Big Daddy celebrates its 25th anniversary!
The critics haven’t always been kind to Adam Sandler over the course of his film career, but box office receipts don’t lie — his detractors have been handily outnumbered by his many ardent fans, many of whom have been laughing it up over the SNL vet’s shtick for decades. His filmography’s certainly had its share of ups and downs, but it includes some of the biggest — and most eminently quotable — comedy hits in recent memory, from Billy Madison to Happy Gilmore, as well as a number of beloved rom-coms like The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates, and indie gems in the form of The Meyerowitz Stories and Punch-Drunk Love. In fact, one of his latest was exactly that: 2019’s Uncut Gems, the intense crime thriller from the Safdie bros, drew some of the highest critical acclaim of Sandler’s career. And he pulls a repeat with 2022’s Netflix basketball dramedy Hustle.
Watch out for hired goons, giant penguins, and, of course, Bob Barker, and let’s take a look at his entire filmography, from the best Adam Sandler movies to the worst, ranked by Tomatometer!
#1
Adjusted Score: 101944%
Critics Consensus: Hustle doesn’t have any fancy moves, but it doesn’t need them — Adam Sandler’s everyman charm makes this easy layup fun to watch.
#2
Adjusted Score: 102068%
Critics Consensus: The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) observes the family dynamic through writer-director Noah Baumbach’s bittersweet lens and the impressive efforts of a remarkable cast.
#3
Adjusted Score: 109448%
Critics Consensus: Uncut Gems reaffirms the Safdies as masters of anxiety-inducing cinema — and proves Adam Sandler remains a formidable dramatic actor when given the right material.
#4
Adjusted Score: 94696%
Critics Consensus: A coming-of-age comedy that sidesteps simple nostalgia, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah finds fresh humor in adolescent anxiety — and suggests a bright future for star Sunny Sandler.
#5
Adjusted Score: 85747%
Critics Consensus: Odd, touching, and unique, Punch-Drunk Love is also delightfully funny, utilizing Adam Sandler’s comic persona to explore the life of a lonely guy who finds love.
#6
Adjusted Score: 75830%
Critics Consensus: It’s decidedly uneven — and surprisingly sappy for an early Adam Sandler comedy — but The Wedding Singer is also sweet, funny, and beguiling.
#7
Adjusted Score: 78509%
Critics Consensus: Funny People features the requisite humor, as well as considerable emotional depth, resulting in Judd Apatow’s most mature film to date.
#8
Adjusted Score: 69804%
Critics Consensus: Reign Over Me is a charming, affecting tale of friendship and loss, with solid performances from Adam Sandler as a broken, grief-stricken man and Don Cheadle as his old friend and savior.
#9
Adjusted Score: 68037%
Critics Consensus: Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation delivers exactly what fans will expect – which means another 97 agreeably lightweight minutes of fast-paced gags and colorful animation.
#10
Adjusted Score: 65426%
Critics Consensus: Those who enjoy Adam Sandler’s schtick will find plenty to love in this gleefully juvenile take on professional golf; those who don’t, however, will find it unfunny and forgettable.
#11
Adjusted Score: 61697%
Critics Consensus: Hotel Transylvania 2 is marginally better than the original, which may or may not be enough of a recommendation to watch 89 minutes of corny, colorfully animated gags from Adam Sandler and company.
#12
Adjusted Score: 59367%
Critics Consensus: Paz Vega shines, and Adam Sandler gives a performance of thoughtfulness and depth, but Spanglish is ultimately undermined by sitcommy plotting and unearned uplift.
#13
Adjusted Score: 56210%
Critics 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.
#14
Adjusted Score: 59634%
Critics Consensus: Spaceman‘s poignant themes are partly brought to life by sensitive performances from a talented cast, but it fails to consistently engage with its most interesting ideas.
#15
Adjusted Score: 50632%
Critics Consensus: Gross-out humor overwhelms the easy chemistry between Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, who bring some energy and yucks to this tale of a girl with short-term memory loss and the guy who tries to get her to love him.
#16
Adjusted Score: 49720%
Critics Consensus: A genially mediocre sequel to its similarly middling predecessor, Murder Mystery 2 could have been much better… and a whole lot worse.
#17
Adjusted Score: 50423%
Critics Consensus: Hotel Transylvania’s buoyant, giddy tone may please children, but it might be a little too loud and thinly-scripted for older audiences.
#18
Adjusted Score: 46957%
Critics Consensus: Murder Mystery reunites Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler for a lightweight comedy that’s content to settle for merely mediocre.
#19
Adjusted Score: 44089%
Critics Consensus: Shakes the Clown has a handful of memorable moments, but they’re scattered in a movie whose best ideas were left undeveloped on their way to the screen.
#20
Adjusted Score: 48613%
Critics Consensus: Thought not without its funny moments, Anger Management is ultimately stale and disappointingly one-note, especially considering its capable cast.
#21
Adjusted Score: 43075%
Critics Consensus: Audiences who enjoy Adam Sandler’s belligerent comic energy may find him in joyously obnoxious form as Billy Madison, but this thinly-plotted starring vehicle surrounds its star with an aggressively pedestrian movie.
#22
Adjusted Score: 43385%
Critics Consensus: Adam Sandler acquits himself admirably, but his charm isn’t enough to make up for Big Daddy‘s jarring shifts between crude humor and mawkish sentimentality.
#23
Adjusted Score: 44606%
Critics Consensus: You Don’t Mess With the Zohan features intermittent laughs, and will please Sandler diehards, but after awhile the leaky premise wears thin.
#24
Adjusted Score: 37361%
Critics Consensus: Listless, crude, and overall uninspired, Coneheads offers further evidence that stretching an SNL sketch to feature length can be tougher than narfling a garthok.
#25
Adjusted Score: 40877%
Critics Consensus: This Adam Sandler vehicle borrows shamelessly from It’s A Wonderful Life and Back To The Future, and fails to produce the necessary laughs that would forgive such imitation.
#26
Adjusted Score: 39085%
Critics Consensus: Men, Women & Children is timely, but director Jason Reitman’s overbearing approach to its themes blunts the movie’s impact.
#27
Adjusted Score: 37250%
Critics Consensus: This is an insult to its genre with low humor and cheap gags.
#28
Adjusted Score: 37125%
Critics Consensus: This Yard has some laughs but missing from this remake is the edginess of the original.
#29
Adjusted Score: 31169%
Critics Consensus: There’s a biting satire that keeps threatening to burst out of the well-cast Airheads, but unfortunately, the end result lives down to its title in the most unfortunate ways.
#30
Adjusted Score: 31046%
Critics Consensus: Though it may earns some chuckles from pre-teens, this kid-friendly Adam Sandler comedy is uneven, poorly paced, and lacks the requisite whimsy to truly work.
#31
Adjusted Score: 27289%
Critics Consensus: Sandy Wexler marks a mild improvement from the Adam Sandler vehicles immediately preceding it — which in no way serves as an endorsement for non-hardcore fans.
#32
Adjusted Score: 26584%
Critics Consensus: The Week Of suggests promise in further collaborations between Sandler and Robert Smigel, but its shopworn premise and listless execution aren’t enough to recommend it.
#33
Adjusted Score: 26956%
Critics Consensus: This update of Capra doesn’t hold a candle to the original, and even on its own merits, Mr. Deeds is still indifferently acted and stale.
#34
Adjusted Score: 26240%
Critics Consensus: Despite the presence of a large, talented cast, the jokes in Little Nicky are dumb, tasteless, and not that funny, and Adam Sandler’s character is grating to watch.
#35
Adjusted Score: 24878%
Critics Consensus: While it does represent a new foray into raunch for the normally PG-13 Sandler, That’s My Boy finds him repeating himself to diminishing effect – and dragging Andy Samberg down with him.
#36
Adjusted Score: 24132%
Critics Consensus: Just Go With It may be slightly better than some entries in the recently dire rom-com genre, but that’s far from a recommendation.
#37
Adjusted Score: 27767%
Critics Consensus: Much like the worst arcade games from the era that inspired it, Pixels has little replay value and is hardly worth a quarter.
#38
Adjusted Score: 21085%
Critics Consensus: Lurching between slapstick and schmaltz without showing much of a commitment to either, Blended commits the rare Sandler sin of provoking little more than boredom.
#39
Adjusted Score: 20382%
Critics Consensus: Whether by way of inept comedy or tasteless stereotypes, I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry falters on both levels.
#40
Adjusted Score: 18867%
Critics Consensus: Zookeeper smothers Kevin James’s with a sodden script and a surfeit of jokes inappropriate for the young viewers who would be intrigued by its juvenile storyline.
#41
Adjusted Score: 16282%
Critics Consensus: Sandler returns to his roots in this nauseating concoction filled with potty humor and product placements.
#42
Adjusted Score: 14669%
Critics Consensus: Mixed Nuts may provoke strong allergic reactions in all but the most undemanding filmgoers — and the most forgiving Steve Martin fans.
#43
Adjusted Score: 16719%
Critics Consensus: Grown Ups‘ cast of comedy vets is amiable, but they’re let down by flat direction and the scattershot, lowbrow humor of a stunted script.
#44
Adjusted Score: 12645%
Critics Consensus: The Cobbler represents a slight step up from Adam Sandler’s recent comedies, but while its cloying sentiment proves a more palatable substitute for his usual crass humor, it still isn’t terribly compelling.
#45
Adjusted Score: 9178%
Critics Consensus: A dunderheaded story of mistaken identity, The Do-Over finds Adam Sandler and David Spade retreading old ground — minus the comedic pep required to enliven the decidedly uninspired proceedings.
#46
Adjusted Score: 12834%
Critics Consensus: While it’s almost certainly the movie event of the year for filmgoers passionate about deer urine humor, Grown Ups 2 will bore, annoy, and disgust audiences of nearly every other persuasion.
#47
Adjusted Score: 10058%
Critics Consensus: In addition to its ability to deflect gunfire, Bulletproof proves sadly impervious to humor, logic, or worthwhile viewing.
#48
Adjusted Score: 7205%
Critics Consensus: Although it features an inexplicably committed performance from Al Pacino, Jack and Jill is impossible to recommend on any level whatsoever.
#49
Adjusted Score: 934%
Critics Consensus: Every bit as lazily offensive as its cast and concept would suggest, The Ridiculous Six is standard couch fare for Adam Sandler fanatics and must-avoid viewing for film enthusiasts of every other persuasion.