The United States Senate is considering passing legislation that will ban comedian Adam Sandler’s new film, Blended, until after this year’s congressional elections, citing concerns that it may unduly influence voters to cast their ballots against the nation’s incumbent politicians.
Fears were raised when a study out of New Jersey showed that local filmgoers were substantially more likely to believe the country was in dire straits having seen Sandler’s blockbuster vacation to Africa.
Upon entering theatres, 22% of filmgoers said they believed America, as a whole, was ‘on the wrong track.’ But when those same filmgoers were surveyed after seeing the movie, that number rose to 61%, with another 30% denying they had seen it at all.
Professor Leonard Swanson of Rutgers University, who conducted the study, said this trend “unquestionably” favoured Republicans going into the November Congressional elections.
“People who are seeing Blended are, overwhelmingly, expressing one of two reactions,” said Swanson. “The first is ‘No, no, I didn’t see that movie. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was seeing something else’, and the second of those reactions is ‘My goodness, what has happened to my country that a supposedly sane man would do that for money?’”
“Some of these are people who’ve been Democrats their whole lives – whose families have been Democrats for generations – and they’re actually stepping back, for once, and saying, ‘Well, maybe the Republicans have a point.’”
Swanson said it would not be unreasonable to consider Blended an extended advertisement for the Republican Party.
On Wednesday, the Obama administration hit back at the notion there was anything fundamentally wrong with the country, with outgoing White House Press Secretary Jay Carney noting that there had been far fewer Adam Sandler films under President Obama’s watch than under President Bush’s.
But critics have pointed out that while Sandler films have been fewer under Obama, they have been indisputably worse.
“Adam Sandler films under this president have been more than twice as bad as they were under the previous president,” argued Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “And as much as it pains us to admit as Republicans, the quality of Sandler films under Bush was already at crisis levels.”
Republicans are opposing any ban on the film, accusing Democrats of attempting to cover up evidence of “the disastrous consequences of their actions.”
Blended opens in New Zealand next Thursday, and Hoyts Cinema has already promised that counselling services will be available after screenings.