What If: Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler Were in a Movie Together?
Written by Cameron Geiser
Everyone would rightly assume that if these two legends of the 1990's got together for a movie that it would be a comedy, right? Well, it could be... but what if it wasn't? Both actors have wandered out of their prospective comfort zones in the 21st century to great — and sometimes not so great — effect. The Sand Man has a few gems (pun intended) under his belt in this regard with Punch Drunk Love and the recent hit Uncut Gems. Carrey has Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Number 23, in regards to stepping out of his usual playground, but he's had more success with the films that reign closer to his comedic roles like his wildly successful role as Dr. Robotnik in last year's Sonic the Hedgehog movie. So with these two pairing up for the first time, the question remains; do they lean into their ‘90s personas? Or fling themselves into the wild unknown and take a risk? I think the genre they choose to create within means less than who the writer and directors are for this theoretical project. So, I've grouped some film directors into three categories based on how I think they might handle a film with Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler as the two leads.
The Safe Picks
The Safdie Brothers
Having just worked with Adam Sandler in the superb Uncut Gems, the Safdie brothers have already formed a repertoire with the Sand Man; they would just have to welcome Carrey into the fold. Having only seen the previously mentioned Gems and Good Time starring Robert Pattinson, I have faith in the brothers producing another uniquely anxiety-causing crime thriller with these two. I think using Sandler as the everyman underdog with Carrey being the unstable antagonist could be really something in their hands. I'm betting that if you put multitudes of pressure on Sandler's character until he breaks and loses it, that his performance would pair well with a menacing Jim Carrey as say, a criminal overlord of some ilk. Looking forward to this non-existent caper!
Taika Waititi
Taika knows how to blend comedy with heartfelt emotion behind the humor. This can be seen most prominently in The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, but this aspect bleeds into all of his work. I think Taika is the one director here that could fit their talents into a blend of comedy and drama that both Carry and Sandler would be most comfortable with compared to the rest, while still being able to pull off something truly unique. That's not to say that just because Taika has the best comedic chops out of every director here that it couldn't be challenging for them, but Taika does strike me as being the closest in tone to what the two have done before (more broadly speaking). That being said, I'd watch the hell out of whatever they cooked up!
The Coen Brothers
Similarly to the Safdie brothers, I believe the Coens could cook up a decent thriller of the criminal variety. Though the style would be of a more established audience character type for the lead (maybe Carrey this time around) that gets roped into some sort of crime syndicate that operates in the background of a well respected community; something like Fargo, or The Big Lebowski. Carrey seems like he could play off the folksy citizen who happens upon something... strange, or concerning. Sandler here could either be an antagonist, or even just a dedicated character also trying to solve the mystery behind what's happening. Can you imagine Sandler playing a local detective of a small town who's past his prime but still doggedly pursuing justice, even though life's gotten him down? I can, and I will. Damn, I don't know which movie I want to see more now.
The Weird Picks
Robert Eggers
The Lighthouse is one of the weirdest (and best) movies to come out in the last decade if you ask me. If you can take the pairing of Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe and turn it into one of the most fascinating 'descent into madness' tales of our time, well, you can do just about anything, can't you? This new film doesn't have to be comparable to the tale of two wickies in the slightest, but, having an excellent film with two characters handled so exquisitely certainly backs up the premise. Eggers has only made two films so far (with a third currently in the works!) and his sophomore effort couldn't be more different than his initial offering in The Witch: an excellent horror film that I highly encourage everyone to see. If Eggers were to stick to the theme of consistently setting his stories in the past, that could be a fun continuation with Sandler and Carrey. If he's sticking to his abstract horror style, why not set it in 1920's prohibition America? Team them up this time, and let them discover something horrific while bootlegging liquor on the east coast. He could go a litany of ways with this, but I love the idea already. However he chose to use these two actors, I think it would be as challenging, unique, and unsettling as his previous work would indicate.
Paul Thomas Anderson
Since P.T.A. has already worked with Sandler before (in one of his best films no less), I think a return to this director after so much time and a number of films have passed would only strengthen the possibilities of the trio hitting cinematic gold. Some of P.T.A.'s movies deal with historical settings and the burgeoning underbelly of it's machinations that may, or may not, come undone through the error of humanity's ways. There Will be Blood and The Master come to mind with that notion, but there's always the chance that he could throw us a curveball with something more akin to Inherent Vice or Boogie Nights, where he centers on a various subculture in society and plays within that universe. Or, hey, P.T.A. could always do his own riff on some 1980's 'Greed is Good' plotting with Sandler portraying the everyman that gets wrapped up in the finance game with Carrey pulling wild shenanigans as an older CEO who's starting to lose his grasp on reality? I like that crazy idea, especially because it will never happen, but, hey, that's what this is all about!
Denis Villeneuve
From something of a smaller scale like Enemy to the operatic Blade Runner 2049, Villeneuve is a director whose style and integrity can be applied to any size story. If after Dune is released and the director is looking to return to a smaller scale film, I think he could find something compelling and bizarre to do with these two. He could return to a crime thriller with varying shades of morality and ambiguity like he did with Sicario, or he could simply pare it down and introduce a single science fiction element that the two actors would have to grapple with, a la Enemy. Then again, he could always use them as the principal characters in a larger ensemble like Dune, Arrival, or 2049. Personally, I lean towards something closer to Enemy in scale, wherein the two discover something extraordinary that then sets them against each other. A phenomenon like time travel, or something lucrative like discovering a crashed alien ship and using it's engine to produce a new energy source? Again, the possibilities are wide open.
The Wild Cards
Bong Joon-ho
If you're curious about this choice of director, you don't have to look to far back into his filmography to see his work with a multitude of American actors in films like Okja or Snowpiercer. So far most of Bong Joon-ho's films deal with some sort of social injustice like capitalism's inequality problem in Parasite, class dynamics and environmental issues in Snowpiercer, or the mass production of food factories and animal rights in Okja. This director's work may draw Carrey more so than Sandler based on the issues they chose to discuss on their social media platforms, but I doubt Sandler would turn down an opportunity to work with one of the most prolific international directors of our time.
Bong Joon-ho has couched some of his message films in familiar genres, though this isn't a foregone conclusion by any means. The Host was a monster movie about how American dominance and control over the lives of people in other countries can have unintended consequences, for example. For these two, while I would assume that they take prominent roles for this experiment, I'm betting the director would favor more of an ensemble cast as he has done in the past. Whether the film takes the shape of a murder mystery, a monster movie, post apocalyptic, or a referendum on our global economics, I'm sure they would be in good hands with Bong Joon-ho.
Rian Johnson
Say what you will about the man's Star Wars movie. Outside of that galaxy far, far, away, his work has been completely stellar (I'm just avoiding a conversation turning into a Star Wars debate, and that's not what I'm about anymore). Whether in Looper, or more recently with Knives Out, Rian Johnson is the king of subverting expectations and upending genre structures with glee. The director has spoken of the possibility of returning to the character of Benoit Blanc played, expertly by Daniel Craig, in another mystery 'whodunnit?'. While an entirely new idea could be intriguing with these two actors, I would rather prefer that they be principal characters in the Knives Out sequel with Daniel Craig returning as Blanc. Part of the magic of Knives Out was the incredible cast Johnson wrangled together, and for the sequel I cannot fathom how involving both Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey could be anything other than downright eclectic! Here's hoping for another wry and witty 'whodunnit?' involving Sandler and Carrey.
Quentin Tarantino
This may be the most unlikely, and yet entirely plausible pick on the list. Supposedly Tarantino only has one last film that he's going to make. The only questions left are: what's it gonna be about, and who's gonna be in it? Tarantino has worked with a slew of Hollywood regulars over the years, and while he has resuscitated several movie stars’ careers and made the careers of others, he knows how to work with a wide range of talent. Whether it's a criminal thriller, a war movie, western, or samurai-inspired tale of vengeance, the man isn't bound to any one genre or time period. At this point he could take his final film in any direction and people would still line up to see it (when the world re-opens that is). With Quentin Tarantino, I feel as though there's a bit of a formula, or recipe rather, that you could apply to any of his films to get a smattering of what he might be likely to do. First, mix and pour in some uncured revenge. Add a healthy dash of violence. Repeat. Stir. Refine your mix until it's ready for some unmitigated and unleashed Samuel L. Jackson. Pour in several references to filmmakers of old like Seijun Suzuki, Jean-Pierre Melville, or Sergio Leone. Finally, for our rendition, add a dollop of Sandler and a cup of Carrey. Serve it while it's hot!
I'd like to take a moment to discuss the two actors in question and their respective strengths as performers. Given the wide variety of directors discussed here, many of whom write their own screenplays, I believe that whether as protagonists, antagonists, working together, or against each other, that both Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey are entirely capable of engaging in any of these roles given the context. For all of these theoretical situations, I believe the case could be made for either actor to be an 'everyman' archetype, but it all depends on the creatives working with them, and especially the story at hand. Both actors have incredible skill in bombastic and explosive performances, but both have shown precision in quieter and smaller roles as well. Whether in The Truman Show or Punch Drunk Love, both men have already proven themselves to be more than just comedic in talent, even though I greatly admire many of their comedies as well. The point of this article was to theorize some truly exciting films with powerful implications of what could be, and while I have no expectation that anything like these suggestions could or would be realized, just conjuring them up was a blast. Hopefully we'll get a film with both actors involved at some point; I believe it could be something truly miraculous!
Cameron Geiser is an avid consumer of films and books about filmmakers. He'll watch any film at least once, and can usually be spotted at the annual Traverse City Film Festival in Northern Michigan. He also writes about film over at www.spacecortezwrites.com.