Adam Sandler confesses what we already knew: His movies are paid vacations

We all suspected it, but it took Adam Sandler to finally admit it: Most of the funnyman’s movies are basically just an excuse to go on a sweet paid vacation.

Appearing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” this week to promote his latest comedy “Blended,” Sandler answered in the affirmative when Kimmel asked if his movies are just an excuse to go somewhere nice on vacation.

“Yes,” came Sandler’s unequivocal answer. “I have done that since ‘50 First Dates.’ It was written in another place. I said, ‘Imagine if we did it in Hawaii, how great that movie would be?’ And they said, ‘Yeah, that’s a very artistic idea.’ I’ve been doing that ever since.”

It’s true. Ever since the 2004 rom-com “50 First Dates” (which also stars his “Wedding Singer” and “Blended” collaborator Drew Barrymore), most of Sandler’s movies have either been filmed in or heavily featured exotic locales. Parts 2008’s “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan” was filmed in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and 2011’s “Just Go With It” shot almost entirely on the Hawaiian islands of Maui and Kauai. And as much as we'd like to forget “Jack and Jill,” a good chunk of the film takes place aboard the luxury cruise ship Allure of the Seas. It’s no surprise then that “Blended” was filmed in Sun City, South Africa.

Watch the trailer for "Blended":

You can’t really fault Sandler for wanting to shoot movies in nice places, but it’s clear that his relaxed attitude towards moviemaking has impacted Sandler’s critical fortunes over the past decade. The comic actor’s profile page on the Rotten Tomatoes is not a pretty picture.

But Sandler and his fans obviously haven’t let bad reviews phase them. Since 2004, his films have earned more than $1 billion at the box office. No wonder he’s always on vacation!

It’s not uncommon for big Hollywood stars to dictate where a movie is filmed. It’s no coincidence that 2004’s “Ocean’s Twelve” was filmed basically around the corner from star George Clooney’s Italian villa. Similarly, the original 1960 “Ocean’s Eleven” (starring Rat Packers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis Jr., and Joey Bishop) was essentially just an excuse for the group to hang out in Las Vegas and get paid for it. Sandler, like other stars, is just trying to have a good time doing what he enjoys doing: comedy.

“I had a little strategy going for a while and then I started going 'Come on, let's go! What do we got?!'" Sandler told his former “Saturday Night Live” colleague Norm Macdonald when asked about his career choices. “I did my ‘Billy [Madison]' and my ‘Happy [Gilmore]' and my ‘Wedding Singer,’ and then I just started randomly going 'All right, what else we got?'”

The abandoned strategy Sandler alluded to is likely a reference to the early 2000s when he took on several dramatic roles, including the lead in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2002 film “Punch-Drunk Love” and the 2004 dramedy “Spanglish.” Since then, however, the closest Sandler has come to anything dramatic in the past decade was in Judd Apatow’s “Funny People,” where he played an actor-comedian not unlike himself battling cancer.