of his movies, such as The Ridiculous 6, Pixels, and Grown Ups 2.  Many times, he plays a character named Jared.  I guess Adam Sandler only sees him as a Jared.  Typecast in the Happy Madison world.

Then there are Adam Sandler’s daughters who have begun appearing in his movies.  The most memorable role for either of them was probably when Sadie Sandler played the Little League Announcer in Blended.  It was a role that required the smallest amount of acting, and she made it somewhat enjoyable.

Kevin Connors (Colin Quinn)

Close to family for Adam Sandler are his Saturday Night Live roots.  Though he hasn’t returned to host the show since he parted ways with it in 1995, the show is an important part of his career.  He isn’t afraid to help out the people who have been a part of the show over the years.  He’ll give roles to his crew from the time he was on the show.  He’ll give roles to people from after his tenure.  Sometimes he even tosses a bit part to Dan Aykroyd.  He’s all about helping out comedy actors who went through the same intense Saturday Night Live experience as him.

Like I said, there are many instances when he’ll have the people he worked directly with on the show appear in his movies.  Sandy Wexler featured many of them.  Chris Rock, Dana Carvey, and David Spade all had small parts as themselves.  Colin Quinn became Weekend Update anchor when Norm MacDonald was removed from that role, and Colin Quinn has had roles in many of Sandler’s recent movies.  His role in Sandy Wexler was as an aspiring comedian who may not have had the best jokes, but had Sandy’s full support behind him.  Rob Schneider also made his standard appearance in Adam Sandler’s movies when he played the owner of Sandy’s guest house.  Hell, Sandler even brought in Lorne Michaels, the man behind SNL, for this one.

The other main Saturday Night Live pool that Adam Sandler takes from is the group of performers from the Andy Samberg years, particularly Samberg himself.  Others have snuck into the movies.  Will Forte makes regular appearances.  But the movie to take the cake was Grown Ups 2, which had a scene where a group of male Saturday Night Live performers from that time performed a sexy car wash.  Taran Killam, Paul Brittain, Will Forte, Andy Samberg, and Bobby Moynihan were among the men in the scene.  That entire movie had upwards of twenty different Saturday Night Live performers in it.  That’s because they all became friends with Adam Sandler.

Gary Rogers (Nick Swardson)

Speaking of friends, there are a bunch of non-SNL, non-family that Adam Sandler continuously puts in his movies.  There are the obvious, bigger name people such as Nick Swardson (in this case playing an Evil Knievel style stuntman), Henry Winkler, Steve Buscemi, and Kevin James that pop up a few times throughout the history of Happy Madison.  Basically, if you work with Sandler once and he likes you, you’re set for eternity.

There are the friends that have been with Sandler since the beginning that you would recognize but maybe not know the names of.  Allen Covert and Peter Dante might be the most well known.  Allen Covert was the homeless guy in both Happy Gilmore and Jack and Jill, as well as many other minor roles in other Sandler movies.  He did get one starring role, which will come up later.  Peter Dante tends to play characters named Peter.  He was paired up with Shaquille O’Neal in Grown Ups 2.  They played the two police officers.  Other people fitting into this group include Jonathan Loughran, Kevin Grady, and J.D. Donaruma.

Then there are the mid-level people who don’t seem like actors that end up in Happy Madison movies.  Dave Matthews comes to mind fairly quickly.  For whatever reason, he has been in multiple Happy Madison movies, including Just Go with It and You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.  Most people that fit into this category come from newer movies where Adam Sandler has group scenes with a lot of random celebrities.  In Jack and Jill, there was a scene where Jared Fogel, Vince Offer, and many other people were a part of a party.  In Sandy Wexler, the framing scenes had people like Vanilla Ice (now a regular), Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish, and all three members of Salt N Pepa.  But there’s one particular type of friend that stands out more than the others.

“Bedtime” Bobby Barnes (Terry Crews)

For whatever reason, Adam Sandler and his Happy Madison crew like to take athletes and put them in prominent roles.  Perhaps it has to do with Sandler’s clear fandom of sports.  He’s made multiple movies that involved him being an athlete at some point.  Happy Gilmore, The Waterboy, and The Longest Yard all directly involved sports.  Grown Ups was about a group of adult friends getting back together because of the death of their childhood basketball coach.  Even when Adam Sandler doesn’t star, in movies such as The Benchwarmers and Here Comes the Boom, sports are still a major influence.

Terry Crews used to be a football player, though he is now known primarily for his acting.  He got to showcase his athleticism in Sandy Wexler while playing the role of a wrestler.  What I want to focus on are the people known for their athletic careers ending up in Sandler’s movies.  Shaquille O’Neal was mentioned earlier.  The basketball player has appeared in a few Adam Sandler movies, with Grown Ups 2 having his largest role.  Another athlete with a memorable role in an Adam Sandler movie was John McEnroe, who went on a night long bender with the title character in Mr. Deeds.

One of the bigger movies for athletes was The Longest Yard, which needed to fill two football teams.  Some of the people chosen were wrestlers (Bill Goldberg, Steve Austin, Kevin Nash) and football players (Terry Crews, Bill Romanowski, Brian Bosworth).  It was a movie filled with people known for their athletic ability, and they got to showcase it through the sports action within.

As was said before, it’s not even the Adam Sandler starring films that bring athletes into the mix.  Bas Rutten, a former MMA star, has appeared in four Happy Madison films.  None of those movies starred Adam Sandler.  In fact, only one of them featured the Sandman.  It’s all because the company loves to feature athletes in acting roles.

Ted Rafferty (Kevin James)

Not all Happy Madison movies star Adam Sandler.  There are many that don’t.  Rob Schneider broke out first with starring roles in the Deuce Bigalow movies, The Animal, and The Hot Chick, all under the Happy Madison banner.  Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo was actually the first movie produced by Happy Madison.  It came out before the first Adam Sandler starring movie under the production company, Little Nicky.

David Spade broke out next with Joe Dirt, Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser, and Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star.  Dana Carvey got his film The Master of Disguise produced through Happy Madison.  Allen Covert got Grandma’s Boy, Nick Swardson got Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star, and writer Fred Wolf even got a movie produced in Strange Wilderness.  Oh, and then there was The Benchwarmers, which took all of Sandler’s old SNL friends and gave them their own movie without Sandler in it.

The biggest star besides Adam Sandler to star in Happy Madison movies, though, is Kevin James.  He has so far headlined four Happy Madison movies of his own.  Paul Blart: Mall Cop was a surprise success and Here Comes the Boom is one of the better Happy Madison movies.  Some people might not say that means much, but it’s a well written story for a studio that prides itself in casual light racism and fart jokes.  Kevin James has also had important roles in Sandler starring vehicles such as Grown Ups, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Pixels, and Sandy Wexler.  In the latter movie, he played a ventriloquist who wanted nothing more than to host a children’s television show.  The movies bridged his time between sitcoms, coming after the end of King of Queens and before the start of Kevin Can Wait. 

Courtney Clarke (Jennifer Hudson)

One of the big tropes in standard sitcoms is the “ugly husband, hot wife” trope.  This is a trope that gets used a lot in Happy Madison movies, where an unbelievably attractive woman ends up with the main character.  Adam Sandler ends up with Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, Salma Hayek, or Jennifer Aniston depending on the movie.  In the case of Sandy Wexler, the love interest was Jennifer Hudson.  For some reason, this trope has become a standard of Happy Madison movies.

It’s not just the movies starring Adam Sandler either.  Salma Hayek may have been married to him in Grown Ups, but in Here Comes the Boom, she was the love interest of Kevin James.  Kevin James has also been paired with Jayma Mays and Rosario Dawson.  In what might be the definition of this trope, Nick Swardon as the “as ugly as can be” Bucky Larson was paired up with an adorable Christina Ricci.

This trope flows through the majority of Happy Madison productions rearing its ugly head in the core relationships.  That’s not to say that the men starring in the movies are conventionally ugly.  There’s just a clear difference in attractiveness between them and their female co-stars that lends itself to fitting this sitcom trope.

Those six points sum up a lot of what makes Happy Madison movies into what everyone knows them as.  A lot of it has to do with the casting of Adam Sandler’s friends and family, as well as the stunt casting of famous people known for different things.  Some of it has to do with that sitcom trope, as well as the unmentioned immaturity that many of the jokes thrive on.  In Grown Ups 2, there was a running gag about burping, farting, and sneezing at the same time.  Yeah.  High comedy, right?

Sandy Wexler somewhat fit that mould.  It definitely fit the six things that were brought up in the post.  It was an okay comedy, with the only major weakness being its length and the forced cameos of all of Sandler’s comedy friends.  There was no need for the framing scenes.  The movie could have survived on its own without them, and it would have cut down on the running time.  It wouldn’t have felt like such a chore.

Happy Madison can feel like a chore sometimes, but most of the time they make mindless comedies that you can turn on and enjoy without needing to think.  Many people don’t like that idea.  Netflix does, and so do the people who watch Adam Sandler’s movies.  That’s why Happy Madison has thrived since the turn of the century.  They know their audience and they cater to them.  They make movies that their audience will enjoy.

My audience might enjoy this extensive list of notes:

• Movies that were mentioned in this post included Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Jack and Jill, and Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star.
• Sandy Wexler featured Allen Covert, who was in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Going Overboard, Jack and Jill, and Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star.
• Adam Sandler made his fifth Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance in Sandy Wexler.  He could previously be seen in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Going Overboard, and Jack and Jill.
• Jon Lovitz was another actor returning to the Sunday “Bad” Movies with Sandy Wexler.  He had already been in Bark Ranger, Mom and Dad Save the World, and Hamburger: The Motion Picture.
• Nick Swardson was in Sandy Wexler.  You might already know him from his appearances in A Haunted House, Jack and Jill, and Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star.
• Many actors made their third Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance in Sandy Wexler.  Four of them had previously been in Jack and Jill and Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star.  They were J.D. Donaruma, Robert Harvey, Jonathan Loughran, and Chris Titone.
• John Farley was another three-timer, having already been in Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo and Jack and Jill when he showed up in Sandy Wexler.
• Eugenio Derbez came back to the Sunday “Bad” Movies in Sandy Wexler, after previously showing up in Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Jack and Jill.
• Adam Sandler’s wife, Jackie Sandler, has now appeared in three Sunday “Bad” Movies, thanks to her role in Sandy Wexler.  She had previously shown up in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, and Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star.
• Pauly Shore returned to the Sunday “Bad” Movies with Sandy Wexler.  He’s been in three movies so far, with the other two being Bio-Dome and Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star.
• Also in the three-timers club was Terry Crews.  He played an important role in Sandy Wexler.  He was also in The Single Moms Club and Norbit.
• Rounding out the people making their third appearances, Rob Schneider has been in three Sunday “Bad” Movies now.  He was in both Deuce Bigalow movies, and Sandy Wexler.
• Five actors were in both Jack and Jill and Sandy Wexler.  They were Dana Carvey, Betsy Hammer, Sadie Sandler, Sunny Sandler, and David Spade.
• Three actors were in Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star and Sandy Wexler.  They were John Kirk, Ido Mosseri, and Kevin Nealon.
• Sandy Wexler was the second movie for both Luis Guzman and Paul Rodriguez, who had both previously been in Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
• Jonathan Peacy and Terry F. Smith both made their second Sunday “Bad” Movies appearances after being in The Human Centipede III.
• Downtown Julie Brown and Sandra ‘Pepa’ Denton were both in Sharknado 2: The Second One before appearing in Sandy Wexler.
• Lamorne Morris played a record producer in Sandy Wexler.  He also had a small role in April Fools.
• Emily Somers made her return to the Sunday “Bad” Movies with Sandy Wexler.  She was featured long ago in Playing for Keeps.
• If you saw Sandy Wexler, you may have noticed Misty Miller, who was also in The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure.
• Steven Brill made an appearance in Sandy Wexler.  He was in the movie Going Overboard.
• Wayne Federman, from the movie View From the Top, was in Sandy Wexler.
• One of the voices in Foodfight! was that of Daniel Browning Smith, who has now returned to the Sunday “Bad” Movies in Sandy Wexler.
• Janeane Garofalo played herself in Sandy Wexler.  She played a role in 200 Cigarettes, too.
• Chris Elliott had one of the stranger roles in Sandy Wexler.  He was in a strange movie called Cabin Boy.
• Penn Jillette of the famous Penn and Teller duo was in Sandy Wexler, as well as Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!
• Finally, we have Karli Karissa in Sandy Wexler.  She had previously been in Fifty Shades of Black.
• Did you take a chance to sit down and watch Sandy Wexler yet? If so, what did you think of it?  What are your thoughts on the Happy Madison brand?  You can discuss these topics in the comments section below.
• The comments can be a good place to leave suggestions for movies that I should watch in the future.  That or my Twitter timeline are places where you can be sure that I’ll see your suggestions.  I’m always looking for movies to watch.
• I have a snapchat account as well.  Sometimes I share weird things in my story.  Sometimes the snaps are inside jokes.  Sometimes they’re clips of bad movies.  If you want, you can add me.  My username is jurassicgriffin.
• Next week’s movie will be a blast from the past as I go to the early 1990s to watch some Bruce Willis fun.  I’ll be writing about Hudson Hawk and all of the fun that came along with it.  I like the movie.  I like it a lot.  Who knows what I’ll write though?  Come back next week to find out.

Why God's Not Dead 2 (2016) Improved on God's Not Dead (2014)

Religion has been a large part of movies for over a century.  Many horror movies rely on it.  Greats like The Exorcist or Dracula couldn’t exist without religion.  Historical epics such as Noah or The Ten Commandments also rely on religion, since they’re telling religious stories.  Without religion, we wouldn’t have movies like Doubt or Spotlight (we also wouldn’t have their subject matter actually happening, but that’s a whole different point).  There is a spot within the movie world for religion to help shape a story.

The only problem is when the stories tell the audience that a specific religion is the right religion and that people should believe that religion.  I went through the problem of watching one of those movies back during the Christmas season when Saving Christmas was in the schedule.  That movie saw a man discouraged by Christmas told how it was a Christian holiday.  His friend Kirk Cameron went on and on about how every aspect of Christmas related to the religion and convinced his friend to believe in Christianity.  He was also trying to tell the audience that they should follow Christianity.  It was pushy in a way that is off-putting.

In that same vein were the God’s Not Dead movies.  The first one was released in 2014 and told the story of Josh Wheaton (Shane Harper), a college student who stood up to Professor Radisson (Kevin Sorbo) after being told to write a note saying “God is dead.”  Josh felt that the note infringed upon his beliefs.  This led to a series of guest lectures by Josh to counter his professor’s thought that there was no God.  Josh had to convince the class that there could be.  Through this story, and the many subplots, the movie told the audience that there was a God and that they should become Christians.

The major problem with God’s Not Dead was how pushy it was.  There was a good story about a college kid standing up for the right to believe.  That message could help lead to a better sense of equality among the different religions and faiths throughout the world.  If everyone would just let their fellow people believe in whatever higher power they want, the world would be a much more peaceful place.  Yet the concept wasn’t presented that way.  This storyline, which ended in a climactic realization about Professor Radisson, was about showing people that Christianity is the right way to go.  It was supported by a multitude of other stories about people turning to Christianity for a better life.  Reporter Amy (Trisha LaFache) was against Christianity until she found out she had cancer.  The sickness and the way people treated her because of it turned her to the religion.  Ayisha (Hadeel Sittu) felt disillusioned by the religion she had grown up in and turned to Christianity for relief.  Martin Yip (Paul Kwo) was in Professor Radisson’s philosophy class and took Josh’s side of the debate to heart.  Then there were the relationships of the two main characters falling apart due to their beliefs, and the story of Reverend Dave (David A.R. White) and his cars not starting.  Everything was pushing Christianity.

As I’ve said, the story of God’s Not Dead isn’t all bad.  Having the relationships of the main characters and their battle to believe or not to believe was a good idea.  That alone could have made for a great movie, if it was only about the right to believe and not only about Christianity.  It was just that the movie went out of its way to show that Christianity was the one true religion, and that on-the-nose push for that religion turned the movie into a promo.  It became less about entertainment and more about converting viewers.

The sequel, released in 2016, understood that and slightly retooled the argument.  In God’s Not Dead 2, a teacher named Grace Wesley (Melissa Joan Hart) was persecuted for discussing the Bible in class.  The schoolboard was against the merging of religion and education and took her to court over it.  Helping Grace out was an attorney, Tom Endler (Jesse Metcalfe).  He didn’t care about the religious side of the battle.  He was defending her right to discuss the Bible in a purely educational sense.  She hadn’t been preaching or trying to convert her students.  She was discussing the Bible in a strictly educational context, as a supporting material to what was being taught.  Against Grace were the parents of Brooke Thawley (Hayley Orrantia), who had hired Pete Kane (Ray Wise) to sue Grace for bringing religion into Brooke’s education.

What made the sequel work better than the first was that it felt like it was giving people the opportunity to join the Christian faith without pushing it on them.  It was a story involving religion.  It wasn’t a story trying to convert the audience.  The Tom Endler character was a big reason for this since his whole argument wasn’t about people needing to believe in Christianity.  His argument was about the importance of religion in history and historical text.  Martin Luther King Jr. was a minister, but the school was only allowed to see him as a civil rights leader.  That kind of thing.  He argued that being a minister was important to who Martin Luther King was and that it shouldn’t be ignored.  It wasn’t an argument about people needing to believe in a specific religion, but rather an argument that people should allow beliefs to be discussed.

The subplots also tied into the main story better than in the previous effort, making the movie feel cohesive with every element fitting into the movie.  Reverend Dave returned as a Pastor (I don’t know the difference between those two titles, but he got a title change) and ended up being a juror in the trial.  His time in the jury would be cut short due to some health issues.  But throughout his time in the jury, he was also talking to Martin (also returning from the first movie) about his newfound religion, and going up against a subpoena to take his past 120 sermons.  He wouldn’t give up the sermons and it would lead to a problem at the end, setting up a potential story for another sequel.

These two subplots expanded on the main story being told.  Brooke Thawley had asked a question about religion in class, since she was slowly beginning to believe.  That led to the trial between her parents and teacher, a trial she did not want.  The questions were mirrored in Martin’s curiosity at coming into Christianity.  The stance that Grace took about not giving up her right to discuss religion in a historical context was complemented by Pastor Dave’s fighting for his right to be able to preach in church without government interference.  The government was trying to stop Grace from teaching and stop Pastor Dave from preaching.  The main story and subplots fit together much better the second time.

Religion can be a tricky thing for filmmakers to get right.  Some filmmakers like to use religion as a way to accentuate their movies.  It adds a new context that deepens the events.  Movies such as God’s Not Dead and Saving Christmas go about it a little differently, trying to promote their religion.  It can hurt how entertaining a movie is.  Forcing a message onto people is like obvious product placement.  People will notice it and dislike it.  A little bit of subtlety is necessary.  God’s Not Dead 2 managed to be a little more subtle, and stopped pushing the Christian faith as hard.  It still pushed, but not as hard.  It ended up being more entertaining, and actually got me interested in seeing a third movie.  That’s why most people use religion in movies.  It makes things more interesting.

Maybe these notes will be somewhat interesting:

• God’s Not Dead was suggested by @TheChewDefense, who has also suggested Howard the Duck, Tracers, Outcast, and Gigli.
• Twelve actors appeared in both the first and second God’s Not Dead films.  They were Tommy Blaze, Jody Davis, Abigail Duhon, Jeff Frankenstein, Paul Kwo, Trisha LaFache, Benjamin A. Onyango, Duncan Phillips, August Sunseri, Michael Tait, Jesse Wang, and David A.R. White.
• God’s Not Dead 2 featured Ernie Hudson, who was also in Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 and Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3.
• Fred Dalton Thompson made his final film appearance in God’s Not Dead 2.  He was in a couple more Sunday “Bad” Movies during his career.  They were Baby’s Day Out and Aces: Iron Eagle III.
• Dean Cain had a role in God’s Not Dead.  He also had a role in A Nanny for Christmas.
• God’s Not Dead was the second appearance of Jay Caputo in the Sunday “Bad” Movies after he was in Ed.
• Four actor from Fant4stic were in God’s Not Dead.  They were Jim Gleason, Clint Michael Naquin, Shauna Rappold, and Jesse Yarborough.
• Ray Wise was in Big Ass Spider! before showing up in God’s Not Dead 2.
• Finally, Carey Scott was in God’s Not Dead 2 as well as Top Dog.
• I also mentioned Saving Christmas in this post.
• Have you seen either of the God’s Not Dead movies?  Have you seen any other religious films of this sort?  You can discuss this stuff in the comments section below.
• If there are any movies that you think I should watch in future installments of the Sunday “Bad” Movies, you can feel free to drop those into the comments or my Twitter timeline.  I’m always looking for hidden gems that I don’t know about.
• I also have a snapchat.  Add jurassicgriffin if you want to keep up with the random things that I sometimes end up sharing.  It’s up to you.
• Next week’s movie is a big one.  By that, I mean that it has a giant cast and the movie is much longer than it needs to be.  Adam Sandler recently released a new Netflix movie called Sandy Wexler.  That’s what I’m going to be taking a look at.  Come back in seven days for that one.  It should be an interesting post.