As someone that’s been watching Adam Sandler for years and has, along with many others been wondering just when the man-child would grow up, it’s been a pleasure to see Sandler finally get serious in several roles as time has rolled by. But despite Ryan Scott’s article in MovieWeb it almost seems as though on one hand it’s great to see that he might actually be worthy of Oscar buzz, but seeing as how Rotten Tomatoes is giving him a 100% approval rating off of only SEVEN reviews, it does seem as though there might be a bottom that we’re just waiting to see drop out. This might be a very pessimistic way to look at things but it also seems a little more realistic since the hope is that Sandler will prove to be great enough to earn the award he deserves for having been around long enough to finally experience the kind of development that some folks show in their first few years of being on the big screen. Perhaps with Uncut Gems he’ll finally find his way to the podium to accept that little golden man and thanks the people that got him there, which will hopefully include the legions of fans that have come and gone and have gladly supported him.
Much like Rory Cashin of Joe I happen to think that Uncut Gems, if it’s as good as people say it is, could finally place Adam Sandler in a place that he’s needed to be for a long time. His growth and development has been accelerating for years now and to be honest it’s been great to see since for a long time he’s been one of the actors that seems to thrive on being the guy that just won’t grow up, at least not all the way. This was his angle from Billy Madison to Happy Gilmore to even the Grown Ups movies, he just didn’t want to let go of a childhood past that easily and in the process he ended up becoming a stereotype that a lot of people felt wasn’t really worth watching over and over again. But as the years have continued to roll by it would appear that Sandler has finally put that childish side away in favor of acting his age and becoming someone that we can look at as still quite entertaining and worthy of respect but also someone that’s transitioned into a person that is by far mature and able to be funny as well as dramatic. It could be that flops such as Jack and Jill and a few others finally made him realize that the funny aspect was in dire need of something a little more adult in nature, or it could have just been a natural transition into something that allowed him to seem a little more mature. You have to admit, for a long time it was kind of wonder if Sandler was ever going to really grow up, since even movies like Punch Drunk Love tended to show him in a slightly immature light.
Haley Tomsheck of AMC wrote quite a while ago that it seemed as though Sandler would never grow up and even cited the same movies that seemed to put him in an ill light. For a long time it seemed as though his SNL days were going to keep him confined within the same immature roles that he’d excelled in since starting up, but obviously that trend has been broken. Maybe it’s because he’s been criticized so often or maybe it’s something he realized somewhere along the way, but Sandler has done a lot of growing in the past few years and despite the fact that his movies are loved by some and not by all it seems fair to say that he’s been a steady character all the same. That could be why Uncut Gems is going to be worthy of the always ubiquitous rating that Rotten Tomatoes has bestowed upon him. Many people are still wary of this since RT isn’t exactly the most reliable critic site on the web considering that they’ve given great ratings to some pretty horrible movies and blown apart some movies that a lot of people thought were absolutely great. That alone is the only real reason to feel a bit apprehensive about the rating that Uncut Gems has received thus far, as Sandler’s presence could be good or bad for the movie.
Like all things it’s going to take actually watching the movie and making up our own minds to really discover if it was worth the perfect rating or not since just going by the rating of a site that has yet to achieve universal approval by fans isn’t going to cut it. Hopefully RT finally gets something right, as it’d be great to see Sandler create a movie that’s bound for the Academy’s.
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