The Ridiculous 6 (2015)
Directed by Frank Coraci
When his long-lost outlaw father returns, Tommy "White Knife" Stockburn goes on an adventure-filled journey across the Old West with his five brothers.
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The title itself is a nod to John Sturges' genre landmark "The Magnificent Seven" (also referenced by Quentin Tarantino's upcoming homage "The Hateful Eight").
Anyway, the film from frequent Sandler collaborator Frank Coraci (“The Wedding Singer,” “The Waterboy,” “Click”) is a Western, in theory, because it takes place in the American West and it’s a knock-off of “The Magnificent Seven.”
"The Ridiculous Six" (really, really not to be confused with "The Magnificent Seven" or Tarantino's upcoming "The Hateful Eight") arrived Friday on Netflix; you've already heard about Native Americans walking off set because they were being disrespected, which was no surprise.
Mired in pre-release controversy over its supposedly offensive characterizations of Native Americans — which drove some extras to abandon the project — Sandler’s first of four exclusive features for Netflix turns out to be distasteful in every regard, an abysmal riff on “The Magnificent Seven” in which hoary stereotypes and oater clichés are exploited for equally groan-worthy gags.
Ostensibly a spoof of “The Magnificent Seven” and other classic frontier epics (as well as a conveniently timed appetizer before Quentin Tarantino’s forthcoming “The Hateful Eight”), “The Ridiculous 6” poses no challenge to “Blazing Saddles” in that particular department, and indeed might as well have been titled “Western Movie,” given its resemblance to the barrel-bottom-scraping spoofs of the Friedberg/Seltzer school.
Spanning a punishing two-hour run-time (only eight minutes shorter than The Magnificent Seven, but with several more references to "weenie pee-pee"), the adventure takes many detours.
(Blazing Saddles has been cited as an inspiration, but Sandler more tries to imitate Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in the West, only to fail so miserably that it ends up making that mess seem like an all-timer).
Unlike “Blazing Saddles” or even Seth MacFarlane’s intolerable “A Million Ways to Die in the West,” the film doesn’t try to satirize its famed Western predecessors; instead, it merely appropriates stale tropes in order to stage pitiful slapstick pratfalls and straight-faced climactic showdowns.
Ostensibly a spoof of “The Magnificent Seven” and other classic frontier epics (as well as a conveniently timed appetizer before Quentin Tarantino’s forthcoming “The Hateful Eight”), “The Ridiculous 6” poses no challenge to “Blazing Saddles” in that particular department, and indeed might as well have been titled “Western Movie,” given its resemblance to the barrel-bottom-scraping spoofs of the Friedberg/Seltzer school.
Both films attempted to create a Blazing Saddles-quality western spoof, but all they ended up doing was shooting themselves in the foot and making a cataclysmic mess.
At least Seth MacFarlane's "A Million Ways to Die in the West", itself pretty damn awful, had a point about the absurd masculinity of the time period.
(Blazing Saddles has been cited as an inspiration, but Sandler more tries to imitate Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in the West, only to fail so miserably that it ends up making that mess seem like an all-timer).
Unlike Seth MacFarlane’s moronic A Million Ways to Die in the West, Ridiculous isn’t even particularly interested in mocking the conventions of Western movies or the historical Old West.
Unlike “Blazing Saddles” or even Seth MacFarlane’s intolerable “A Million Ways to Die in the West,” the film doesn’t try to satirize its famed Western predecessors; instead, it merely appropriates stale tropes in order to stage pitiful slapstick pratfalls and straight-faced climactic showdowns.
Much like Seth McFarlane’s western wreck A Million Ways to Die in the West, The Ridiculous 6 suffers the same pitfalls, but to a much more severe degree.
Viewers who found “A Million Ways to Die in the West” too intellectually taxing should lap it up.
Perhaps aided by fellow Happy Madison veteran Dean Semler (the cinematographer who shot The Road Warrior, City Slickers, and Dances With Wolves, in addition to Click ), there are a number of scenes and even shots in Ridiculous 6 that are better-lit than large swaths of the Sandler filmography.
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Anyway, the film from frequent Sandler collaborator Frank Coraci (“The Wedding Singer,” “The Waterboy,” “Click”) is a Western, in theory, because it takes place in the American West and it’s a knock-off of “The Magnificent Seven.”
The director is veteran Sandler hack Frank Coraci ("Blended," "Click" and, in better days, "The Wedding Singer").
And Sandler has taken part in enough good ones that the (admittedly humongous) trash heap of unconscionably bad comedies bearing his name will eventually rot away, leaving gems like “Punch-Drunk Love” and “The Wedding Singer” and (the first half of) “Funny People” as his legacy.
Indifferently directed by Sandler associate Frank Coraci (The Wedding Singer, Click, Blended), Ridiculous is well-suited for the lowered expectations of home viewing (even the Western landscapes look bland).
While director Frank Coraci is a long-term practitioner of the Happy Madison house style (most productively with The Wedding Singer ; less so with the likes of Blended ), Ridiculous 6 is one of the most cinematic-looking Sandler comedies ever.
When he serves as a co-writer/producer (which is usually) and makes deliberately terrible comedies like "Pixels," "Blended," the "Grown Ups" franchise (*shudder*) and "Jack and Jill," we always get the same stuff, and it's always lazy and/or mean: racial stereotypes, minimized women, insults about people who are less attractive or overweight, etc.
Universal Pictures “Grown Ups” Critic Approval Rating: 10 percent “I felt a deep sadness every time the audience laughed and the sounds of their chuckles turned into the ringing of the cash register, and all I thought was a grim, simple truth: This, America, is why we can't have nice things,” critic James Rocchi wrote of the 2010 reunion flick starring some of Sandler’s best buddies.
Anyway, the film from frequent Sandler collaborator Frank Coraci (“The Wedding Singer,” “The Waterboy,” “Click”) is a Western, in theory, because it takes place in the American West and it’s a knock-off of “The Magnificent Seven.”
That the coterie of guys responsible for “Click,” “Blended,” “The Waterboy” and their like continue making these films is a travesty.
The only truly funny joke in this fiasco is director Frank Coraci’s clumsy use of expansive Panavision widescreen, with his visuals exhibiting the flat, inert unsightliness that marred his prior Sandler collaborations “The Waterboy,” “Click,” and “Blended.”
Image Entertainment “Grown Ups 2” Critic Approval Rating: 7 percent “Yes, it's time for another visit to the Adam Sandler Death-of-Cinema Fun Factory, the big-screen version of a terrible sitcom where laugh tracks are replaced by the co-stars chuckling at their own awful material,” TheWrap’s Alonso Duralde wrote about this unnecessary sequel in 2013.