9 Times That Comedy Actors Failed At Serious Roles

2) Adam Sandler – Men, Women & Children

For the majority of Jason Reitman’s Men, Women & Children, Adam Sandler does serious acting the only way he knows how: by rolling out the old sadsack manchild routine and hoping it’ll pass as a performance. It’s an ensemble film (a fairly hamfisted one at that), which means, thankfully for Sandler, there’s not much room for the inexplicably popular star to embarrass himself.

In the few moments Sandler actually gets to do something, though, he neglects to deliver something worthy, as in Punch-Drunk Love, another serious (kinda) film that features his one great performance. Instead, like a sulky teenager, in Men, Women & Children he just mopes.

And when he isn’t moping, he’s delivering Reitman’s words with all the enthusiasm of someone who wishes he was just back on one of his comedy sets, getting paid millions of dollars to make fart jokes.