Billy Madison

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.

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.

Adam Sandler plays Billy Madison, the son of a wealthy businessman, who is about to hand over the reigns of his company to a greedy businessman. So, in a last effort to have the company handed to himself, Billy enters a bet, that if he can make it all the way through school over again, the company is his. But he cannot flunk school this time around.

We can expect what ensues.

Basically, the film has a decent premise. It may be thrown together a bit sloppy at times, but overall it is good. The thing that is bad about this movie, is the characters, the dialogue, and the film's progress.

There are some laughs in the beginning, but I didn't find the addition of Norm MacDonald very funny, nor did I think it great how the teacher who hates Billy is suddenly, for no reason whatsoever, willing to take off her clothes for him.

There are some great cameos in this movie, especially the always-enjoyable Steve Buscemi. Unfortunately, his short appearance cannot make up for the bad flow, dialogue and character progression in Billy Madison.

Sure, the film has its laugh-out-loud moments, but not enough, and when it all comes down to it, the film has a half-baked, sentimental ending thrown in to enthuse the easily-pleased, and never really focuses on all the laughs it could have achieved throughout its scenes. It seems to take the lowest amount of jokes considering, and look at them as "look how many jokes we have," instead of "look how many more jokes we could have had."

In the end, what could have been an interesting and lively comedy resorts to typical Sandler fare, and nothing more.

My summary: worth seeing, but not great.

2.5/5 stars -

John Ulmer