The Ridiculous Six
Thank God that Netflix has delved into creating original movies so that Adam Sandler can realize his artistic vision without studio interference. I mean, the system has beat down Sandler for so long that it’s a miracle he hasn’t given up. He’s very much like the Orson Welles of comedy- given the keys to the toy store early on, he wouldn’t enjoy that same freedom again when “the man” felt like he wasn’t worth the trouble, and altered his films accordingly. Of course, this is all bullshit, because studios have let the “Saturday Night Live” alum and his buddies run wild without really interfering with his moviemaking process, paying for filming in locations like Hawaii and Africa simply because Sandler happened to come up with a story that justified being told there. Sandler has taken the idea of a “paid vacation” to a whole new level, and now, he has gotten Netflix to foot the bill.
For their first film as part of a four film deal with the Streaming titans, Sandler and co-writer Tim Herlihy came up with a tale that seems like they learned none of the lessons of “A Million Ways to Die in the Old West” when it comes to how NOT to do a parody of a western. (Why don’t we all just accept the perfection of “Blazing Saddles” and move on?) Here, we get Sandler as Tommy, a white man who was raised by Apaches after his mother was killed. He never knew his biological father, but he does has a father figure in Screaming Eagle (Saginaw Grant), and a fiance in Smoking Fox (Julia Jones). (Yes, all the Indian names go like that, and they all speak in broken English because, well, it was that way in John Wayne films.) One day, Tommy gets an unexpected visitor in Frank Stockburn (Nick Nolte), who is his father. He wants to bond with his son, and share in the wealth he stole from his partners in crime. Unfortunately, those partners catch up with Frank and take him prisoner, but not before Tommy finds out where the money is. He decides it is his responsibility to not only find the money, but to get his father back. Along the way, though, he finds that Frank had other sons, with other women, and now, he and his brothers (played by Terry Crews, Jorge Garcia, Taylor Lautner, Rob Schneider and Luke Wilson) are on a journey to not only connect with one another, but also to meet the father they didn’t know they had.
Adam Sandler has never truly landed with me in his own comedies, unless it is one of his collaborations with Drew Barrymore, or he’s matched by another woman who can keep up with him (like Jennifer Aniston in “Just Go With It”). “The Ridiculous 6” is an embarrassment of a different kind, even by Sandler’s standards. The film deals in stereotypes and caricatures, especially when it comes to Native Americans, so blatantly offensive that it’s not surprising some of the Native American extras left the film in protest. There is one classic scene of hilarity, with John Turturro as a conman who seems to be making up the rules for baseball as he goes along, but it has nothing to do with anything else in the movie, and makes us wish Sandler had expanded on that rather than trying to do the film he and director Frank Coraci (“Blended,” “The Wedding Singer,” “The Waterboy”) made. (And don’t get me started on the ridiculousness of Wilson’s brother being the secret service agent who accidentally got Lincoln shot.) This is not funny, not exciting, and just another excuse for Sandler and his friends (and the cast amounts to little more than a “who’s who” of Happy Madison’s usual suspects) to make off like bandits and call it a movie. I can’t wait to see how they waste Netflix’s money next.
