The Waterboy

Starring: Adam Sandler, Kathy Bates, Henry Winkler, Fairuza Balk, Clint Howard, Rob Schneider
Directed by: Frank Coraci
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy, Sport
1998

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: Bobby Boucher (Adam Sandler) is a mentally challenged man still living with his momma (Kathy Bates), and finds pleasure only in serving as a local college football team's waterboy. Despite his faithful service, he is picked on by the team and ultimately fired by the coach. He soon offers his services to another college team, this one a pitiful excuse for a football team, led by a washed up coach (Henry Winkler). When his rage gets the best of him, they discover that the waterboy is a tackling menace, and could turn around the prospects of the team!

Review:

Tim: I am typically a fan of Adam Sandler's idiot comedy, but I just couldn't get into this movie. It just seemed incredibly stupid, and plays out just as you would expect. While there are a few good moments, this is mosty a disappointing comedy. I know this film does have a number of fans out there, but I believe that is more blindly loving anything Sandler does, rather than an accurate assessment of this film's merits. This is not one of Sandler's better films, and is truly a disappointment.

Sandler has been a lovable manchild in many films before. He was great in Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore. However, I just didn't like his performance here as Bobby Boucher. He just came across as stupid, and probably mildly offensive to Louisianians and mentally challenged people. I just didn't love him in this role. The rest of the cast are likewise lackluster. Kathy Bates was over-the-top as his momma, and I simply did not like her in this film. Rob Schneider makes his typical cameo, but they overdid it a bit with his "You can do it!" lines. I actually really liked the casting of Henry Winkler as the football coach. Winkler was intelligent, funny, and I thoroughly enjoyed him in this film. He gave the film's best performance.

The other problem with this film is that it reall isn't very funny. Sure, there are a few good moments and it does contain a few laughs, but these are few and far between. For whatever reason, I don't think this movie conneted as well as Sandler's other films. I did, however, love most of the football scenes. There is something inherently funny in watching a force of nature crash and slam into other players in absurd fashion. The football scenes were all mostly top notch, but this is a comedy first and a sports film second- so while these moments helped the film, they weren't enough to save it.

The Waterboy is a movie, in my opinion, which is a bit overrated by many people. This film isn't a very effective or funny comedy. I have never been a fan of this movie and I never will be. While Sandler has made some very funny comedies in his career, this is just a major miss.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, Big Daddy