Honestly, you can’t talk about the Adam Sandler cowboy film without talking about the absolute storm that brewed before a single frame even hit Netflix. It was 2015. Netflix was just starting to flex its muscles as a movie studio, moving away from being a "digital DVD shelf" and toward becoming a Hollywood titan. They bet big on Adam Sandler. Like, $250 million big. The first result of that massive marriage was The Ridiculous 6, a Western parody that aimed to be Blazing Saddles but ended up being one of the most controversial entries in Sandler's entire filmography.
What Really Happened with The Ridiculous 6?
It was meant to be a spoof. Basically, Sandler plays Tommy "White Knife" Stockburn, a man raised by Native Americans who discovers he has five half-brothers. They team up to save their deadbeat dad, Frank Stockburn (played by a very gravelly Nick Nolte).
But the "ridiculous" part started long before the premiere.
During production, about a dozen Native American actors walked off the set. They weren't just unhappy; they were insulted. Reports came out about script jokes that felt punching down rather than poking fun. Characters had names like "Beaver’s Breath" and "No Bra." There was a scene involving a woman urinating while smoking a peace pipe. For many of the actors, including the film’s cultural consultant who also quit, the "satire" label felt like a flimsy excuse for lazy stereotypes.
Netflix doubled down, though. They issued a statement saying the movie has "ridiculous" in the title for a reason and that the cast was "in on the joke."
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Whether the joke landed depends entirely on who you ask.
The Cast is a Fever Dream of 2000s Stars
If you look at the call sheet, it’s actually insane. Sandler basically called every person in his contact list.
- Terry Crews is a saloon pianist.
- Jorge Garcia (from Lost) is a mute mountain man.
- Taylor Lautner plays a... well, a "simpleton" with a very strong neck.
- Rob Schneider is a Mexican burro rider (which, yeah, hasn't aged great).
- Luke Wilson plays a former bodyguard to Abraham Lincoln.
Then you have the cameos. You've got Steve Buscemi as a doctor-dentist-barber, Harvey Keitel as a gang leader, and—I kid you not—Vanilla Ice playing a jive-talking Mark Twain. It’s the kind of lineup that only happens when you have a Netflix budget and Adam Sandler’s charisma.
The movie is long. Two hours. That’s a lot of time for a comedy about a donkey with explosive diarrhea.
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Why People Are Still Searching for the Adam Sandler Cowboy Film
You’d think a movie with a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes (at launch, anyway) would just vanish.
Nope.
It actually became one of the most-watched items on Netflix at the time. Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s boss, noted that in its first 30 days, it was the #1 movie in every territory the service operated in. This highlights the massive gap between "prestige" critics and the "I just want to laugh at something dumb on a Friday night" audience.
Breaking Down the Reception
- The Critics: They hated it. The word "unwatchable" was thrown around a lot. Roger Ebert’s site gave it a zero-star review, calling it a "monumental failure."
- The Die-Hards: Sandler fans found the "invention of baseball" scene and the John Turturro cameo legitimately funny. To them, it’s just Happy Madison doing what Happy Madison does.
- The Legacy: It proved that Sandler was "un-cancelable." Despite the walkouts and the scathing reviews, his partnership with Netflix flourished, leading to hits like Murder Mystery and Uncut Gems.
Is it Actually Worth Watching?
Look, if you hate slapstick, stay away. If you find Rob Schneider’s brand of humor grating, this will be your personal version of hell. But if you’re a completionist for the Adam Sandler cowboy film era, it’s a fascinating time capsule.
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It represents the exact moment the movie industry shifted. It showed that a movie could be "objectively" bad by every critical metric and still be a massive commercial success because it was delivered directly to people’s couches.
What you should do next:
If you’re looking for Sandler’s better work with Netflix, skip the Western and head straight for The Meyerowitz Stories or Hustle. They show the "real" acting chops he occasionally hides behind the fart jokes. However, if you must see the controversy for yourself, The Ridiculous 6 is still sitting there in the Netflix library, waiting to see if your tolerance for absurdity is higher than the critics' was in 2015.
Keep an eye on his upcoming projects, like the Happy Gilmore sequel, to see if he returns to this broad, zany style or sticks to the more refined "Elder Statesman of Comedy" vibe he’s been rocking lately.