We live in a world where we get one good Adam Sandler performance for every dumpster truckload of bad Adam Sandler movies. Netflix may be shoveling Sandler original movies at us like coals into a fire – and hey, you’re to blame, America – but they’re also behind the latest Noah Baumbach movie which allegedly features the best Sandler performance since his surprisingly poignant turn in Punch Drunk Love.
There are many ESPN channels: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPN First Take where they just show that show on a loop forever. (It’s mostly watched in prisons as a form of enhanced interrogation technique.) But the greatest of all ESPN channels is ESPN 8, or “The Ocho,” as it’s known to devotees. It’s the ESPN devoted to the finest in seldom seen sports.
Ben Stiller’s latest role is a middle-aged guy reflecting on the missed opportunities and regrets of his youth, mourning the life he could’ve had. No, this isn’t When We’re Young, the Noah Baumbach film where Stiller tapped into nostalgia and new-age hipster-dom with ayahuasca trips alongside Adam Driver. It’s Brad’s Status, the latest from School of Rock, The Good Girl, and Orange Country writer (not to mention one of the scribes behind The Emoji Movie) Mike White.
We never got a sequel to Dodgeball, the 2004 underdog sports comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller as opponents in an epic dodgeball tournament. The last update on a possible 2 Dodge 2 Ball came four years ago, when screenwriter Clay Tarver was reportedly tapped to write a screenplay for a potential follow-up. Four years later, we still have nothing to show for his efforts.