Adam Sandler spent over £500,000 buying his Grown Ups co-stars cars

When I say the name Adam Sandler, what do you think of? Is he one of the greatest comedy actors of his generation, or is he synonymous with s***e?

Whatever you think of him, it's a fact that his films have grossed huge sums, just as it is a fact that many of them have been heavily panned.

Of course, a financially positive reception and a critically negative reception are not mutually exclusive - take Grown Ups, for example.

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The 2010 comedy reportedly brought in more than $270 million at the box office, despite critics pretty much unanimously agreeing that it was a load of dog s**t.

The movie has a pretty damn terrible rating of 11 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but as we all know, money talks, and so Grown Ups 2 followed in 2013 - failing to even reach the incredibly low bar set by the first film with a score of just eight percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Of course, it's never nice to receive a bad review - no matter how deserving - but Sandler softened the blow for his co-stars by splashing out on flash cars for them.

Sandler - who also co-wrote and produced the movie - reportedly bought co-stars David Spade, Kevin James, Chris Rock and Rob Schneider a Maserati each, estimated to be worth about $200,000 (or about £130,000 at the time).

He also gave them no heads up about the super generous gifting, which was presumably a pleasant surprise.

Spade recalled: "He gave us all a Maserati.

"Chris Rock called me and he goes, 'Will you look in your driveway?', and I go, 'No,' and he goes, 'Got out front and call me.'

"So I go out front and they're putting a car in my driveway, and I go, 'What's happening?', and they go, 'Adam Sandler.'

"I go, 'Oh, is this his car, I'm supposed to watch it?'"

He continued: "I call Rock and I go, 'I'm keeping Adam's car here for some reason,' and he goes, 'No that's for you, we all got one'."

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You'd think the stars would be grateful for the free luxury cars, but in an interview on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno back in 2010, Spade admitted he'd been too 'embarrassed' to actually drive it.

Meanwhile, Rock said that he feared the gift came with a string attached.

Speaking to Howard Stern, he joked: "I went outside the other day and I had a new Maserati in the driveway. Now I think that I'm Adam Sandler's b****."