The First Al Pacino Movie the Screen Legend Would Show His New Baby Is the One You’d Least Expect
Oscar-winner Al Pacino is one of the iconic actors of his generation, boasting a resume that includes Dog Day Afternoon, Heat and The Godfather. The 84-year-old Pacino is prolific in other ways as well, with a son, Roman, who’s only a year old. Since the kid is way too young for, say, Serpico, what’s the first Pacino movie that Al wants to share with his boy? “I think,” he told The New York Times, “he should start off with Adam Sandler’s.”
Hoo hah. The only Sandler movie featuring Pacino is Jack and Jill, one of the absolute worst comedies of the Sandman’s career by any measure. It’s currently rocking a 3 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, despite “an inexplicably committed performance from Al Pacino.” Jack and Jill did clean up at the Razzies, winning (or losing) in the categories of Worst Actor (Sandler), Actress (Sandler), Prequel (Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel), Picture, Screen Combo, Screenplay and Screen Ensemble.
Don't Miss
Whew — if your movie is going to suck, at least Sandler went all the way.
So it’s weird that Pacino’s answer to “What performance should Roman watch to see what his old man was capable of?” is Jack and Jill. It’s the kind of movie Pacino would have happily avoided if he wasn’t in financial hell at the time. “It came at a time in my life that I needed it because it was after I found out I had no more money,” he admitted. “My accountant was in prison, and I needed something quickly. So I took this. There’s this thing I do in that film: They got me doing a Dunkin’ Donuts commercial. You know how many people think I actually made that commercial?”
That’s the first performance Pacino wants his kid to watch? Even fictional Al Pacino’s reaction to the Dunkin’ commercial is “Burn this. This must never be seen.”
But Sandler says the legendary actor was stoked for the role. “I remember he was so excited. He said: ‘I get to work with ‘the’ Adam Sandler?’” the comedian joked to the Belfast Telegraph back in 2012. “We wrote the part for him, but never thought he’d do it. He read the script and laughed.”
“He did ask, ‘So who’s playing Jill?’ and I said, ‘Oh, don’t worry, we’ve got a hot one for you,’” Sandler said about his ill-fated decision to play his own sister.
The real reason Pacino would choose Jack and Jill as Roman’s first Pacino film is likely because the comedy is as close to a family movie as he’s ever made. That doesn’t mean screening it for a toddler won’t require family therapy later on. “The version of me in this movie is — suppose I was completely nuts. Suppose I was having a real mental crisis. That’s where you pick me up in the movie when it starts, and I just stay on that road,” Pacino said while promoting the film. “Maybe I could have winked a little bit more at the camera … (but) I did it as a method actor would do it.”
See the very believable lunatic, kid? That’s Daddy.
