If Rotten Tomatoes is to be trusted, then Uncut Gemsis the best film that Adam Sandler's ever been in. And while you could be smug and point to his competition that includes: Grown Ups 2, Blended and Jack and Jill, the man has likely still entertained you at some point, and Gems' 95 percent rating is nothing to immediately dismiss just because of some of his past work.
Cue the awards push.
Just a day after Sandler lost at the Gotham Awards to Adam Driver, he went on The Howard Stern Show to promote Gems, a crime thriller which sees New York City jeweler and gambling addict Howard Ratner (Sandler) trying to land "the windfall of a lifetime." Sandler's performance has generated high praise, which he joked about to Stern, stating that the nice things critics have said are "Shocking, right?"
As captured by Entertainment Weekly, Stern then pushed Sandler to try and capitalize upon this praise by campaigning for an Oscar nomination. Sandler, who's not usually clamoring for media attention, recently did a New York Times profile, which he told Howard he "did like an asshole." He explained that he made that push because of the effort put into his newest film by its directors/co-writers, the Safdie brothers. "The Safdie Brothers and everybody worked so hard on the movie," he said. "[T]hat I didn’t want to do what I usually do and just go, ‘Eh, I can’t help you out there.'”
He also jokingly leveled a threat to Hollywood, and future moviegoers, that if he didn't get nominated for said Academy Award then he'd put together the shittiest movie he could out of spite.
“If I don’t get it, I’m going to fucking come back and do one again that is so bad on purpose just to make you all pay,” he said. “That’s how I get them.”
As for whether he deserves it, you can see for yourself when Uncut Gems has its limited release on Dec. 13 or, far more likely, when it has its nationwide release on Dec. 25.
