Sandler was straight up robbed!!!
every time i watch this movie i cant believe how incredible adam sandler is and how much of a travesty it is that he wasnt even nominated for this movie!
shareIf you look at the nominees, and winners of 2007 Oscars, and still have to ask that question, you're a Sandler fan and are easily impressed by a just adequate performance. There are countless other actors that would have equalled that performance, and dozens who would have knocked it out of the park.
~LjM
Way down deep I'm very superficial.
I'm not a Sandler fan but I couldn't disagree more. Have you looked at the list of nominees? I'll give you Daniel Day-Lewis but can you seriously say that Viggo Mortensen was better in Eastern Promises? I generally like Johnny Depp but was he better or anywhere near his best in Sweeney Todd? I really enjoyed Michael Clayton but I didn't think that George Clooney was particularly brilliant, just a solid performance in a really good movie. Sandler on the other hand put in a performance that was well beyond what most people would accept as his range in an impactful movie.
shareI have to agree with you here. The raw emotion that Sandler conveyed in this movie was astounding. I had no idea that this sort of movie was within his range. I have to say that he also impressed me in "Click" albeit for a different reason. The guy is talented.. he has the ability make movies of a high caliber, I think he just chooses not to. He would rather make a silly, stoner comedy than have to tap into his emotional stores. So far, he has made quite the career of being a goofball and I have to give him props for that (even if I am not a huge fan of his movies). He really is a talented guy, if you can get past the goofy outer layer. We've all heard him sing, right? W-O-W
when he tries, he's got pipes!
He should have gotten an Oscar nomination for this film. He was totally brilliant!
shareI watch Happy Gilmore last night and then I saw this on cable this afternoon and I was like DAMN Adam Sandler can act
Kudos
Try watching Wild Wild West....then Seven Pounds. Now THATS range!
shareI'll go with those who thought Sandler could have been (at least) nominated, over Clooney or Depp, in '07. I think it might have to be Clooney who should've been left out, in my book.
With Daniel Day-Lewis, there's no contest; and Depp DID sing 40% of his lines for SWEENEY TODD...
And I'm not a huge Sandler bandwagoneer. I enjoyed PUNCH DRUNK LOVE (a PT Anderson film, what a coincidence considering what THERE WILL BE BLOOD became under his capable vision and direction) very much, but the Sandler performance was still a bit on the "quirky--sans emotion" side for the Oscar nom.
On the other hand, I caught this last night on cable, and was just glued to his performance, in particular. Cheadle is no slouch, either (kudos for TRAITOR, such a nice and disturbing indictment of the international spy scene), but Adam Sandler did, in fact, knock this one out of the park.
Guess he'll be due on his next accomplishment of this level of performance in a leading role, eh? One can always hope; Jimmy Stewart was no great shakes, early on, either. Given time, it might happen.
Okay,
Bobbo
"Only a fool would say that." --STEELY DAN
Comedians never get Oscars. Never have. Never will. :(
Sign:
A nature loving atheist
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It's a shame. Jim Carrey's another comedian I can think of that's been robbed of Oscar noms at least once or twice.
shareDidn't Tom Hanks get an Oscar for Philadelphia? Clearly not for a comedic role but Sandler's role in Reign Over Me was similarly dealing with a serious and current issue.
Hope for the best. Expect the worst. Life is a play. We're unrehearsed.
-Mel Brooks
[deleted]
Robin Williams won an Oscar for 'Good Will Hunting'
Yes, and Robin Williams was Oscar-nominated for some of his other films too: The Fisher King, Dead Poets Society, and Good Morning, Vietnam.
I'm happy he won for Good Will Hunting. That was a rightfully deserved Oscar. :)
While some comedians have been nominated, fewer have won the Oscar. Here's the list as of August 2014:
Red Buttons, Sayonara (1957)
George Burns, The Sunshine Boys (1975)
Whoopi Goldberg, Ghost (1990)
Jamie Foxx, Ray (2004)
Mo'Nique, Precious (2009)
Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids (2011)
There are also "Honorary Oscars" for lifetime achievement that have been awarded to comedians:
Charlie Chaplin
Edgar Bergen
Bob Hope
Harold Lloyd
Buster Keaton
Stan Laurel
"Don't get chumpatized!" - The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)
If I were able to be offended, I'd be offended at your comment that the comedies Sandler makes are not "movies of a high caliber" (as well as comments below about realizing that Sandler can act because he's in a drama). Comedy is not somehow inferior to drama. It's just a different genre.
http://www.rateyourmusic.com/~JrnlofEddieDeezenStudies
Exactly but most people don't realize that and neither does the Academy. They equate dramatic roles as a measure of one's acting ability which is utterly ridiculous. Its like you get no points for making people laugh but you get 10 points if you can pull off an emotional scene with credibility. This kind of mentality needs to change.
He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither ~ B. Franklinshare
I always believed in Sandler's acting ability. Too bad he doesn't get more roles like this prove how good he is but then again I love his goofy movies and would love to see him keep making those. Somehow people have this idea that an actor who always plays goofy characters can't be taken seriously as an actor but forgetting that not everyone can pull off laughs after laughs like Sandler can.
People used to say the same thing about Jim Carrey until he blew everyone away with his performances in Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.
He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither ~ B. Franklinshare
You should get an Oscar nomination for being really good, not just for being "outside your range" or being better than everyone thought you would be.
"I didn't major in math, I majored in miracles." -- Mike Huckabee, February 9th, 2008
and he was realllly good. That movie brings me to tears every god damn time, kinda embarassing some times.
shareI actually did not care for most of Adam's roles in the past. Sometimes he made me laugh in his sillier films but never really did much else, and never impressed me. And in his previous serious roles, being "Punch Drunk Love" and "Spanglish", both of which are... fairly obscure films in their genre, he actually disappointed me on the grounds that I had not expected much from him to begin with. They were both relatively terrible films and his acting in them did not effect me much at all.
But in Reign Over Me, he was absolutely phenomenal. You need to really over analyze roles to understand just what a good acting job is, especially in emotionally crippling roles like this. Just because it looks well performed on the surface and has some clever dialogue does not mean much. Most actors given awards for "Best Actor" are actually more heavily mispraised for the well-structured dialogue that just happens to work with good directing. There are many who deserve their awards, but many who are simply over-appreciated. Sandler, however, proved that he deserved an award. He was without a doubt the absolute best Drama actor of that entire year, and I do not care what a single person says otherwise, he could not have been easily matched in the same position. There are very small details about his performance that prove this, and you have to pay extremely close attention and really observe people who are like this in reality.
Adam did something in this film that is rare, and that is make a truly emotional impression on the audience despite the writing. The writing was nowhere near bad, but without an incredible actor you could never hope to convey those emotions how they wanted, no matter how pretty or tragically the words may have been written out, and no matter how the director told them to say what they said.
It was the role of his life so far, and he deserved the highest of awards for it. I look forward to seeing him do another film like this, though I sadly doubt he will.
If you look at the nominees, and winners of 2007 Oscars, and still have to ask that question, you're a Sandler fan and are easily impressed by a just adequate performance. There are countless other actors that would have equalled that performance, and dozens who would have knocked it out of the park.First off, he wasn't asking a question, he was making a statement.
Also, the 2008 Oscars are the relevant awards, as this film was released in March of 2007.
In my opinion, Sandler's performance was at least as good as the rest of the nominated performances for the 2008 awards, and it was better than the winning performance. Also, in my opinion, Reign Over Me was better than ALL of the 2008 Best Picture nominees as well as the winner.
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*beep* yourself. he didn't get nominated because he is a comedy actor. people don't take comedy actors seriously. they very much should.
shareIm sorry, but in all honesty if all you saw in this movie when it comes to Sandler was an "adequate performance" than either you aren't one for serious movies, or you are just biased. I'm going with the latter. I agree with OP, I don't see how Sandler didn't get anything for this, he truly did amazing work. I remember 07 quite well, and there weren't any actors that year or movies to me in a serious role that held even a candle to the work that went behind this film. People say "Oh well Depp does good work, or Will Smith" but in that they are proving they are biased. In all honesty? Depp isn't all that to me. Seems to me that his pretty face does more for him than his acting, that's why he shines. I haven't seen a movie of his worth a salt in forever, and nothing came close to this. That last movie he did just as a side note was horrible.
shareCompared to There Will Be Blood, you're right. Compared to the movies that came out that year, you're right. Compared to the other nominees; the Academy just loves Tommy Lee Jones, George Clooney, and Johnny Depp no matter what they do. Those three actors tend to give out the same performance every movie.
This movie wasn't great, but Adam Sandler really does capture in this movie, and not JUST anybody could have done it the way he does. I think he may have been deserving.
Idk if it deserved an award, but from where you expect Sandler to perform to what he gives in this movie; I was blown away. I forgot I was watching Adam Sandler the whole time.
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