Big Daddy isn’t a bad movie. It’s not good either. The film just sort of sits there in the Adam Sandler canon with flicks like Mr. Deeds and Click that no one will ever go out of their way to watch again.
Despite this, everyone had an opinion about Big Daddy when it came out in the Summer of 1999. It is important to have some context in order to understand why this debate was so ridiculous. Here are some of the other movies that were released around this time:
- Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
- Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
- American Pie
- The Blair Witch Project
- Inspector Gadget (The awful live action version with Matthew Broderick)
In other words, there were plenty of other things to discuss than a middling film riddled with plot holes and a few okay-ish jokes. And yet, so many conversations that summer were consumed by everyone having an opinion about Big Daddy.
Related: Recalling the Catherine Zeta-Jones butt through lasers movie
The everyone has an opinion about Big Daddy table
Big Daddy opinions all charted somewhere amongst the following table:
| Like Sandler | Hate Sandler | |
| Like Movie | Sandler is funny.
Movie is good. |
Sandler is not funny.
Movie is good because of message. |
| Hate Movie | Sandler is funny.
Movie sucks because it’s not like his other films. |
Sandler is not funny.
Movie is bad because all his films are bad. |
As you can see, Big Daddy was very divisive among Sandler fans and haters. A big reason for this was because it was slightly different from his three previous films–Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer and The Waterboy. In retrospect, it’s not even that much different. But no one was hearing that in 1999.
The problem with everyone having an opinion about Big Daddy is that there was no majority. The spectrum of outcomes is entirely too broad since Sandler fans and haters were split on it. Don’t take my word for it. Check out the review spreads on Rotten Tomatoes.
A grenade of a topic
What makes everyone having an opinion about Big Daddy the worst is that it was an absolute grenade of a topic. Discussions about it were dreadful. It was a hill far too many people seemingly wanted to die on.
Fans of Big Daddy were determined to convince you it was Sandler’s best work. Those who didn’t like it were steadfast in their belief the movie it was trash. But even within those two groups were subsets who would go at each other.
It was terrible to sit through. However, it was less painful than watching Matthew Broderick as Inspector Gadget. But that’s not saying much.
