If the reviews for “The Cobbler” are any indicator, Adam Sandler may want to consider a career change and become an actual cobbler.
Sandler’s latest comedy offering, which centers around a shoe repairman who finds a magical device that lets him transform into his customers, currently sits with a dismal 8 percent “rotten” approval rating from the 37 critics counted, so far, by Rotten Tomatoes.
The PG-13 comedy co-starring Ellen Barkin, Dan Stevens and Steve Buscemi is the latest in a string of derided comedies led by Sandler, whose recent misfires include “Blended,” “That’s My Boy” and “Jack and Jill.”
The critics have been particularly unmerciful to “The Cobbler.” Here are seven of the most brutal reviews TheWrap could find:
A.A. Dowd of the A.V Club wrote:
“[No] veneer of pedigree can contain the magical-realist hooey erupting from the surface of this high-concept comedy. What looks at first like some cross-borough cousin to ‘The Visitor’ reveals itself to be Thomas McCarthy’s answer to ‘Click’—a film as crass, in its festival-friendly way, as any Happy Madison production.”
Jordan Hoffman of the New York Daily News:
“McCarthy’s tries to turn this mess into an Isaac Bashevis Singer-like Jewish fable. It has all of the schmaltz, none of the wit. The grab bag of ‘New York’ characters — a Latino transsexual, a gentrifying supermodel, Steve Buscemi clutching his trusted copy of the Daily News — add some color, but with so much cobbled together, the shoe doesn’t fit.”
Bruce Demara from the Toronto Star:
“Sandler plays Simkin with a languidness bordering on sloth. (The character could have used some of Happy Gilmore’s anarchistic spunk.) But it’s the script that takes an idea with an inkling of promise and squanders it in a final act that is likely to evoke painful winces from the audience.”
Brian Tallerico from RogerEbert.com:
“‘The Cobbler’ is almost fascinatingly awful enough to recommend. If one subscribes to the theory that you can learn as much from a bad movie as from a good one, this one’s a master class in what not to do. What starts off as purely harmless mediocrity piles on the narrative and filmmaking mistakes to such a degree that it’s like watching a train wreck…that bursts into flames…and then another train crashes into it.”
Peter Travers from Rolling Stone:
“‘The Cobbler’ is a failure on every level. It’s a toxic smear of curdled whimsy about a New York shoe-repair man (a lumbering Adam Sandler), who transforms into his customers when he puts on their shoes. The film is beyond awful and beyond repair.”
Chuck Bowen from Slant Magazine:
“‘The Cobbler’ blends callousness with the sort of condescending magical sentimentality that’s insistent on the hidden dimensions of “the common man.” It’s a toxic combination that’s occasionally enlivened by lunacy, as this is one of those films that’s so bad, so misconceived, that one’s driven to keep watching to see how much worse it can get.”
Nathan Rabin from The Dissolve:
“Though ostensibly a change of pace for Sandler, ‘The Cobbler’ has the kind of gimmicky, high-concept premise his self-loathing, mercenary character from Funny People would have lustily embraced, then hated himself for making. But if the premise screams “wacky,” the dour, sincere tone suggests the filmmakers genuinely thought they were making a film about embracing destiny and the importance of community, instead of an actual comedy.”