I've only heard of him because of some memes. I don't know who he is or which movies he has made.

His earlier work was pretty good. Back when he was playing the lovable goofball. Unfortunately, it seems like his ego has worked its way into his films, making them awful. Not only is the comedy basically on autopilot, but if you notice, Adam Sandler is either playing the chick magnet or the guy who's the best of the best at whatever he does. It's just unrealistic and takes you out of the film.

Like in Grown Ups, everyone else has a pretty normal life, but Sandler has the hottest wife and mingles with the stars (I believe he was an agent.) Or in Chuck and Larry, no woman can resist him and he is shown having had sex with multiple models at one time, even though he's just an average looking firefighter. Or in Pixel, he's the best at arcade games and no on can beat him. Well, unless they use nonexistent cheat codes.

Of course, I will say even though most of his movies after Big Daddy suck, he still has some enjoyable ones every now and then. Anger Management, Click, and 50 First Dates probably being the most notable ones.

Not at all.  The best protagonists have flaws and usually grow during the film.  It's boring to watch someone who's the best of the best and that's basically it for the film.  Especially when it's just some average looking dude whose a chick magnet for no other reason than the script says so.  Look at some of his better regarded films from his early career that made him a star.

Billy Madison - He's basically a spoiled fuck up, but he's still funny enough and has a big enough heart to be likable.  During the course of the film he learns to be a little more serious when it calls for it.  And even though he wins his father's company in the end, he still realizes he's too much of a fuck up to run it, so gives it to his father's VP.

Happy Gilmore - He's got a hell of a power shot, but sucks at skating and all other parts of hockey.  His temper often gets him into trouble.  Even when he swtches to golf, he sucks at putting and needs to learn to control is temper to beat the antagonist.

The Wedding Singer - He's a guy in a dead end job.  He's not a chick magnet.  In fact, his girlfriend no longer wants to marry him because of his career.  He gets so depressed after this that he almost fucks up everything going for him.  Almost.

The Waterboy - Not the smartest guy around, but again, his heart is in the right place.  He has a temper when pushed to the most extreme, but uses it on the field to help him tackle.  He has to learn to overcome the control of his momma to continue to play and overcome his shyness to get the girl.

Big Daddy - He's basically a loser.  His girlfriend leaves him for someone old enough to be her grandfather.  When he first gets the kid he doesn't want him, but then eventually becomes a hands-off dad that allows the kid to do anything.  But, when he finds out how that is negatively affecting the kid's life, he becomes a better father figure, and then fights in court for custody of him.  In the end, he doesn't even become the kid's dad, instead accepting his role as an "uncle."

Like I said, he's MUCH better when he's playing the lovable goofball.  Each one having their own flaws and obstacles to overcome.  When he's the best at whatever he does and/or is a chick magnet, it just makes the story boring because he is just overcoming other people and their flaws, while he's perfect.  It doesn't help that a lot of his movies have been on autopilot lately.  After The Waterboy, it seems every 2-3 movies, he just does a movie where he does a funny voice, thinking that will carry the film.

The Meyerowitz Stories. 

You fool, they heard you. 

the thing about Ben Stiller is that he's actually a superb comedian. His special little skits for the MTV music awards (like the Tom Cruise stunt double one, or the Backstreet Boys parody) and some of his movies (like Meet the Parents, Something About Mary, Zoolander) are pretty enjoyable.

I think the problem is that once Stiller got even bigger he sort of shoed it in with mostly bad family movies where the paycheck is the highest (i.e. Night at the Museum).

Stiller is far more versatile as far as comedy IMO. I like Sandler's earlier SNL stuff and his first few movies where he seems somewhat self aware, but he lost the plot so badly in the 2000s and became a paycheck worker. He stopped giving a shit. happens to a lot of comedians because its such a hard line of work to 'make it' in, that once they do they tend to lose the same drive and relatable humor (probably because they become rich and unrelatable to the average person). Eddie Murphy comes to mind as someone who lost the plot drastically as well

It always crossed my mind that Adam Sandler might have actually been an okay actor at generally more serious things if he had tried a little harder. Sometimes I'll watch The Wedding Singer and it crosses my mind that he's quite good at playing a 'normal' guy but just never really bothered to. And it certainly is underestimated at times how difficult it can be to play the 'believable guy' in films. Overacting is a very easy thing to do when in front of a camera. even in "Click" there are moments where he manages to pull some pretty good emotion from the audience. He wasted the 2000s with the roles he picked IMO, I really do think Sandler was capable of being less of a hack than he became. 

but screw it I guess, can't blame the guy for phoning it in when he's getting paid millions each movie to make stupid noises and wear wigs 

I like some of his movies but a lot of them are pure garbage especially Grown Ups 1&2, That's My Boy, and Jack and Jill.

agreed. His earlier films seemed a tiny bit self aware and modest in the sense that they embraced that the humor was retarded and that generally Sandler was a loser in them. He did a lot of self deprecating humor and seemed more concerned with getting the audience to care. The Waterboy might be overall a dumb comedy, but there are certainly moments there where you relate to and sympathize with Sandler's character and uncomfortableness (even if massively exaggerated).

starting in like the mid 2000s he was in so many collaboration family stupid comedy films where the dumb comedy is sold as being funny but its not particularly- partially because it doesn't embrace self awareness between the audience and the film. When you watch Billy Madison its quite obvious Sandler and the filmmakers literally were thinking while making it "how can we make this more obscenely stupid?", and it works because its like a massively extended SNL skit. but when you watch something like "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" or "Jack and Jill" it just seems... forced and like they genuinely thought people might think the concepts at their cores were funny. Harkening back to "Billy Madison", it works because the concept isn't really that funny, it shouldn't be, but it has the balls to be almost cringily bad to the point where it works- again, self awareness that Sandler's talent is in (essentially) behaving reallyyyyy dumb and not that he's good at completely transforming into some other character

it doesn't help that comedians often do seem to get worse with age, and Sandler was always so strongly identified with physical comedy and somewhat juvenile stuff that naturally that would be tough to maintain consistently in older age. 

In the end I'm over contemplating it, but I agree 100% thismeintiel- and I think the reason his earlier goofball stuff is pretty good is because its similar to his SNL stuff and not so forced. The creators seemed aware that part of the fun of the Adam Sandler stuff is not always necessarily laughing because of him BUT at him (as bad as that may sound haha).

Anyway its rare for comedians to last. Not everyone is going to be a Steve Martin or Bill Murray 

I liked the last one, the drama movie about a fictional manager. I think his drama movies are cooler than the straight comedies.
I loves DRUNK-PUNCH-LOVE and REIGN OVER ME.

Yes, I liked a lot. It is not really a comedy, it is a light-hearted drama with some amusing scenes, but not a typical Sandler movie. Also, very family-friendly.

I've always been a Sandler fan, since the 90s. And a lot of his movies are quite entertaining. But I will say that his later stuff, from the last 10 or so years, does seem to have gotten progressively less funny overall. There are still bright spots, but it does feel like his career is "winding down", which happens to pretty much all actors, but especially comedic ones.