2000s Hit Comedy With Billion-Dollar Star Is Being Hidden From Fans
If you grew up in the 1990s or early 2000s, you were likely fed a steady diet of silly off-the-walls Adam Sandler movies throughout your youth. One of Sandler’s best films, 2002’s Mr Deeds, is a certifiable classic, though it is currently not available to watch on any major streaming service. There’s a real argument to be made that Mr Deeds is Sandler’s greatest comedic outing of the bunch, even exceeding the heights of Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, and The Waterboy, so it’s a true shame that the movie is being hidden from a new generation of fans today.
The Cast
Mr Deeds was written and directed by frequent Adam Sandler collaborators Tim Herlihy and Steven Brill, respectively, and serves as a modern retelling of the 1936 movie Mr Deeds Goes To Town.
The film includes a stacked cast of comedy greats, including most of Sandler’s usual partners, such as Winona Ryder, John Turturro, Allen Covert, Peter Dante, Steve Buscemi, and Blake Clark. Mr Deeds is only the second Adam Sandler vehicle to be produced under his Happy Madison production company, following his 2000 effort Little Nicky.
Not Exactly A Critical Darling
Like most goofy comedies of its time, Mr Deeds was revered by general audiences but attacked harshly by critics. Today, the film touts a paltry 22 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, with many reviews citing the skin-deep character psychology, formulaic plot, and juvenile humor as a source of contrivance.
These critiques may hold water, but if you were a 6-year-old Adam Sandler fan from New England when this film premiered like I was, you probably weren’t concerned with seeing Sandler turn this upbeat story into an Academy Award-winning masterpiece.
The Set Up
The narrative of Mr Deeds centers on a humble pizzeria owner and aspiring Hallmark card-writer named Longfellow Deeds, who resides in a cozy rural town in New Hampshire. When Deeds is greeted by a pair of wealthy New York City executives, he comes to learn of a previously-unknown great uncle of his who recently passed away.
As the executives explain, Deeds’ great uncle Preston Blake was the owner of a massive entertainment conglomerate called Blake Media, of which Deeds is now the majority stakeholder.
Fish Out Of Water
As the film continues, Mr Deeds travels to New York to collect his inheritance, which clocks in at over $40 billion once his shares are liquidated. While navigating the big apple, Deeds feels highly out of place, as his small-town charm and friendly demeanor are picked apart by the hustle and bustle of rugged New Yorkers.
As he awaits the processing of his financial portfolio, Deeds strikes up a romance with a television tabloid reporter named Babe Bennett, who surreptitiously assumes a fake identity and plots to write a secret profile piece on him.
Watch It If You Can Find It
GFR SCORE
The film is certainly not Shakespeare, but if you’re looking for an upbeat, mostly family-friendly movie to throw on and chuckle at, I think Mr Deeds holds up a lot better than many of Adam Sandler‘s other early career films.
The movie has a ton of heart, a solid moral foundation, and some truly hilarious gags, such as Deeds’ obsidian black frostbitten foot, which is hardened to the point that he can use it as a blunt object. Unfortunately, the film is currently not streaming anywhere, leaving fans of Mr Deeds to rely on their old DVD copies, if they can manage to find them.
