Leo

Release year: 2023
My Rating: ★★½ out of 5

Tagline: Breaking out this November.

Synopsis: Jaded 74-year-old lizard Leo has been stuck in the same Florida classroom for decades with his terrarium-mate turtle. When he learns he only has one year left to live, he plans to escape to experience life on the outside but instead gets caught up in the problems of his anxious students — including an impossibly mean substitute teacher.

Add this to the list of Adam Sandler movies way better than I expected. It's not like Leo is some masterpiece, but with a plot like this, it could have been so much worse.

I think over the course of the movie, I was gradually sold on the idea of this movie. Initially, the idea of Adam Sandler playing a talking iguana that teaches kids life lessons just sounds stupid. And it's Adam Sandler so you know it's gonna be disgusting and uncomfortable and his voice will get annoying, yadda yadda yadda. But I think this movie has the right amount heart that it absolutely needs to work. I wish it was a little bit less covered with Adam Sandler gross humor, but hey, it's a kids movie, and it does a really good job at being that. This movie actually got pretty popular.

Is this the first movie of Adam Sandler playing an old man? I think it is, and that is pretty monumental. I mean sure it's animated iguana so it's not like Sandler is playing a grandpa yet, but we're gonna start getting a lot more characters like this in upcoming years. Especially as his kids approach their 20s and he turned 60 last week (Happy birthday, Sandler!). It's only a matter of time before his starts being the wacky grandpa in Grown Ups 6. For now we just have Adam Sandler playing a very wise iguana, and I think he played the role very well.

This movie was another piece of the evidence to me that Adam Sandler understand kids so much better than nearly all other filmmakers. I think his movies have always done well with kids because his characters are usually kids at heart. It's humor that kids find funny, and it has gone a long way into why he is so popular. Honestly, I think it is one of the big things that I only think I understood because I watched all of his movies. Who knows if it is because he's a dad himself or he's just always been good with kids, but it makes a movie like this pretty cute, and I understand why it got so popular. 

Is it weird to say that I'm sad that I'm kinda bummed I'm running out of Sandler movies. Not relating to the blog, but just that I was always excited for the next Adam Sandler movie because I never knew what to expect. There were so many movies of this that surprised me that I never in a million years thought I would like. Now for every new Adam Sandler movie I need to wait a year or two. Regardless, I'm happy that I'm still able to reminisce and watch these movies again, it just won't be for the first time. That doesn't mean you, dear reader, can't watch all these for the first time though!

Post Script: Oh my god, I just remembered that this is a musical. Oh god why is it a musical, it is so bad! Every time I’m like, “Oh I’m beginning to like this movie” I get sucker punched in the face with the reminder it is a musical.