7 Movies Almost Ruined By Adam Sandler

There's a lot of talk right now about Adam Sandler's waning viability as a box office star, after the underwhelming performance of his latest movie, Pixels. Is the Hollywood goofball's time to shine over? Have audiences finally had enough of his relentlessly irritating shtick? Perhaps so. Despite the actor's immense commercial success and occasionally entertaining flick, he opts too often for the laziest, easiest payday, such that a majority of critics and film buffs have lost all respect for him. That said, he did almost star in these 7 movies, from Oscar-nominated thrillers to massive Marvel tentpoles, and each could have been significantly derailed by his presence in a major role. While there's every opportunity that Sandler could've pulled out another Wedding Singer, Happy Gilmore, Punch Drunk Love or Reign Over Me in these roles, given his tendency towards lowest common-denominator fare, it doesn't seem hugely likely. Here are 7 movies that, with an utter certainty, were almost ruined by Adam Sandler...

7. Dogma

The Role: Azrael, the demon who was banished from Heaven by God and is now wreaking havoc on Earth, played so memorably by Jason Lee. Before Lee landed it, the part was offered to a number of actors, such as Bill Murray, John Travolta and Sandler, who turned it down to work on his own comedy vehicle, Big Daddy. Why He Would've Ruined The Movie: It's tough to imagine Sandler's style of humour fitting in well at all with Smith's more nerdy, reference-heavy brand of comedy, and even for an otherworldy character such as Azrael, it would've relied on a lot of quick-witted dialogue. Sandler's forte is being angry and cartoonish, but Azrael needed to be calm, cool and menacing, so it was pretty much a bad fit from the outset. It all worked out for everyone in the end, really: Lee gave a highly entertaining performance in the film, while Big Daddy went on to gross over seven-fold more than Dogma, so Sandler no doubt got a tasty pay-day out of it, not to mention the further boost to his popularity and profile.