Adam Sandler isn’t an actor that the audience associates with the Oscars, and surprisingly, his only Oscar-nominated movie to date is a comedy with 34% on Rotten Tomatoes. Adam Sandler is one of the most popular comedy actors of his generation, as well as one of the most profitable ones, even if many of his movies aren’t critical hits. Sandler’s acting career began on television when he played Smitty in The Cosby Show in 1987, while his film debut arrived in 1989 in the comedy Going Overboard. The following year, Sandler joined the cast of Saturday Night Live.
Sandler’s break arrived in 1995 with the comedy Billy Madison, and since then, he has appeared in a variety of comedies, some more successful than others. However, Sandler has also taken the time to explore other genres in his career, leaning more towards drama in movies like Punch-Drunk Love and Spanglish and even crime thrillers with Uncut Gems. While Sandler has had some big hits throughout his career, only one of his movies has been nominated for an Oscar, but to everyone’s surprise, it’s a comedy with 34% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Click Is Adam Sandler’s Only Oscar-Nominated Movie
However, Click Wasn’t Nominated For Its Story Or Performances
Some of Adam Sandler’s comedy-dramas rank high on Rotten Tomatoes, with his highest-rated comedy (purely comedy) movie being Happy Gilmore, with a 64% critics’ score. However, Happy Gilmore didn’t get any nominations for big awards, but a much lower-rated comedy did: Click. Directed by Frank Coraci and written by Steve Koren and Mark O’Keefe, Click is based on the folk tale “The Magic Thread”, found in The Book of Virtues. Click follows Michael Newman (Sandler), a workaholic architect and family man.
Click
is the only Adam Sandler-led movie that has been nominated for an Oscar.
One day, while shopping for a universal remote, Michael falls asleep on a display bed at a store and wakes up on another plane where he enters the Beyond door, where he accepts a free remote control from a mysterious man named Morty (Christopher Walken). Said remote is a magical one, through which Michael can control reality, pause time, go forward, etc. Michael later learns from Morty that, when using the remote, his body is on autopilot, thus going through the day as normal while his mind skips ahead.
Adam Sandler’s lowest-rated movie on
Rotten Tomatoes
is
The Ridiculous 6
, with a 0% critics score.
After using the remote in not very responsible ways, Michael begins to skip years of his life, leading to his death. Click received mixed reviews and a “rotten” label on Rotten Tomatoes but performed well at the box office, grossing $240.6 million against an $82.5 million budget. However, Click earned an Oscar nomination for Best Makeup in 2007, but lost to Pans’ Labyrinth. At the time of writing, Click is the only Adam Sandler-led movie that has been nominated for an Oscar.
Uncut Gems Is Adam Sandler’s Biggest Oscar Snub
Uncut Gems Should Have Been Adam Sandler’s Big Oscars’ Chance
While most of Adam Sandler’s movies haven’t exactly been awards-worthy, he recently had a major Oscar snub. In 2019, Sandler starred in the crime thriller Uncut Gems, directed by Josh and Benny Safdie. Sandler played Howard Ratner, a jeweler and gambling addict who is deep in debt, owing thousands of dollars to a loan shark and other people. To pay his debts, he purchases an expensive gem he plans to sell for $1 million, but that only brings a lot more trouble.
Sandler’s performance in
Uncut Gems
is widely regarded as his best role and many predicted he would get an Oscar nomination – and, instead, it became one of the biggest snubs of the year.
Uncut Gems was a critical and commercial success, grossing $50 million against a $19 million budget, and has a 91% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes (though a 52% audience score). Critics praised Sandler’s performance, pointing out his talent at playing dramatic roles, which he doesn’t do often. Sandler’s performance in Uncut Gems is widely regarded as his best role and many predicted he would get an Oscar nomination – and, instead, it became one of the biggest snubs of the year.
Uncut Gems didn’t get any nominations at the Academy Awards, though it did get recognition from other awards organizations. Still, Uncut Gems ranks in various lists of the best movies of the 2010s and one of the best movies by the Safdie brothers, as well as one of Sandler’s best performances.
Adam Sandler Has An Unfortunate Record Completely Opposite To The Oscars
Adam Sandler Has A Record No Actor Would Ever Want
Adam Sandler didn’t get his Oscar nomination for Uncut Gems, and interestingly enough, he has a record that’s the complete opposite of the Oscars. Adam Sandler has had too many nominations for the Golden Raspberry Awards, also known as Razzies, which honor the worst in movies, just like the Oscars honor the best. At the time of writing, Sandler has the record of 37 nominations for the Razzies, the first one in 1997 in the category of Worst Actor for Bulletproof and Happy Gilmore.
These nominations have been across different categories, such as Worst Screenplay (Big Daddy and Little Nicky), Worst Picture (Jack and Jill, among others), Worst Actress (Jack and Jill), and Worst Screen Ensemble (That’s My Boy, among others). Surely, Adam Sandler could still get an Oscar nomination depending on the movie, its tone, and his role in it, but for now, Click is his only Oscar-nominated movie.
Adam Sandler
- Birthdate
- September 9, 1966
- Birthplace
- Brooklyn, New York, USA