Movie review: The Ridiculous 6

Raised by Native Americans, Tommy "White Knife" sets out to rescue his kidnapped outlaw father. Along the way five brothers he never knew he had join the quest in hopes of finally knowing their dad.

Adam Sandler (Tommy), Terry Crews (Chico), Jorge Garcia (Herm), Taylor Lautner (Lil' Pete), Rob Schneider (Ramon), Luke Wilson (Danny), Will Forte (Will Patch), Steve Zahn (Clem), Harvey Keitel (Smiley), Nick Nolte (Frank), Jon Lovitz (Ezekiel), David Spade (Gen. Custer), Danny Trejo (Cicero).

When his outlaw father, Frank, is kidnapped Tommy is told $50K will get him released. Setting out to acquire the money, Tommy also finds five brothers he never knew he had. Joined by his brothers, the gang races to save their dad while learning about each other with some crazy adventures along the way.
This is a campy comedy without a doubt, but the film never develops the strong comedy we expect of a Sandler written, produced, and starred-in film. The lack of energy is even more surprising given the incredible cast.

Acting was okay but Sandler doesn't seem to have realized he is better at cracking the jokes than he is being the straight-man. Crews was funny as always. Garcia did well with an unusual role in which he had no understandable dialogue. Lautner was decent with a prominent role while Schneider, a Sandler film staple and favorite, felt very under used in his role. Wilson, Forte, Zahn, were all fun and funny. Nolte is growing rougher with age but pulled his part off pretty well.

Camera work, sets, and backgrounds were decent with nice use of natural scenery. Effects in action scenes were obvious and actually funny. Dialogue was campy, silly, corny, and often useless. Sound and soundtrack were okay.

If you are a big Sandler fan you may enjoy this one. If instead you are looking for intelligent humor, look elsewhere. The Ridiculous 6 is about crotch humor, poking fun at history and stereotypes, and Sandler playing with his friends. While there are some laughs, Sandler and his crew have made better films in the past.

With some off-color humor, racial stereotyping, mild sexuality, comedy violence, and mild foul language this should be fine for teens and above.

Released: 2015
Reviewed: 12.30.15
Star rating: 2 out of 5
Genre: Western, Comedy, Comedy Western, Satire

copyright ©2015 Dave Riedel