IonicBreezeMachine Review of Sandy Wexler

Sandy Wexler (2017)

Surprisingly not bad(even if the 130 minute running time is a bit much)

[6/10 · 26 July 2020]

Netflix's Sandler output has certainly been erratic in terms of quality. The Ridiuclous 6 was probably the worst western themed comedy made since John Candy's unfortunate final film Wagons East, The Do-Over was a marginal improvement but came off as trying to hard to ape the Jon Lucas and Scott Moore shock style of comedy popularized in their films. Sandy Wexler still has many of the tropes and trappings of other films in Sandler's repertoire, but what this film has that others didn't is good naturedness to it that was lacking from his previous comedies. The film stars Adam Sandler as the titular Sandy Wexler a loyal but not all that effective talent manager in 90s Hollywood with an eccentric group of wannabes for clients who range from ventriloquists, to Evel Knievel style stuntmen, and struggling actors/actresses. The story follows Sandy's discovery of the talented Courtney Clarke played with genuine talent and charisma by American Idol winner Jennifer Hudson. Sandy tries to keep himself at a respectable distance even letting her go once he is convinced by others that she'd be better off with a new manager but their paths keep intersecting for one reason or another. Before this movie even came out it was already being trashed because the trailer was nothing but back to back scenes of Sandler using his voice. However this time there is context. While the voice Sandler uses for Sandy can be grating, it is spaced out and the scenes in the trailer are a few instances of him at his most grating and luckilly the film surrounds Sandler most of the time with other actors so his voice has a chance to take a breath. Another point in this films favor is the character of Sandy is an affectionate sendup of Sandler's real life manager so it isn't taken to the ridiculous extremes of say something like Jack and Jill and we're still able to reasonably like Sandy as a character. With that said the movie is WAY to long at 2 hours and 10 minutes and really should've been 90 to 100 minutes at max. But despite it's length problem this is a pleasant enough outing for Sandler fans and reminds us that he does have genuine talent. Despite some rough spots a marginal recommendation.