THE RIDICULOUS 6
US, 2015, 119 minutes, Colour.
Adam Sandler, Terry Crews, Jorge Garcia, Taylor Lautner, Rob Schneider, Luke Wilson, Will Forte, Steve Zahn, Harvey Keitel, Nick Nolte, Steve Buscemi, Chris Parnell, Blake Shelton, Vanilla Ice, John Lovitz, Whitney Cummings, Nick Swardson.
Directed by Frank Coraci.
There was Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful 8. Of course, there were The Magnificent Seven. And now these films are being parodied by The Ridiculous 6, which generally lives up to its title!
This was an expensive production for Netflix, the settings of the old West, the scenery of the West, the towns, the Indian reservations…
The power behind this film is, of course, Adam Sandler. And he has gathered a great number of his friends to play the roles. And he has gathered together members of the teams who have made his previous films, especially Frank Coraci, the director.
On the one hand, there are some serious underlying issues in the film, especially the attitudes towards the Native Americans and their responses to the hostile men and women pioneers of the West. To the fore, is the issue of father and son, in this case, sons, the six men from different mothers, the same tough father, Nick Nolte as a high reputation robber. The ridiculous 6 have different backgrounds, different mothers, different racial backgrounds, different class status, from the giant lumbering mumbler to Taylor Lautner as a slow-witted but chattering young man, to Luke Wilson as a security agent who feels responsible for the death of Abraham Lincoln. Terry Crews is an African-American? son. Rob Schneider, usually a broader comedian, has a better role as the Hispanic son.
The focus is on Adam Sandler who was abandoned by his father and was taken in by a Native American community and brought up in their traditions, their skills, bonding with them, ready to marry his fiancee there. He also has extraordinary skills and timing in the use of a range of weapons – which is well illustrated throughout the film at key moments for drama, and for comic timing.
Sandler encounters his father who says he is dying of consumption but wants to give his son money (later revealed to be a double deal wanting them to raise the money for him and his taking the hundred thousand dollars from his sons).
Sandler travels to find his father, encountering a hostile group of men who have removed their left eye as a symbol of their bonding, persuading the bigoted Steve Zahn to remove his eye (and their later showing that they had not done this at all). They encounter a sympathetic barber, Steve Buscemi. In their attempts to rob banks, they encounter opposition, chases, shootouts. When they decide to rob a nugget, they encounter the vicious boss of the town, Harvey Keitel, – victim of a sudden decapitation but still standing and firing his guns! There is also Danny Trejo as a Machete like villain, responsible for the death of Sandler’s mother.
There are many historical references, a national poker game with players like Wyatt Earp and Mark Twain. There is a flashback to Luke Wilson and his guarding the president at the theatre and encountering John Wilkes Booth in the corridor, an actor he admires, even pointing to the president’s box. He later has a vision of the president for giving him.
So, adventures in the West, some slapstick comedy as usual, some rather in your face crude humour, the western parody for those who enjoy Adam Sandler comedies.
