While critics may not always agree, there's no denying that comedian, musician and all-around auteur Adam Sandler has delivered a truly deep body of work. As previously reported, Sandler superfan Eloy Lugo has decided to celebrate the man with a year-long movie marathon. From September 9, 2017, to September 9, 2018 (Sandler's 51st and 52nd birthdays, respectively), Lugo has vowed to watch one Adam Sandler movie a day.
He's been documenting his journey with the #YearOfSandler hashtag, and what a journey it has been. Lugo started the movie marathon by watching multiple Sandler movies a day, and he still went ahead with his annual 24-hour Adam Sandler movie marathon known as SandlerCon.
Today (March 9) marks the official halfway point through the #YearOfSandler, so we decided to catch up with Lugo to discuss his 365 crazy nights.
Congratulations on hitting the halfway mark! How does it feel?
Thank you! If I'm being honest, I feel conflicted. Hitting the halfway mark is great but it also means that I still have the same amount to go as what I've already done, which has felt like a lifetime. I think my biggest mistakes were doing the 15-movie, 24-hour SandlerCon marathon on top of 365 movies in 365 days, and getting cocky early on and watching two movies in one day on two separate occasions. So my total count of movies at the moment is 199 movies in 182 days. I'm exhausted.
Have you had any major revelations from this project, either about Adam Sandler or yourself?
A year is a long, long time.
Have any unlikely movies emerged as your favourites? Or have any that you previously loved become horrible to you?
Pixels was a big hit at SandlerCon and kinda made me see it in a new light. I also had never seen Bedtime Stories before and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.
What about patterns or other weird details about Adam Sandler movies? Is there a conspiracy or secret message we should know about?
About two months in I started noticing that the man loves the phrase "that's my boy!" So much so, that he named a movie That's My Boy. I edited this video compilation of all the ones I caught:
There is a secret message and it's Ook maga do do, Pokee. Ook maga do do blarda, blarda, blarda. Mama Pandoree bon Papa Pandoree long bada-bada. Pagogo Tu lray Nah ee Pokee Para mee. But most important, Bongi. Bongi que Mahjongee. Bongi para rumpernickel pumpernickel. Para Kaya! Ook maga do do. REAL HEADS WILL KNOW.
I saw you tweet that you were ready to give up a few weeks ago. What has kept you going?
I think about quitting multiple times a day. I think I've only kept going cause I'm in so deep at this point and it would feel like a waste of six months if I quit now, though the thought of doing this for six more months is terrifying.
Now that you're on the downward trajectory, what do you have planned? Have you decided what your last movie will be?
I'm gonna do a week of The Week Of when that one is released in April. On 1/1/18 I started watching his filmography chronologically, finished that and right now I'm watching them in batches of recurring cameos. I watched all the ones with Shaq, John McEnroe and Dave Matthews recently, and I'm currently watching all the ones with my favourite Canadian, Norm Macdonald. I'm going to try to rent out a theatre for the last one and have a big viewing party, though I'm not sure which one it will be yet.
Since we last spoke, you met Adam Sandler. How did that happen? Did you tell him about your project?
I finally met him! I got tipped off (shoutout to Meghan Helsel) that he was going to be the special guest at a stand-up show, so I went and ran into him outside of the theatre. It was a perfect storm too cause I accidentally put the wrong address into the GPS and only noticed after I arrived at the wrong place so in my head I was running late but in reality it was perfect timing for our paths to cross. I didn't tell him, I didn't want to scare him and our interaction was pretty brief. Though I did tell him that me and my wife, who is also a SandHead and is incredibly patient, had the first dance at our wedding to "Grow Old With You" from The Wedding Singer and he thought it was cool and told me to say hi to my wife for him because THE MAN IS A SAINT.
He's been documenting his journey with the #YearOfSandler hashtag, and what a journey it has been. Lugo started the movie marathon by watching multiple Sandler movies a day, and he still went ahead with his annual 24-hour Adam Sandler movie marathon known as SandlerCon.
Today (March 9) marks the official halfway point through the #YearOfSandler, so we decided to catch up with Lugo to discuss his 365 crazy nights.
Congratulations on hitting the halfway mark! How does it feel?
Thank you! If I'm being honest, I feel conflicted. Hitting the halfway mark is great but it also means that I still have the same amount to go as what I've already done, which has felt like a lifetime. I think my biggest mistakes were doing the 15-movie, 24-hour SandlerCon marathon on top of 365 movies in 365 days, and getting cocky early on and watching two movies in one day on two separate occasions. So my total count of movies at the moment is 199 movies in 182 days. I'm exhausted.
Have you had any major revelations from this project, either about Adam Sandler or yourself?
A year is a long, long time.
Have any unlikely movies emerged as your favourites? Or have any that you previously loved become horrible to you?
Pixels was a big hit at SandlerCon and kinda made me see it in a new light. I also had never seen Bedtime Stories before and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.
What about patterns or other weird details about Adam Sandler movies? Is there a conspiracy or secret message we should know about?
About two months in I started noticing that the man loves the phrase "that's my boy!" So much so, that he named a movie That's My Boy. I edited this video compilation of all the ones I caught:
There is a secret message and it's Ook maga do do, Pokee. Ook maga do do blarda, blarda, blarda. Mama Pandoree bon Papa Pandoree long bada-bada. Pagogo Tu lray Nah ee Pokee Para mee. But most important, Bongi. Bongi que Mahjongee. Bongi para rumpernickel pumpernickel. Para Kaya! Ook maga do do. REAL HEADS WILL KNOW.
I saw you tweet that you were ready to give up a few weeks ago. What has kept you going?
I think about quitting multiple times a day. I think I've only kept going cause I'm in so deep at this point and it would feel like a waste of six months if I quit now, though the thought of doing this for six more months is terrifying.
Now that you're on the downward trajectory, what do you have planned? Have you decided what your last movie will be?
I'm gonna do a week of The Week Of when that one is released in April. On 1/1/18 I started watching his filmography chronologically, finished that and right now I'm watching them in batches of recurring cameos. I watched all the ones with Shaq, John McEnroe and Dave Matthews recently, and I'm currently watching all the ones with my favourite Canadian, Norm Macdonald. I'm going to try to rent out a theatre for the last one and have a big viewing party, though I'm not sure which one it will be yet.
Day 179: Just Go With It #YearOfSandler pic.twitter.com/WzrNgAtFvv
— Eloy Lugo (@eloyvseloy) March 7, 2018
Since we last spoke, you met Adam Sandler. How did that happen? Did you tell him about your project?
I finally met him! I got tipped off (shoutout to Meghan Helsel) that he was going to be the special guest at a stand-up show, so I went and ran into him outside of the theatre. It was a perfect storm too cause I accidentally put the wrong address into the GPS and only noticed after I arrived at the wrong place so in my head I was running late but in reality it was perfect timing for our paths to cross. I didn't tell him, I didn't want to scare him and our interaction was pretty brief. Though I did tell him that me and my wife, who is also a SandHead and is incredibly patient, had the first dance at our wedding to "Grow Old With You" from The Wedding Singer and he thought it was cool and told me to say hi to my wife for him because THE MAN IS A SAINT.
