Billy Madison

This was on TV last night, and I watched it on the strength of the reviews here at imdb.com. I am AMAZED that so many people liked this pustulent, fetid, rancid discharge of a film. Its lack of comedy is only equalled by its immaturity and pointlessness. There is no acting, no humour, and a plot so thin I can only wonder how it survives holding the weight of its own rancid patheticness. I was literally slack jawed with shock at how bad this film is. I was frustrated with sorrow for the people who actually liked this - one reviewer says that he / she was laughing out loud. At what? How films like this ever get released? How Adam Sandler still has a career after this moronic turd of a film? Just awful. Dont say I did not warn you. By the way, this is only the 2nd review I have written on imdb.com. Generally I feel little need to, as previous posters sum up (generally) the pros and cons of a film very well, but I feel in this case, the public should be warned. I cannot BELIEVE there are so many good reviews for this film, and the truth needs to be told. I am actually offended that this rubbish got greenlighted, made and released, where actual (would be) decent films never see production.

Shocking.

Billy is the son of a rich businessman who owns a chain of very successful hotels. Billy lives a lazy live of goofing around and being drunk by the pool before midday. When his father decides to hand the business over to associate Eric Gordon because Billy is too dumb to do it - having only passed his school exams by his father paying his teachers. Billy doesn't want to be cut out so agrees to go through school all over again - doing one grade every two weeks.

Adam Sadler films are very much a matter of taste - if you like him doing his usual `dumb guy who makes good' stuff then you'll be right at home with his early films. I am in two minds about it, his humour is generally very lowbrow but he does have a few funny moments in any film. That is the case here, overall the humour is very childish but it does have an occasional moment that is just so off the wall and out of the blue that they are hilarious. Examples include the blue duck, an invisible penguin, the fight between shampoo & conditioner, the principal who's wife is a slut and a hilarious response to Billy where `wrong' would have sufficed!

Do these few funny moments save the film? No, they make it bearable, else I would have been angry with no laughs - but one every ten minutes make it OK, if not really worth watching. The plot is stupid and the characters are rubbish. I know that these things are not what the film is about, but one has to wonder how stupid the writers think the audience are when they simply switch Veronica from hating Billy to being totally in love with him with no explanation or reason! Of course this is a minor problem - the bigger problem is the fact that the film isn't consistently funny enough to work.

Sadler is his usual self - if you like that you'll like that if not you won't. He has a few good moments but generally his performance is childish and not funny. He has an imagination on him for the weird that happily creates the funny moments but his performance is painful. Worse still is Wilson; she cannot act in anything I've seen and here she must carry some blame for being totally unable to phase her growing affection for Billy - instead it's like she just flicked a switch. The support cast is OK although it's sad to see Whitford slumming it when he is better than this.

Overall this film has enough laugh-out-loud moments that appealed to my sense of humour and made me semi-glad I watched it. However it is a major problem that the film has no plot, characters, logic or consistent laughs. A weak film, albeit a weak film that has a handful of hilarious moments and the odd very imaginative touch!

This is one of those lucky cases where the opening sequence of a movie gives you an excellent idea of what you are in for.

If you do not enjoy Billy's sunblock song, or the bit with the penguin, then you must turn off the movie and stop being such a nag about it.

But for those of us who happen to enjoy movies that are silly and stupid, this is one of the best ones out there.

Looking at some of the reviews here reinforces the fact that there are certain people that like different types of humor. If stupid humor makes you laugh, this is your comedy. If you like stale British cerebral humor, maybe you should stay far away from this. I'm sure we all have our favorite and unfavorite comedians. I happen to like Sandler because he is immaturely funny. I think Dave Chapelle's show is pretty damn funny too. I never thought Sam Kinison was funny (the screaming is annoying) nor do I care for Chris Tucker.

I saw Billy Madison at the theater, a friend and myself and the 8 other guys randomly scattered around the seating area found this to be pretty damn hilarious. I laughed at about 8 different scenes and that is a lot for me for any one movie. I still laugh at a few of the scenes when I see repeats and yes I have it on video.

Those of you who dislike this movie are more than likely too old and stuck on your Bob Hope type era comedians and refuse to admit any others. Sandler isn't the greatest comedian who ever lived but his shtick was fresh and original when this movie came out. I have a video of him back when he did stand up and the guy is brilliant.

Again, people who get easily annoyed and upset with the stupid type humor steer clear of this movie and save yourself the aggravation that these sad negative reviewers subjected themselves to.

So there are a lot of bad reviews for this movie and although we don't all have to agree with the same thing, I feel some reviews were made out of spite. Is it a stupid movie? Yes. Is it immature? Yes. Did some of the reviews take this too seriously? Yes. It's a movie about a man-child who goes back to school in the hope of getting grades so he can own and run his fathers business. There is a cast of children. Why did anyone try to take this seriously??? Look it's not the funniest movie ever and it's really silly in places but it's enjoyable and harmless enough. There are some random but funny acts and some strange scenes but all in all it's not that bad. I first watched this 26 years ago and I still giggle at some of the stupidity. Especially a random song.....