By Dustin Rowles | Lists | June 25, 2010 |
By Dustin Rowles | Lists | June 25, 2010 |
I’ve long talked about the Sandler curse, but with Grown Ups coming out today, and poor Salma Hayek playing the love interest opposite Sandler, I thought it might be instructive to look back at the wake of career destruction that Sandler has wrought since he became an A-list movie star. It’s not pretty. In fact, with two exceptions — Marisa Tomei and Drew Barrymore — no actress that has starred as a love interest in a Sandler film has even come close to duplicating the box-office success of that Sandler film, save for Liv Tyler, who had a small blip with The Incredible Hulk, but has otherwise molsty disappeared from the film scene. In fact, in most cases, the actress playing opposite Sandler began a usually steep descent into relative obscurity or ultimately resorted to television work. Her film success has never been the same.
I’m not being hyperbolic here, folks. Adam Sandler kills careers, and I have evidence below to prove it. The good news, however, is that in his next film, he stars opposite Jennifer Aniston, which should finally put the nail in her career coffin, and in the movie after that, Jack and Jill, Sandler plays the female lead in his own film (he’ll be playing the part of both Jack and Jill). Hopefully, the Sandler curse will finally turn itself on Sandler.
Best Film Role She’s Had Since Her Sandler Movie Was Released: 5th Billed in I Know What You Did Last Summer
Best Film Role She’s Had Since Her Sandler Movie Was Released: The love interest in Tim Allen’s Joe Somebody
Best Film Role She’s Had Since Her Sandler Movie Was Released: Fourth Billed in The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans
Best Film Role She’s Had Since Her Sandler Movie Was Released: A small role in Holes?
Best Film Role She’s Had Since Her Sandler Movie Was Released: Roles in Synecdoche, New York and Cold Souls
Best Film Role She’s Had Since Her Sandler Movie Was Released: A small role in Star Trek
Best Film Role She’s Had Since Her Sandler Movie Was Released: Female lead in
Wild Hogs
Best Film Role She’s Had Since Her Sandler Movie Was Released: Plaster of Paris in The Spirit
Best Film Role She’s Had Since Her Sandler Movie Was Released: The lead in
Whiteout
Best Film Role She’s Had Since Her Sandler Movie Was Released: The A-Team
Best Film Role She’s Had Since Her Sandler Movie Was Released: Bambi in Women in Trouble
Best Film Role She’s Had Since Her Sandler Movie Was Released: Extraordinary Measures (She has now returned to television, starring in a series this fall on Fox).
Best Film Role She’s Had Since Her Sandler Movie Was Released: None