Billy Madison

Day 271 - 9/28/09 - Movie #271

BEFORE: To finish off movies about school, I'm cycling back to grade school - or a man forced to go back to grade school, anyway. Watching movies about college reminded me that I lived in the same dorm as Adam Sandler at NYU. I think he was a junior when I was a freshman (1986-87) because I remember him having seniority in the housing lottery, and choosing the penthouse suite in the building. He was kicking off his career at the time, appearing on "The Cosby Show" as Theo's token white high-school friend. This was a couple years before he was on SNL, which led to him making movies like this one.

THE PLOT: In order to inherit his fed up father's hotel empire, an immature and lazy man must repeat grades 1-12 all over again.

AFTER: I avoided this movie for years because I thought it would be stupid - so I'm glad to see I was right. Sandler began playing his trademark "retarded man-child" roles with this film, and only later did he figure out a way to make them seem sympathetic, like in "Punch-Drunk Love" or "Click", both of which I enjoyed. So I know he's capable of better, and it hurts to see him always going for the cheapest possible laugh, by talking gibberish or just cursing.

There are a lot of jokes in this film that didn't land for me, like the giant imaginary penguin. That's just a head-scratcher, as far as I'm concerned. There's silly and then there's stupid, and this film is just stupid.

As the high-school principal says in the final showdown scene, "At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now DUMBER for having listened to it." I can say the exact same thing about this movie.

Co-starring Norm MacDonald, Chris Farley, Bradley Whitford (last seen by me in "Young Guns II") Darren McGavin, and Josh Mostel with a cameo by Steve Buscemi (again? last seen by me in "Art School Confidential")

RATING: 3 out of 10 beer cans