I suppose I respect the release of this Netflix orginal. I first heard about The Hateful Eight maybe a year ago. Somewhere between then and now, Adam Sandler and his buddies wrote, filmed, produced and released a comic parody (well, parody in title and genre at least) that actually pre-dated The Hateful Eight release. Then again, it’s pretty clear The Ridiculous 6 was written in maybe one weekend at best. That left some room for filming. Thank goodness Frank Coraci was available! How exactly did you find him? Aren’t there a lot of rooms in Sandler’s house?
Tommy a.k.a. White Knife (Sandler) is a Native American with extraordinary superpowers that he demonstrates in the first scene and then pretty much never returns to. White Knife is about to get married when the father he’s never known (Nick Nolte) shows up in trouble. His story convinces Tommy to go on an old west crime spree to collect the $50k needed to save dear old dad. And while livin’ the thug life, Tommy realizes his father has sired five other half-brothers: a migrant farmer (Rob Schneider), a beast (Jorge Garcia), an idiot (Taylor Lautner), a piano player (Terry Crews), and a gunslinger (Luke Wilson). Call me sentimental, but I think it’s so nice of Adam to find work for his friends; isn’t that sweet?
Speaking of which, Nick Swardson shows up in this one, which to me is the surest sign this decade that your film sucks. And if that weren’t clue enough, the first heist involves the strategic manipulation of a burro with explosive diarrhea. The burro’s owner, Rob Schneider, plays a Mexican without saying, “You can do eeet!” even once in this film. Aw, c’mon, man. That’s the only thing you’re employed for these days.
There are three big “laughs” in The Ridiculous 6 and all them left me queasy – the first involved Steve Zahn plucking out his own eyeball to join the “left eye” gang. The second is the newly beheaded corpse of Harvey Keitel firing his six-shooters at random. The third is Taylor Lautner -how
shall I put this?- Taylor Lautner doing … parlor tricks? Gymnastics? Aerobic exercises? while dangling from a noose. This is not just “gallows humor,” this is literal gallows humor. Huh. Maybe I was too harsh on the burro.
The Ridiculous 6 is a prime indication that Netflix can indeed screw up and screw up massively. One decent set of stunts involving parkour knifeplay keeps this collection of idiocy barely hovering above the toilet bowl, clinging for dear life to the sides before it gets flushed down like a stray fly who zagged the wrong way. While I readily acknowledge this is not an evil film nor one with a bad message, I cannot recommend Ridiculous 6 to anyone for any reason.
#1 is White Knife, a Native on the pale
#2 is Ramon, Ramon-alaya or Ramon-ail
#3 is Herm, a 19th century yeti
#4 is Lil’ Pete, whose Twilight-wolf you might forgetti
#5 is Chico, better on the Brooklyn force
#6 is Old School Danny, better in everything else, of course
These brothers want their foreign father out of evil hands
And yet, for good intention, this script I cannot stands
Not Rated, 119 Minutes
D: Frank Coraci
W: Tim Herlihy, Adam Sandler
Genre: Slap to the forehead
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Idiots
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Film fans
