Take Grown Ups for example, where Sandler employs real-life mates Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider as his in-film best friends. While Schneider didn't return for its sequel, the core remained together, and generated almost $520 million at the box office across the films.

Judd Apatow produced this parody of action movies, which stars Sandler as the titular Zohan, an Israeli counterterrorism commando who moves to America to fulfill his dream of becoming a hairdresser. Zohan is a unique mix of genre and cultural parody which, despite its thorny political territory, is rarely mean-spirited.