Adam Sandler’s Click Has Only 34% On Rotten Tomatoes But Actually Got Better Over Time

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Adam Sandler has had one of the most successful careers of anyone who started on Saturday Night Live, and surprisingly, his 2006 film Click still resonates with audiences today. While he’s famous for his silly, character-based comedies like Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, and The Waterboy from the 90s and 2000s, Sandler has recently surprised many with his dramatic roles in critically acclaimed films like Punch-Drunk Love and Uncut Gems.

When people talk about Adam Sandler’s best films, Click is often left out. It wasn’t well-received by critics when it came out, and it hasn’t gained much praise since, as evidenced by its low score on Rotten Tomatoes. But Click is surprisingly thoughtful, and its central theme feels even more relevant today than it did in 2006.

Click Was A Commercial Success But Critically Disliked During Its 2006 Theatrical Run

After leaving Saturday Night Live in 1995, Adam Sandler became one of the most consistently successful movie stars to come from the show. For about ten years, he made a series of comedies that audiences loved, even if reviewers weren’t always impressed.

Movies such as Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates, and Billy Madison helped establish Adam Sandler as the charming, immature man-child – boisterous, a bit childish, but always good-hearted. This formula was very successful with audiences and became the hallmark of his early film work.

In 2006, Adam Sandler teamed up with director Frank Coraci again, following their hits The Wedding Singer and The Waterboy. Their new movie, Click, featured a creative idea – a magical universal remote – and was written by the same team that created Bruce Almighty.

The movie Click was a financial success, earning $268.7 million globally on an $85 million budget, which added to Adam Sandler’s history of profitable films. However, critics weren’t as impressed. Many disliked the film’s mix of humor and drama, and felt it was a departure from Sandler’s usual style.

Rather than his usual role as a lovable, but somewhat lazy character, Sandler played a driven architect who prioritizes work over his family. This made it difficult to immediately connect with the character, particularly because the film also included silly, immature humor that didn’t quite fit with its more thoughtful moments.

The movie’s silly jokes and physical humor didn’t quite fit with its more serious, emotional story, leaving reviewers unsure if it was a touching drama, a funny comedy, or a strange mix of the two. In the end, Click didn’t stand out among Adam Sandler’s other films and was largely forgotten.

Click’s High Concept Premise Has Aged Well Over Time

Despite some immature and outdated jokes typical of comedies from that era, Click is essentially a modern retelling of the classic story It’s a Wonderful Life. The film centers around Michael Newman, played by Adam Sandler, a workaholic architect who comes into possession of a magical universal remote control.

The remote gives him complete control, letting him jump over anything difficult or annoying. Initially, it seems like a dream come true, but it quickly becomes a warning about becoming too dependent on ease and speed. By avoiding unpleasant or dull moments, Michael also misses out on the experiences that truly give life meaning.

Looking back, the world felt so different back in 2006. I remember being amazed by BlackBerrys – they were the must-have tech for staying connected. And the Nintendo Wii? It felt like magic, with those motion controls! Plus, Facebook was still pretty new, just starting to become a part of everyone’s lives. It was a time when technology felt full of promise – like it was going to make everything faster, easier, and put us more in control.

Twenty years after its release, the movie’s message resonates even more strongly today. We now live in a world where automation and digital tools are commonplace and influence almost everything we do.

Today, many students rely on summaries instead of reading books directly, we expect technology like facial recognition to work immediately, and social media plays a huge role in how we connect with others and see ourselves. While we’re striving for speed and convenience, it often means we’re losing our ability to focus, be patient, and form meaningful relationships.

Compared to Adam Sandler’s typically lighthearted comedies, Click (2006) was surprisingly somber. However, looking back at his later, critically acclaimed dramatic roles in films like Uncut Gems and Punch-Drunk Love, Click now seems like a natural step in showcasing his versatility as an actor.

How Click Impacted Adam Sandler And Director Frank Coraci’s Filmographies

You know, after making Click, things changed for both director Frank Coraci and Adam Sandler. Coraci had been a big part of Sandler’s early successes – he directed The Wedding Singer and The Waterboy, which were huge – but he didn’t release another movie for five whole years after Click. It was a pretty noticeable shift for both of them, really.

After a bit of a break, I noticed a change in direction with his next projects. He started working with Kevin James, directing films like Zookeeper and Here Comes the Boom. It felt like a clear move away from his long and incredibly successful partnership with Adam Sandler – a partnership that had really defined his biggest hits up until that point.

Dennis Dugan later worked with Adam Sandler again on films like Blended and The Ridiculous 6, but these weren’t as popular or successful as their previous movies together. Although he continued directing, he never quite regained the widespread success he had in the late 1990s. His most recent film, Hot Air, came out in 2019.

After the movie Click, Adam Sandler’s career path became clearer. His previous attempts at more imaginative or fantastical comedies, like Little Nicky, hadn’t been very successful, and the lukewarm response to Click seemed to make him avoid that type of film. From then on, throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s, Sandler mostly focused on making the straightforward, widely appealing comedies that he knew would resonate with audiences.

Films such as I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, Jack and Jill, That’s My Boy, and Grown Ups 2 largely relied on Sandler’s established style of humorous pairings. He also tried to repeat the romantic-comedy success of 50 First Dates with the movie Blended.

After an eight-year gap, Adam Sandler tried another original idea with The Cobbler. It seems the mixed reception to Click led him to focus on more comfortable and predictable projects for the next ten years. Of all his films, Click seems like the most promising candidate for a sequel.

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2026-02-17 16:12