The Ridiculous 6

Dir: Frank Coraci

2015

***

I’m about as far from being a fan of Adam Sandler as you can get. Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, Little Nicky, Big Daddy – I couldn’t stand them. Everyone loved The Wedding Singer when it came out apart from me. That said, I loved Punch-Drunk Love and I thought maybe things could be different for the comedian, but no, he remade Mr Deeds Goes To Town the same year, one of my favourite films of all time and he made a horrible mess of it. I do have a soft spot for 50 First Dates but again, it’s frustrating to see how great he can be and then throw it all away on a lame gross-out comedy. While he didn’t star in it, I think it is important to remember that Sandler wrote Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star – easily the worst film made in the last couple of decades – maybe even of all time. Like I said, I’m really not much of a Adam Sandler supporter. However, as low as ratings were for The Ridiculous 6, I gave it a go with an open mind and to my surprise, I didn’t hate it. I actually laughed a couple of time. I can’t believe it myself but I found the film to be rather likable. It’s no masterpiece and many of the jokes fell flat but there are some lovely characters here and quite a few of the jokes worked. Sandler has been rather generous and has given most of the best lines and scenes to the other cast members, all of who are really good in their roles. I’m not much of a Rob Schneider fan either but he’s great, as is Terry Crews, Luke Wilson, Nick Nolte and Steve Zhan. I thought Jorge Garcia and Taylor Lautner were very good in their unexpected roles and Danny Trejo, Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, Jon Lovitz, John Turturro and Vanilla Ice provided a rather rich and fruitful collection of cameo performances. Also, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but The Ridiculous 6’s cinematography is brilliant and a far more impressive than that seen in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. The two films came out together and The Ridiculous 6 was clearly a poke at The Hateful Eight and the hype it had accumulated. Sandler and Tarantino are friends, so it was all done in playful jest but seriously, The Ridiculous 6 has some of the best western-style compositions I have ever seen. I liked the story and the little sub-plots that occurred within it. Certain scenes, the baseball one staring John Turturro in particular, were quite clever satires. Sure, the donkey would have projectile diarrhoea now and again but more often than not this silly western would use situations of old as clever explorations of just how ridiculous many of the daily rituals we partake in these days really are. Of course, one of the biggest reasons why The Ridiculous 6 also works is because we are watching a big group of old friends having fun. It doesn’t matter whether you like them or even know them but there is always something very appealing about watching the interaction and chemistry between old friends being silly together. There is something a bit ‘Three Amigos’ about the film. It actually steals a character and three jokes from Three Amigos but beyond that, it never takes itself seriously, it’s likably silly, with a funny sort of tenderness about it. I can’t really explain it, maybe I was tired and maybe my guard was down but I enjoyed it. Maybe, just maybe, someone who you generally don’t like can make a film that you do like once and a while. I can’t understand why The Ridiculous 6 is Sandler’s lowest rated film, I guess people wrote it off before even watching it – which I understand as I almost did the same. It’s no masterpiece but I’ve seen a thousand times worse (see Sandler’s other films).