So, I filled in another gap in my movie experience last week when I sat down to watch Happy Gilmore. It was…fine. Not really my cup of tea, but nothing I found like obnoxious or horrible or anything. I am not the biggest Adam Sandler fan, and I probably never will be. I probably would have skipped this movie without a second thought if it weren’t included on that poster I am trying to fill l in, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. Heck, for all I knew, I might have liked it. I didn’t, but I didn’t outright despise it either.
But then I got to Billy Madison…
Billy Madison (Sandler) is the son of a wealthy hotel magnate (Darren McGavin) who has decided his immature, manchild, worthless son should not inherit the family business. Billy will still have more money than he’ll ever know what to do with, but he isn’t happy because he figures he deserves the company or something. Point is, Billy has never gotten anything without someone paying for it on his behalf, so to prove he can do things on his own, he makes a deal with his dad that he will complete 12 years of school, two weeks per grade, on his own. If he does, he’ll get the company. If not, the company will go to corporate weasel Eric (Bradley Whitford…oh, how far some people have come). So, Billy goes back to school and…you know what? I hated this movie.
This movie was everything I don’t like about Adam Sandler’s brand of comedy. Sandler babbles stuff in a silly voice that isn’t funny? Check. Running gags that aren’t funny? Well, there’s this penguin bit. Appearances by Sandler’s SNL comedian friends? Well, there’s Norm MacDonald and an uncredited Chris Farley. Sandler’s character despite any form of logic manages to romance a woman far out of his league? Sure, because for some reason, after greatly annoying her, he charms his third grade teacher Veronica (Bridgette Wilson). Yeah, I’ve seen the meme that ends with “I give you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.” That was clever, but I’ve seen it before. Meanwhile, let’s slip an overqualified actor into a truly thankless role with Steve Buscemi (also uncredited).
Sure, the story somehow suggests Billy grows up to be a better person by learning the concept of hard work. But between random jokes about sloppy joes and deadly highway banana peals, plus the occasional bit of gay panic that hasn’t aged well at all, well, how exactly does Billy grow up and become a better person? If the idea is Billy learns the value of hard work, it is sadly ironic that the movie itself doesn’t practice that idea. Billy may be becoming a better person through hard work, but the movie doesn’t really show up how that works, making his maturation as unearned as the character’s backstroy grades. I mean, there’s no real reason for Veronica to like Billy after hating on him for quite some time with his sexist, immature buffoonery, and yet, she does.
Yeah, I didn’t like this. I know a lot of people do, but I’m not one of them.
Grade: F
0 Comments