A Huge Adam Sandler Rom-Com Flop Is Getting A Second Life On Netflix
Movies and TV shows find new life when they end up getting rediscovered on streaming services ... and that's precisely what happened to Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore's 2014 flop "Blended."
The romantic comedy, which marks the third collaboration between Barrymore and Sandler — after 1998's "The Wedding Singer," directed by "Blended" director Frank Coraci, and 2004's "50 First Dates" — definitely wasn't as popular as those first two when it hit theaters. Despite earning a respectable haul at the box office, raking in roughly $128 million against its $40 million budget, it was panned by critics and even deemed offensive thanks to its stereotypical depiction of African nations. So why is it seeing a massive spike on Netflix right now?
There's all sorts of reasons as to why "Blended" could be finding a second life on the streamer — so what is this movie even about, and why are fans loving it? Plus, what did critics have to say about "Blended" when it first came out?
What is Blended about?
In their third romantic comedy together, Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler play two single parents — Lauren and Jim — who end up going on an ill-fated date together and unfortunately swap credit cards, forcing them to meet again despite how poorly their first meeting went. The two make it quite clear that they never want to see one another again, which proves to be a problem after they separately take their children to the exact same African safari resort, only because respective friends of theirs could no longer make the trip and pawned their tickets off on Lauren and Jim instead.
The resort, misunderstanding Jim and Lauren's whole dynamic, ends up putting them into a massive group meant to celebrate their "blended familymoon," where they're also stuck with other extremely strange couples and forced to co-exist. Ultimately, what ends up happening is that they bond anyway; Jim plays sports with Lauren's sons, and Lauren hangs out with Jim's daughters and helps them navigate their tricky teen years (Lauren has two boys, and Jim has three girls). Thanks to Lauren and Jim's bonds with each other's children, the two give each other another chance ... although Jim, still grieving the loss of his wife, turns Lauren down before they leave Africa. Since this is a romantic comedy, the couple ends up getting together when they're back in the United States, creating one big happy family.
Fans are loving Blended on social media, years after its release
Now that fans are rediscovering "Blended," they're taking to social media to explain exactly why they love it so much ... and apparently, it's making a lot of viewers emotional, like @corbinmonice on X (formerly known as Twitter). "Why have I never seen the movie blended with Adam Sandler, I'm literally in tears," they wrote with five crying emojis. @nicci32792 simply gave the movie a shout-out, saying, "I watched Blended on Netflix last night. It's with Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler. It was cute and heartfelt. Give it a watch."
User @F_unsizee said they'll simply watch the film on repeat until it leaves the streamer, writing, "imma watch blended over and over untill they remove it from netflix this really my sh**," and @trimayre71 agreed: "They put blended on Netflix, I'll be watching it at least once a month." Elsewhere on the site, @QueeenMell was asked about their favorite Adam Sandler film — and guess what made the list? "That's a hard 1 bro but I'd say Big Daddy, Blended, and the Wrong Missy ! Blended is on Netflix now and it's hilarious," they said, responding to another X user before clarifying, "Watch it if you haven't."
What did critics think of Blended in 2014?
So how did critics receive "Blended" when it first came out? Not very well! The movie only has a 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a critical consensus that reads, "Lurching between slapstick and schmaltz without showing much of a commitment to either, 'Blended' commits the rare Sandler sin of provoking little more than boredom." That consensus is pretty mild compared to what some critics had to say.
For example, Richard Brody at The New Yorker wrote, "The romance is sweet and even effervescent, the comedy is homespun and sentimental, but it's packaged with such a repellent batch of stereotypes and prejudices that it's unpalatable even to contemplate." Over at the Los Angeles Times, Amy Nicholson felt as if the film stuck to some off-putting stereotypes about men and women: "In the world of this sitcom love story, men are from Mars and women should be from a defiled menstrual tent far enough away that Adam Sandler won't have to hear them talk about tampons." David Edelstein at Vulture also didn't think much of the movie, writing, "Sandler would piss out of the screen if he thought he could get a laugh. This is not his worst film, but it's his most offensive."
At the New York Times, A.O. Scott went after the filmmaking itself, writing, "Most of 'Blended' has the look and pacing of a three-camera sitcom filmed by a bunch of eighth graders and conceived by their less bright classmates. Christy LeMire at RogerEbert.com even tried to find a positive slant, sort of: "A decent movie might actually be buried here somewhere deep, deep down. The world will never know."
"Blended" is available to stream on Netflix now.