NEWS: Wes Anderson vs. Adam Sandler

CELEB: Wes Anderson vs. Adam Sandler

Wes Anderson's new film The Darjeeling Limited was released yesterday. That fact sparked a debate with a friend of mine, who's convinced that he's gone downhill lately.

It snowballed into a debate on his fans. She asserted that his were mainly pretentious, super-ironic, atrocious hipster-types. Which, is hard to deny, that certainly describes some of them. She also thought that there was a good chance that people who love Wes Anderson, despite ther pseudo-cred, actually love a ton of unfunny shit as well. I disagreed.

Somehow Adam Sandler came up, a person I'm not a fan of. My friend claimed that Adam Sandler fans, a group I said was comprised mainly of jocks, date-rapists and morons, were likely to be just as respectable as Anderson's, if not more so. She also claimed there'd be some overlap, people liking both, which I found preposterous.

The debate centered around "The Life Aquatic," a movie I feel is flawed, but still super fucking hilarious. She found it empty and walked out of it with the rage of a sun going supernova.

We decided the best way to compare fans would be to do a Myspace interest search for each film, then compare the top 5 people listing the movie, judging them by their taste in other films. Here are the results of that test.

The Life Aquatic vs. Billy Madison

The Life Aquatic

1 - Ryan (I quickly move past his General interest of "sexy ladies" and check out his movie likes.)

Movies: Bum Fights, Anchorman, Rushmore, Life Aquatic

(Let's say Bum Fights and Anchorman cancel each other, leaving behind Rushmore. I'm happy with that.)

2 - Rob

Movies: Life Aquatic, Dodgeball, Shawshank Redemption, Anchorman
Ooh. Dodgeball.

(Dodgeball? Tsk. That stings. But whatever, Vaughn and Bateman were funny... in other things)

3 - Kayla

Movies: Lost in Translation, Rushmore, Royal Tennenbaums, The Life Aquatic, Amelie, The Virgin Suicides, Royal Holiday, Sabrina, Charade, Funny Face, The Godfather, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Resevoir Dogs.

(Nice! Except for the Amelie part, a movie my friend describes as "a twee piece of whimsical fairy-droppings.")

4 - Greg

Movies: garden state,slc punk,riding vans with boys,the life aquatic with steve zissuo.

(That Barrymore movie's fucking my shit up.)

5 - dr kevorkian

Movies: Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums, High Anxiety, Love Actually, The Life Aquatic, Mr. Hollands Opus.

(At this point my friend asked if, due to circumstances involving Mr Holland's Opus, I'd like to forfeit. I said no. But I knew I'd taken a huge hit.)

Billy Madison

1 - Kyle

Movies: shawshank redemption, billy madison, batman, matrix, royal tenenbaums, vacation, fight club, tombstone. (Damn, she comes out strong. Plus, extra consideration for proving me wrong with the Tenenbaums mention.)

2 - Alex

Movies: Juice, Bully, Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, Jay and Silent Bob, Clerks, Chasing Amy.

(Thank you Kevin Smith! I bet no one's ever said that before.)

3 - Taryn

Movies: Playing By Heart, Something about Mary, Billy Madison.

(Hahahahaah! She's in trouble. Plus, my friend noted that Taryn's taste in music had "burned out her eye sockets.")

4- Rachel

Movies: Breakfast at Tiffany's, Lord of the Rings, Starwars, Old School, Billy Madison, Less than Zero,Billy Madison.

(She loves Star Wars just enough to misspell it.)

5 - Scott

Movies: BILLY MADISON,PULP FICTION,GONE IN 60 SECONDS,FROM DUSK TIL DAWN,ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO,THE WAY OF THE GUN.

(Scott loves ALL CAPS and Gone in 60 Seconds... Two unpardonable sins.)


There it is. The results of the most scientific judging system known to mankind. My friend conceded that her guys were dumber but that mine did not have better taste. Again, I disagree.





TheCoolerKing plans on finding his future wife through a cross referenced Myspace/Facebook/SG interest search

i really don't get the point of this article, at all.

Maybe it's like Lost In Translation and is not supposed to make sense.

Fuck Wuss Anderson. I agree with your friend that he's overwrought and unfunny.

Why is this news and not a TOPIC on a BOARD or FORUM!!!!!

Agreed... with your friendlady.
His new stuff is rapidly going downhill.
I did not like The Life Aquatic..
..and I haven't seen the new one,
but it does have Adrian Brody.
weak.

i thought the barrymore movie was called 'riding in cars with boys' not vans? This greg character is just having barrymore fantasies about him and her in a shaggin wagon!

Subjectivity?

There was a music documentary a few years ago called Riding In Vans With Boys, about a Green Day/Blink-182 tour.

Man, I've never seen an article full of so much arrogance... on BOTH sides.

I'm somewhat a Sandler fan and I'm not a jock or date rapist. At least not anymore

Take it easy... That's far too many exclamation points for a kid like you to be messing around with.

Adam Sandler: embarrasing/awkward moment humor and weak splapstic for jocks and preppies.

Wes Anderson: same as above, but for the hipsters instead.

Wes Anderson does suck. His dialogue is bland and uncreative, yet people hail it as genius because he has his characters deliver it in deadpan vapidity so he (and they) can mentally project some kind of overwrought importance into what they're saying. And all the fucking yellow, man. Eventually, that kind of pseudo-psychadelia crosses the threshold of kitsch brilliance and just becomes boring and ugly. (That happened about halfway through The Life Aquatic.) Anderson is a schtick, that's all. It used to be cute, it used to be endearing, it used to even be funny, and now it's just boring, like a Rodney Dangerfield act. It's basically become the equivalent of Anderson painting his face yellow, standing in front of the camera and screaming, "I AM A GENIUS! LOVE ME!" And as long as culture juggernauts like Rolling Stone are trying desperately to clutch at the last rotting straws of the 60s, people will.

Although this article has no point. I say Screw that. Wes Anderson is amazing. I'm sorry for people who like cheap humor such as a guy getting kicked in the balls. I've been a fan since Bottle Rocket to Life Aquatic. I think Life Aquatic was flawless, the props were amazing and Bill Murray was magnificent in it.

I vote to disqualify Kayla.....or maybe just to slander. She lists Sabrina, Charade and Funny Face....let's assume she means the original Sabrina. So, she's got some Audrey going on. I cannot argue there. but the one before it is Royal Holiday. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that she means the Audrey classic Roman Holiday in which Audrey played a Princess in disguise. So, way to go Kayla....you love a movie so much that you don't even get the name right.

(And, dammit, I like Amelie.)

Why does almost every THREAD I READ have this QUESTION????? Get over it.

That having been said, I love Adam Sandler. You can judge my taste for yourself though, if you get bored

Shouldn't this have been a blog and NOT an article. Cuz as far as your taste in news goes..... well. Fuck right off.

I can't believe I wasted a minute of my life reading this pointless drivel.

Wes Anderson, if nothing else, places Bill Murray in his films. Not all of them, certainly, but enough for props to be given for such an action.

Adam Sandler does not.

Therefore, I pronounce Anderson as the winner of this lame competition.

I would also like to note that Adam Sandler was awesome in Punch Drunk Love, and hence isn't as terrible as some would have you believe.

With the exception of Taryn, I'm impressed that both groups have pretty good taste in movies.

You're not trying hard enough.

The Royal Tennenbaums was brilliant, Rushmore was very good, Life Aquatic has Bill Murray in it, and any arguement against Bill Murray is an argument against comedy. He is comedy. Laughter sublimates off his face.

Adam Sandler's movies are not supposed to be brilliant, or great, or profound. They are supposed to be funny and entertaining, and Punch Drunk Love kind of bridges the gap anyway, as Wes Anderson is a second-rate Paul Thomas Anderson. At the very least, Anderson's (either) movies are original stories told using unique, interesting casts of characters who are allowed to play different types of roles than they would normally get to play (how often are you going to see Danny Glover play a highly literate tax accountant who plays bridge?) Appreciate the films for what they are, not what you hope they should be.

If their movies fail, Adam Sandler wasn't trying to remake Citizen Kane and Wes Anderson's were at least something different.

And yes, narcissism is contagious.

I don't really think you can compare Wes Anderson movies to Adam Sandler movies. They are two totally different kinds of movies. I like both but if forced to compare I would say that Sandler movies hit their intended mark more spot on then Anderson movies. Anderson sometimes gets carried away which is why I think the Life Aquatic was so terrible. He shouldn't have tried to make it as funny and stick to what he is good at which is quirky characters. Where as Sandler movies are like good SNL skits, they are just a vehicle to tell a lot of funny jokes.