You blew it, critics! Swaggy fashion inspiration and Guelph Milestones patron, Adam Sandler, has revealed that he had to stop reading reviews of his movies early on in his illustrious career because people were pretty mean about Billy Madison.
The Sandman's latest gem, a basketball drama called Hustle, currently boasts an impressive score of 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. However, not all of his films have been met with widespread critical acclaim — in fact, it was once quite the opposite.
In a recent Netflix conversation [as per Entertainment Weekly], Sandler admitted that the praise for Hustle is coming to him secondhand, since he apparently swore off reading reviews when Billy Madison received negative press from "90 percent of the papers."
Yes, this was back in 1995, so there were more actual papers to speak of. And all the more to criticize what has since become one of Sandler's signature films! The classic high-brow tale of a spoiled man-child forced by his hotel tycoon father to complete all 12 grades of school at age 27 was also the first movie the actor co-wrote with longtime collaborator Tim Herlihy.
"When I was 17 and I got into this, I didn't think about critics... I didn't even realize that stuff was coming. I just thought you made movies, people go see it," Sandler said. "When Billy Madison came out, me and my friend who wrote it, we were just like, 'Oh yeah, they're going to write about this in New York!' We grew up reading the papers, we were going to NYU."
He continued, "And then we read the first one and we were like, 'Oh my god, what happened? They hate us.' And then we were like, 'It must have been this paper,' but then 90 percent of the papers are going 'This is garbage.'"
Despite the critical consensus of the epoch, we can all probably agree that Billy Madison isn't that bad — especially in light of 2011's Jack and Jill.
The Sandman went on to say that the negative reaction to the former "stung," especially because "you know your grandmother's reading it." But he and Herlihy thought it would be best for their unfettered creative spirits not to pay attention to the detractors, deciding "maybe we shouldn't read this stuff because it's so harsh."
"I say the first two or three, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, we would still kinda hear about it," Sandler explained. "People would call us up, "Can you believe they said this about you?' I'd be like, 'I didn't read it, man.'"
He sympathizes, though. "And it's okay, I get it. Critics aren't going to connect with certain stuff and what they want to see," the actor said. "I understand that it's not clicking with them."
"I'm glad I'm getting praise, I'll take it, but everybody worked hard on the movie," he added of Hustle, which certainly seems to be dribbling its way into everyone's hearts at a break-neck, full-court-press pace. "I had a great part and I did the best I could with it." Our humble king!
The Sandman's latest gem, a basketball drama called Hustle, currently boasts an impressive score of 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. However, not all of his films have been met with widespread critical acclaim — in fact, it was once quite the opposite.
In a recent Netflix conversation [as per Entertainment Weekly], Sandler admitted that the praise for Hustle is coming to him secondhand, since he apparently swore off reading reviews when Billy Madison received negative press from "90 percent of the papers."
Yes, this was back in 1995, so there were more actual papers to speak of. And all the more to criticize what has since become one of Sandler's signature films! The classic high-brow tale of a spoiled man-child forced by his hotel tycoon father to complete all 12 grades of school at age 27 was also the first movie the actor co-wrote with longtime collaborator Tim Herlihy.
"When I was 17 and I got into this, I didn't think about critics... I didn't even realize that stuff was coming. I just thought you made movies, people go see it," Sandler said. "When Billy Madison came out, me and my friend who wrote it, we were just like, 'Oh yeah, they're going to write about this in New York!' We grew up reading the papers, we were going to NYU."
He continued, "And then we read the first one and we were like, 'Oh my god, what happened? They hate us.' And then we were like, 'It must have been this paper,' but then 90 percent of the papers are going 'This is garbage.'"
Despite the critical consensus of the epoch, we can all probably agree that Billy Madison isn't that bad — especially in light of 2011's Jack and Jill.
The Sandman went on to say that the negative reaction to the former "stung," especially because "you know your grandmother's reading it." But he and Herlihy thought it would be best for their unfettered creative spirits not to pay attention to the detractors, deciding "maybe we shouldn't read this stuff because it's so harsh."
"I say the first two or three, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, we would still kinda hear about it," Sandler explained. "People would call us up, "Can you believe they said this about you?' I'd be like, 'I didn't read it, man.'"
He sympathizes, though. "And it's okay, I get it. Critics aren't going to connect with certain stuff and what they want to see," the actor said. "I understand that it's not clicking with them."
"I'm glad I'm getting praise, I'll take it, but everybody worked hard on the movie," he added of Hustle, which certainly seems to be dribbling its way into everyone's hearts at a break-neck, full-court-press pace. "I had a great part and I did the best I could with it." Our humble king!
