The Ridiculous 6 is the latest Schmadam Blandler joint, and it's every bit as vacuous, misogynistic, racist, and downright unfunny as you'd expect from its premise. It's a mock-Western of sorts, and Sandler plays a white guy raised by Native Americans (whose names, cultures, and personalities are tackled with an insensitivity that would make Buffalo Bill blush). He recruits a wacky band of misfits when his father (Nick Nolte) is kidnapped by, well, Mexicans, or something. Turns out all the misfits are, in fact, Sandler's brothers, so they form a loose bond as they travel from town to town, robbing banks and...oh, what's the point. Either you can predict what happens, or you don't care.
I don't really understand Sandler. He's like the Steven Seagal of comedy, a mess of ego and smug pretentiousness that actively undermines any sense of worth from his work by outright refusing to do anything that might paint him in a bad light. What is at all funny about a guy with supernatural combat abilities, with a beautiful, cardboard cut-out of a wife, and a complete lack of any tangible flaws whatsoever? Some talented people try their best to at least raise a half-smile - Steve Buscemi, Terry Crews, John Turturro, even Harvey Keitel - but all are roped into furthering Sandler's agenda to become the biggest cunt on the planet, and none of them are given any real jokes. Aside, of course, from taking the Your Highness approach to comedy, where people in period costume talk like they're from Baltimore. Oh, can you imagine the hilarity? Watching a film like this in a crowded cinema at least conveys a sense of mutual suffering, if not laughs. But watching the film on Netflix, on your own, in silence, sees the film die a painful, protracted, twitching death. Not good.
★
