The 20 Goated Adam Sandler Movies, Ranked

20.

Eight Crazy Nights (2002)

Director: Seth Kearsley

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Animated, Comedy, Holiday

Runtime: 1h 16m

Rotten Tomatoes: 13% (Critics), 50% (Audience)

Sandler has worked in a variety of genres as an actor, and Eight Crazy Nights jams a bunch of them together across a breezy hour-and-sixteen-minute runtime. Both an animated Hanukkah film and a comedy, the movie is inspired by a line in Sandler’s “Chanukah Song” and features several other musical numbers sung by Sandler and the cast.

In a redemptive holiday nod to Scrooge, Eight Crazy Nights follows alcoholic Davey (Sandler) as he performs community service with a youth basketball league. Practically overflowing with Sandler’s trademark scatalogical humor and goofiness, Eight Crazy Nights is a lot less family-friendly than other holiday classics, but it certainly has its heart in the right place. Sometimes you just want your messages of holiday kindness with a side of pooping deer and Port-o-Potty sledding.

19.

The Longest Yard (2005)

Director: Peter Segal

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Comedy

Runtime: 1h 53m

Rotten Tomatoes: 31% (Critics), 62% (Audience)

In this remake of the 1970s football film of the same name, Adam Sandler subs in for Burt Reynolds as Paul Crewe, a former football quarterback who lands in jail and must lead a team against the prison guards. Featuring Chris Rock, Nelly, and Burt Reynolds himself (this time appearing as Coach Scarborough), the film trades some of the original’s edge in for sex jokes and the typical buffet of Sandler slapstick. Like many comedies of its time, some of the humor doesn’t age well, but if you think lines like “I think he shit himself” are funny and enjoy underdog sports films, The Longest Yard has plenty to offer you.

18.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007)

Director: Dennis Dugan

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Comedy

Runtime: 1h 55m

Rotten Tomatoes: 14% (Critics), 69% (Audience)

Speaking of comedies that are a product of their time…I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry features Adam Sandler and Kevin James as Brookyln firemen who must pretend to be in a domestic partnership when widowed Larry (James) realizes it’s a solution to his inability to name his children as beneficiaries on his pension. While its stereotypical portrayal of a gay couple is thorny in a more queer-friendly world, it still works as an entertaining watch thanks to its strong buddy-film DNA and the chemistry between Sandler and James. And, like most Sandler comedies, it washes down its crude humor with a positive message—in this case, one of tolerance and acceptance alongside a joke about those with a kink for women who pee on balloons.

17.

Hotel Transylvania (2012)

Director: ​​Genndy Tartakovsky

Rating: PG

Genre: Animated, Comedy

Runtime: 1h 31m

Rotten Tomatoes: 44% (Critics), 72% (Audience)

In this animated family film, Adam Sandler voices Count Dracula, the host of a resort for al kinds of monsters. But things quickly go awry when a human crashes his daughter’s 118th birthday and falls for her.

Maybe most well-known for his work on Dexter’s Lab and Samurai Jack, director Genndy Tartakovsky’s knack for animation proves to be an excellent match for Sandler’s knack for voiceovers. While Hotel Transylvania is the only film in the series featured on this list, its sequels (and the corresponding animated short, Puppy!) are worth watching.

16.

The Waterboy (1998)

Director: Frank Coraci

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Comedy

Runtime: 1h 28m

Rotten Tomatoes: 33% (Critics), 71% (Audience)

The first on this list from what many would consider Sandler’s “Golden Age” of comedy (and the second Sandler-led football movie), The Waterboy is quintessential Sandler. He plays misfit underdog Bobby Boucher Jr., the titular water boy for a college football team who channels his anger as a linebacker when he’s fired from one team and hired by a rival. Supported by great comic performances by Kathy Bates as his overprotective mother and Henry Winkler as his new coach, The Waterboy has some of Sandler’s most quotable scenes. Coach Klein’s taunting “Gatoraaaaaade” as a form of motivation to get in Bobby’s head is a particular, wacky high point.

15.

You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah (2023)

Director: Sammi Cohen

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Comedy

Runtime: 1h 41m

Rotten Tomatoes: 91% (Critics), 60% (Audience)

Produced by Sandler’s production company, Happy Madison Productions—and starring his daughters, Sunny and Sadie, as well as his wife, Jackie—You Are So Not Invite to My Bat Mitzvah is quite the family affair. This colorful coming-of-age film centers around the ways middle school drama wreaks havoc on a long-dreamed-of joint Bat Mitzvah for best friends Stacy (Sunny Sandler) and Lydia (Samantha Lorraine). Poignant and charming, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat MItzvah doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but It does show that in the case of actors Sunny and Sadie, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

14.

Grown Ups (2010)

Director: Dennis Dugan

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Comedy

Runtime: 1h 42m

Rotten Tomatoes: 10% (Critics), 62% (Audience)

In Grown Ups, Adam Sandler leads an all-star cast of comic actors as a group of friends reconnect to celebrate the life of their deceased childhood basketball coach. Featuring the likes of frequent Sandler collaborators Kevin James, David Spade, Chris Rock, and Rob Schneider, this comedy finds plenty of humor in the struggles of balancing immature nostalgia with the responsibility of growing up. Slapstick gags abound as the friends and their families get to know each other better, making this a breezy summer comedy that goes down easy thanks to its talented cast.

13.

Reign Over Me (2007)

Director: Mike Binder

Rating: R

Genre: Drama

Runtime: 2h 4m

Rotten Tomatoes: 64% (Critics), 81% (Audience)

You’d probably have a better chance of winning the lottery than predicting that one half of SNL’s “Gap Girls” (known for singing about current events as Opera Man on Weekend Update) would one day star in a film about a man grieving the death of his family after 9/11. However, what would have one day been unfathomable to many viewers is actually a surprisingly beautiful film about grief and the power of friendship. When Charlie (Sandler) runs into his college roommate Alan (Don Cheadle), the pair find strength in the rekindling of their relationship. With affecting turns from both Sandler and Cheadle, Reign Over Me is a heartfelt film that is experienced much differently than it sounds on paper, proving that Sandler can succeed without always punching down in mainstream comedy.

12.

Big Daddy (1999)

Director: Dennis Dugan

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Comedy

Runtime: 1h 33m

Rotten Tomatoes: 39% (Critics), 74% (Audience)

In this Adam Sandler classic, Sonny Koufax (Sandler) adopts a 5-year-old child in order to prove that he’s an adult in an attempt to win back his ex-girlfriend. Featuring The Suite Life of Zack and Cody’s Cole and Dylan Sprouse in their breakout role as Sonny’s adoptive son, Julian, Big Daddy is both crude and sentimental—a hallmark mixture of tones for much of Sandler’s work. "Arrested development" is a mode Sandler operates in quite well, and Big Daddy showcases this maybe better than any of his other works. Full of some of the most memorable moments in any Sandler film, it also has plenty of heart alongside scenes featuring Scuba Steve and the infamously gross “Spit Trick.”

11.

50 First Dates (2004)

Director: Peter Segal

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Runtime: 1h 36m

Rotten Tomatoes: 45% (Critics), 65% (Audience)

Romantic comedies live and die by their stars’s chemistry, and, along with The Wedding Singer (don’t worry, it’s on the list, too), 50 First Dates proves that Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore have chemistry to spare. In it, playboy Henry (Sandler) has to woo Lucy (Barrymore) again and again due to her short-term memory loss. While most Sandler comedies feature their fair share of awkward silliness, here there is something lovely and poignant in the film’s characters. The end result is a film with strong shades of Groundhog Day, pairing its rom-com formula with trademark Sandman slapstick to create one of the best date movies of the 2000s.

10.

Click (2006)

Director: Frank Coraci

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Comedy

Runtime: 1h 36m

Rotten Tomatoes: 34% (Critics), 66% (Audience)

In Click, Sandler portrays Michael Newman, a busy man stuck in the 9-to-5 rat race who discovers a truly universal remote that allows him to control time. When it comes to sentimental messages at the heart of Adam Sandler vehicles, Click really puts it on heavy to make a point. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing—especially when much of the film serves as an homage to other great movies like Frank Capra's 1946Christmas supernatural drama It’s A Wonderful Life—but it is a bit of a gut-punch if you’re not expecting teary existential meditations and darker themes in your sex-joke filled Sandler flick. (Editor's note: This is easily one of Adam Sandler's best films in his early career.)

9.

Anger Management (2003)

Director: Peter Segal

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Comedy

Runtime: 1h 46m

Rotten Tomatoes: 42% (Critics), 59% (Audience)

The poster of Anger Management has always stayed with me. And in many ways, it delivers on the promise it depicts: Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson yelling at each other. Perfect. While Nicholson is usually associated with darker fare like The Shining or 1989's Batman, here his expressive face becomes a cartoonish comedic canvas. Anger Management has aged interestingly in the past twenty years, as topics of toxic masculinity, therapy, and emotional regulation have become more mainstream, but that doesn’t mean it’s aged poorly. This is true especially for those who can appreciate Sandler working in a more restrained key. And yet, there’s plenty to enjoy in Anger Management’s straightforward story about a man sent to unorthodox anger management classes after an altercation on a plane.

8.

Billy Madison (1995)

Director: Tamra Davis

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Comedy

Runtime: 1h 29m

Rotten Tomatoes: 44% (Critics), 79% (Audience)

Adam Sandler’s first foray onto the big screen capitalizes on his irreverent intensity to excellent effect. In Billy Madison, Sandler plays the film’s eponymous man-child who gets sent back to school in order to earn the position of power he owes to a rich father and his influence. Outgrowing the immaturity of childhood and proving one’s responsibility is a frequent theme in Sandler’s works, and Billy Madison offers him a stage to gleefully pinball from grade level to grade level, falling in love with his third-grade teacher in the process.

7.

Funny People (2009)

Director: Judd Apatow

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Comedy

Runtime: 2h 26m

Rotten Tomatoes: 69% (Critics), 48% (Audience)

In Funny People, Adam Sandler plays a comedian who reevaluates his life following his diagnosis with a terminal disease. While Sandler’s collaborations with Dennis Dugan marked a specific era of '90s comedy, this link up with Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, Pineapple Express) shows that Sandler can hold his own in the R-rated sensibilities of mid-aughts humor, too. Making great use of his ability to balance the comic with the dramatic, Sandler is complemented by a pitch-perfect ensemble including Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, and Jonah Hill. Not only is Funny People one of Adam Sandler’s best performances, it’s one of Apatow’s best works, too. That's a win-win.

6.

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected, 2017)

Director: Noah Baumbach

Rating: Not Rated

Genre: Drama, Comedy

Runtime: 1h 50m

Rotten Tomatoes: 92% (Critics), 72% (Audience)

Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) features Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and Elizabeth Marvel as the estranged children of famed artist Harold Meyerowitz (Dustin Huffman), who return to New York to celebrate him at a retrospective of his work. More character-driven and dialogue-heavy than most of the other films Sandler has starred in, Baumbach brings out some of the actor’s best work in years. Without throwing shade at some of the other movies on this list, seeing Sandler perform in a work written and directed by someone like Noah Baumbach does make you wonder if he’s always been capable of this level of work but has just been chained to his SNL origins. (Editor's note: There's a little shade here, and that's OK.)

5.

Leo (2023)

Director: Robert Marianetti, Robert Smigel, and David Wachtenheim

Rating: PG

Genre: Kids, Animated, Comedy

Runtime: 1h 46m

Rotten Tomatoes: 83% (Critics), 90% (Audience)

Long-time fans of the Sandman probably weren’t expecting an animated film about a lizard to be ranked this high, but make no mistake: Leo slaps! In it, Sandler is the voice of the titular old-ass reptile, a classroom pet who concocts a bucket list when he realizes he doesn’t have much longer to live. A strong showcase of Sandler’s abilities as a voice actor, Leo is touching, funny, family-friendly, and sweetly animated with a bevy of great songs to boot. While it’s aimed at children, adults will enjoy it just as much, if not more.

4.

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Rating: R

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Runtime: 1h 35m

Rotten Tomatoes: 79% (Critics), 77% (Audience)

Despite its focus on an outsider looking for and finding love, Punch-Drunk Love is far from typical when it comes to the types of movies you’d associate with Adam Sandler. Director Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood, Boogie Nights) gives the comedian a more serious role to tackle, and Sandler goes all-in and then some. There’s something pathetically endearing about his portrayal of Barry Egan, rightfully heralded as a revelatory performance by audiences and critics alike. In a film that can be hard to pin down at times, Sandler is the glue that holds it all together—an at-the-time surprising feat for a man more at home with fart jokes than art house romance.

3.

Happy Gilmore (1996)

Director: Dennis Dugan

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Comedy

Runtime: 1h 32m

Rotten Tomatoes: 62% (Critics), 85% (Audience)

Arguably Sandler’s best comedic work, Happy Gilmore follows hockey-player-turned-pro-golfer Happy, who enters a golfing competition in an attempt to save his grandmother from losing her home. Seeing Sandler as a foul-mouthed, fish-out-of-water in the typically staid world of golf proves to be quite a comic goldmine. From montages of Happy rising in success set to House of Pain’s “Jump Around” to Happy punching someone in the face on the putting green after ripping off their shirt, The Legend of Bagger Vance or The Greatest Game Ever Played this is not. That’s what makes it all the more fun.

2.

The Wedding Singer (1998)

Director: Frank Coraci

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Runtime: 1h 36m

Rotten Tomatoes: 72% (Critics), 80% (Audience)

Set in the 1980s, this romantic comedy pairs Adam Sandler with Drew Barrymore in a winning story about a wedding singer who falls for the woman whose wedding he’s been hired to work on. In a decade full of great romcoms like 10 Things I Hate About You and Pretty Woman, The Wedding Singer shines as one of the genre's best, thanks in large part to Sandler. It’s no wonder they tried to replicate it with 50 First Dates after the film’s success, but in this case, the first love was the sweetest.

1.

Uncut Gems (2019)

Director: Benny and Josh Safdie

Rating: R

Genre: Thriller

Runtime: 2h 15m

Rotten Tomatoes: 91% (Critics), 52% (Audience)

Why are some of Sandler’s roles outside the genre of comedy frequently some of his best? Whether it’s because there’s something disarming about seeing the actor tackle more serious work or it’s just where his natural talents lie, it’s hard to debate that Uncut Gems is Adam Sandler’s best acting to date. Tense and thrilling, this is a frenetic film that keeps you on the edge of your seat as jeweler Howard Ratner (Sandler) attempts to cash in on a high-stakes bet. With claustrophobic camera work that keeps you in sync with every anxious heartbeat of Sandler’s performance, this is one roller coaster of a movie you won’t soon forget, and an undeniable career high for an actor always willing to branch out into something new.

While some actors stay in their lanes or fade into obscurity, Adam Sandler manages to parlay his career as a comedian into a surprising variety of films. Is it sacriligeous to not rank a comedy in the number one spot? What’s your most-quoted Sandler line?

Share your thoughts in the comments.