700BigDaddy

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

ems

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.

Synopsis: Stanley Sugerman’s (Adam Sandler) love for basketball is unparalleled, but the travel weary Philadelphia 76ers scout who has higher ambitions… [More]

#2

ems

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.

Synopsis: The adult children of Harold Meyerowitz reunite in New York in preparation for their father’s career retrospective…. [More]

#3

ems

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.

Synopsis: A charismatic jeweler makes a high-stakes bet that could lead to the windfall of a lifetime. In a precarious high-wire… [More]

#4

ems

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.

Synopsis: Stacy and Lydia are BFFs who’ve always dreamed about having epic bat mitzvahs. However, things start to go comically awry… [More]

#5

p30412 p v8 as

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.

Synopsis: Although susceptible to violent outbursts, bathroom supply business owner Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) is a timid and shy man by… [More]

#6

9836 aa

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.

Synopsis: Set in 1985, Adam Sandler plays a nice guy with a broken heart who’s stuck in one of the most… [More]

#7

p194002 p v8 an

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.

Synopsis: Recently learning that he has a fatal disease, comic George Simmons (Adam Sandler) spots a struggling performer named Ira (Seth… [More]

#8

p163618 p v12 an

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.

Synopsis: Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler), who lost his family in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, still grieves over their deaths…. [More]

#9

170388 aa

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.

Synopsis: Your favorite monster family boards a luxury cruise ship so Dracula can take a summer vacation from the hotel. It’s… [More]

#10

p17735 p v8 aj

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.

Synopsis: All Happy Gilmore (Adam Sandler) has ever wanted is to be a professional hockey player. But he soon discovers he… [More]

See also  The Matrix Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer 

#11

148978 ab

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.

Synopsis: Now that Dracula (Adam Sandler) has opened the Hotel Transylvania’s doors to humans, things are changing for the better; however,… [More]

#12

p35193 p v8 af

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.

Synopsis: Mexican immigrant and single mother Flor Moreno (Paz Vega) finds housekeeping work with Deborah (Téa Leoni) and John Clasky (Adam… [More]

#13

ems

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.

Synopsis: It’s October 31st in Salem, Massachusetts, and a town’s eccentric, devoted community volunteer and the good-natured object of his fellow… [More]

#14

ems

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.

Synopsis: Six months into a solitary research mission to the edge of the solar system, an astronaut, Jakub (Adam Sandler), realizes… [More]

#15

p33587 p v8 ab

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.

Synopsis: Playboy vet Henry sets his heart on romancing Lucy, but she has short-term memory loss; she can’t remember anything that… [More]

#16

ems

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.

Synopsis: Now full-time detectives struggling to get their private eye agency off the ground, Nick and Audrey Spitz find themselves at… [More]

#17

116013 ad

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.

Synopsis: When monsters want to get away from it all, they go to Count Dracula’s (Adam Sandler) Hotel Transylvania, a lavish… [More]

#18

ems

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.

Synopsis: A New York cop and his wife go on a European vacation to reinvigorate the spark in their marriage. A… [More]

#19

p13404 v v8 aa

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.

Synopsis: The all-clown town of Palukaville provides a colorful backdrop for this tale of an alcoholic funnyman framed for murder…. [More]

#20

p31653 p v8 bf

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.

Synopsis: Dave Buznik (Adam Sandler) is usually a mild-mannered nonconfrontational guy. But after an altercation aboard an airplane, he is remanded… [More]

#21

p16468 p v8 am

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.

Synopsis: Man-child Billy Madison (Adam Sandler) has been a spoiled rich kid all his life, and spends his days drinking and… [More]

#22

p23404 p v8 aa

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.

Synopsis: Thirty-two-year-old Sonny Koufax (Adam Sandler) has spent his whole life avoiding responsibility. But when his girlfriend dumps him for an… [More]

See also  Bill Lee, jazz musician and father of Spike Lee, dies aged 94

#23

p172787 p v8 aj

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.

Synopsis: Tired of all the fighting in his country, legendary Israeli commando Zohan (Adam Sandler) fakes his own death and goes… [More]

#24

p14921 p v8 ad

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.

Synopsis: Cone-headed extraterrestrials Beldar (Dan Aykroyd) and Prymaat (Jane Curtin) find themselves in New Jersey after a recon mission for their… [More]

#25

p159128 p v8 aa

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.

Synopsis: Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) seems to have it all but his wife, Donna (Kate Beckinsale), is increasingly frustrated by the… [More]

#26

p11009357 p v8 ab

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.

Synopsis: Like many Americans, average suburbanite Don Truby (Adam Sandler) and his 15-year-old son use the Internet for information, communication and… [More]

#27

p21986 p v8 aa

Adjusted Score: 37250%

Critics Consensus: This is an insult to its genre with low humor and cheap gags.

Synopsis: Raised by his overprotective mother, Helen (Kathy Bates), Bobby Boucher Jr. (Adam Sandler) is the water boy for a successful… [More]

#28

p35823 p v12 bc

Adjusted Score: 37125%

Critics Consensus: This Yard has some laughs but missing from this remake is the edginess of the original.

Synopsis: Disgraced pro football quarterback Paul Crewe (Adam Sandler) lands in jail, where manipulative Warden Hazen (James Cromwell) recruits him to… [More]

#29

p15857 p v8 aa

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.

Synopsis: Three aspiring rock musicians — Chazz (Brendan Fraser), Pip (Adam Sandler) and Rex (Steve Buscemi) — are determined to have… [More]

#30

p171576 p v12 am

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.

Synopsis: Hotel handyman Skeeter Bronson (Adam Sandler) gets an unexpected surprise when he discovers that the tall tales he has been… [More]

#31

p13759358 p v7 aa

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.

Synopsis: Sandy Wexler (Adam Sandler) is a talent manager working in Los Angeles in the 1990s who diligently represents a group… [More]

#32

ems

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.

Synopsis: Two fathers with opposing personalities come together to celebrate the wedding of their children. They are forced to spend the… [More]

#33

p29097 p v12 at

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.

Synopsis: Longfellow Deeds (Adam Sandler) is a sweet, lovable guy leading a simple but happy life in the tiny hamlet of… [More]

#34

p26534 p v8 aa

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.

Synopsis: In a perfect world, he’d be happy to head-bang in his room all day to heavy metal music. But no,… [More]

See also  The 100 Best Movies of 2009, Ranked by Tomatometer

#35

p8991538 p v8 ai

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.

Synopsis: While still a teen himself, Donny (Adam Sandler) fathered a son,Todd (Andy Samberg), and raised him as a single parent…. [More]

#36

p8238130 p v8 aa

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.

Synopsis: His heart recently broken, plastic surgeon Danny Maccabee (Adam Sandler) pretends to be married so he can enjoy future dates… [More]

#37

p10933531 p v8 ak

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.

Synopsis: When aliens intercept video feeds of classic arcade games and misinterpret them as a declaration of war, they attack Earth,… [More]

#38

p10372479 p v8 ab

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.

Synopsis: Recently divorced mom Lauren (Drew Barrymore) and widowed dad Jim (Adam Sandler) let their friends push them into a blind… [More]

#39

p167482 p v8 af

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.

Synopsis: Chuck Levine (Adam Sandler) and Larry Valentine (Kevin James) are firefighters and true-blue buddies. When Larry, a widower, learns he… [More]

#40

p8099271 p v8 ab

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.

Synopsis: Kindhearted Griffin Keyes (Kevin James) is one of the best-loved caretakers at the Franklin Park Zoo, but since he is… [More]

#41

p30575 p v12 ah

Adjusted Score: 16282%

Critics Consensus: Sandler returns to his roots in this nauseating concoction filled with potty humor and product placements.

Synopsis: Davey Stone (Adam Sandler), a 33-year old party animal, finds himself in trouble with the law after his wild ways… [More]

#42

p16303 p v8 ad

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.

Synopsis: Philip (Steve Martin) manages a suicide-prevention hotline called Lifesavers, assisted by Mrs. Munchnik (Madeline Kahn) and Catherine (Rita Wilson). On… [More]

#43

p7937506 p v8 ah

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.

Synopsis: The death of their childhood basketball coach leads to a reunion for some old friends (Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris… [More]

#44

p11436510 p v12 am

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.

Synopsis: A frustrated shoemaker (Adam Sandler) finds a magical sewing machine that allows him to see the world in a new… [More]

#45

p12731449 p v8 aa

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.

Synopsis: When two guys fake their owns deaths and assume the identify of two others, they quickly discover that those men… [More]

#46

p9670463 p v8 ai

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.

Synopsis: Lenny Feder (Adam Sandler) moves his family back to his hometown to be with his friends, but he finds –… [More]

#47

p18437 p v8 ak

Adjusted Score: 10058%

Critics Consensus: In addition to its ability to deflect gunfire, Bulletproof proves sadly impervious to humor, logic, or worthwhile viewing.

Synopsis: A none-too-bright criminal, Archie Moses (Adam Sandler) works for drug kingpin Frank Colton (James Caan) and remains oblivious to the… [More]

#48

ems

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.

Synopsis: Thanksgiving is usually a happy time, but ad executive Jack (Adam Sandler) dreads the holiday because his twin sister, Jill… [More]

#49

p11963743 p v8 aa

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.

Synopsis: White Knife, an orphan raised by Native Americans, discovers that five outlaws are actually his half-brothers. Together, they set out… [More]

Source