Movie Review: Sandy Wexler (2017)

Synopsis: Talent manager Sandy Wexler has a reputation of being a compulsive liar and sloppy eater but is also known to show complete loyalty to the not-so-famous performers he represents. When he stumbles upon an unknown singer with a great voice, he convinces her to let him be her manager. But, when he succeeds in making her famous, he quickly realizes he is in over his head.

Who's in it? The movie stars Adam Sandler, Jennifer Hudson, Kevin James, Colin Quinn and Aaron Neville.


Review: After both of us were surprisingly pleased by the film The Week Of, my wife and I decided to pick another Netflix Adam Sander movie to watch and she ultimately decided on this one.

When we first started watching it, I didn't think I would enjoy it. At first, I thought it was just going to be Sandler using a funny voice with the majority of the film's budget being used to pay for the various celebrity cameos in the very beginning. However, as the movie progressed, I found I enjoyed it.

There were a couple things, in particular, I liked about this film. The first was Wexler (Sandler), who, had just enough annoying traits to not like him but, at the same time, did seem to have just enough pull around Hollywood (mostly from former clients) to help out those he was representing. As a result of this, when he started representing Courtney (Hudson) and made decisions that didn't seem to be in her best interests, it was hard to tell if it was the result of incompetence or if his feelings for her were getting in the way.

I was also pleasantly surprised by Hudson in this film. Up until watching her performance, I honestly didn't know a whole lot about her other than she was on American Idol. In addition to her voice being absolutely amazing (and resulting in performances I would never expect in an Adam Sandler film), I thought she held her own in the acted scenes as well.

His stable of other performers which included a ventriloquist (James) and a stuntman who had a habit of running into birds (Nick Swardson) and a professional wrestler (Terry Crews) were also entertaining and provided a pleasant break from the ongoing drama with Sandy and Courtney. As the movie progressed and they went through their career ups and downs, it made me wonder if any of them would be successful or would eventually drop him as a manager.

My only real complaint about the movie is, even though it had a 2-hour runtime, the film chose not to give any real detail about Sandy's backstory. It would have been interesting to find out more about his childhood and what compelled him to become the manager he was. It wouldn't have to be something that took up the majority of the movie, just enough to give us better insight.

Final Opinion: It's not as good as some of Sandler's earlier films (which isn't that surprising). But, it wound up being an entertaining movie and my wife and I did enjoy watching it. I'd recommend it because of that.

My Grade: B

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