Counting down Adam Sandler's best-loved rom-coms

CEBU, Philippines - Since his days in the long-running “Saturday Night Live,” Adam Sandler has been cracking up audiences with his goofball comedy shtick. The Brooklyn-born comedian/actor/writer has appeared in more than 30 films over the course of his 20-year career. His latest, “Just Go With It” – in which he plays a plastic surgeon who enlists his loyal assistant (Jennifer Aniston) to pretend to be his soon to be ex-wife, in order to cover up a careless lie – opens across the Philippines on Feb. 16.

And since “Just Go With It” is a romantic comedy and Valentine's Day is just around the corner, it would be an appropriate time to take a look back at some of the comic actor's best-loved rom coms.

1. “50 First Dates.” Both funny and heartfelt. Sandler made his name off making guys across the world laugh, and this movie is no exception. Girls get a purported fifty times their money’s worth — instead of boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, the end, we get a bevy of rinse-and-repeats. Sandler’s hapless Henry (Sandler) is forced to make Barrymore’s memory-impaired Lucy (Drew Barrymore) fall in love with him time and time again.

2. “The Wedding Singer.” The airhead-pop-filled ’80s provides the perfect backdrop for this bubbly, super-sweet romantic comedy about a once successful, now heartbroken singer, Robbie (Sandler), and an engaged banquet-hall waitress, Julia (Barrymore again). After tragically misreading each other’s cues — he thinks she can be wooed by money, she’s angered by his presumption and thinks he’s interested in her friend — the two realize they’re in love. And the icing on the cake? New Wave pop icon Billy Idol chips in to help Robbie keep Julia from flying off with her cheating fiancé.

3. “Punch-Drunk Love.” Director Paul Thomas Anderson (“Magnolia,” “There Will Be Blood”) reinvented Adam Sandler as a dramatic actor in this odd and charming comedy about a disturbed and anti-social guy who ignites a cute romance with a similarly socially challenged woman (Emily Watson). The result was Sandler’s most mature and acclaimed performance. And the movie ends up being genuinely romantic while deviating completely from the very stale paradigm for romantic comedies of the 2000s.

4. “Click.” Sandler portrays a family man whose busy career as an architect doesn’t leave much time for his wife, (Kate Beckinsale), and two kids. Unable to figure out which of his many remotes turns on the television, he goes shopping for a universal remote and finds the perfect device with magical powers. The message of this film is that spending time with your family is far more important than your job. A funny movie that leads to some truly touching scenes in the final 30 minutes. You will be hard-pressed not to have tears in your eyes near the end.

5. “Spanglish.” When filmmaker James L. Brooks (“As Good as It Gets”) first met Sandler back in his “SNL” days, he says he was struck by the actor's kindness and empathetic streak. And so Brooks gave Sandler another chance to flex his acting muscle in this dramedy, in which Sandler plays a successful chef trying to keep his family together while being enamored by his beautiful Mexican housekeeper (Paz Vega). A deeply heartwarming film that says you don't need to always act on your romantic feelings in order to express love.