"Billy Madison" (1995) Rating (0 to 5): **1/2 Grade: C+ Starring Adam Sandler, Darren McGavin, Bridgette Wilson, Bradley Whitford, Josh Mostel, Norm Macdonald, Larry Hankin, Theresa Merritt Directed by Tamra Davis Produced by Robert Simonds Written by Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler Original music by Randy Edelman Universal Pictures 89 minutes Rated PG-13 for language and crude humor (Kids 12 and up)
The one thing about "Billy Madison" that most significantly stands out is that it manages to take an extremely one-dimensional plot and spin an impressive number of laughs out of it. With Adam Sandler both acting and writing, predicting all of the gags and jokes should be at least so easy that you could hold a bet with your friends on what the running joke of the entire film will be. Is it a giant penguin? Josh Mostel in a wrestling suit? Out-of-place dance numbers? Take your pick.
But perhaps I should set my rambling aside. Truthfully, "Billy Madison" will have you laughing out loud a few times no matter how foreseeable and clichéd its gags are. It keeps at this pace for most of the time, but as it reaches its end it somehow becomes so outlandishly stupid and aimless that the film's chances of holding up against its futile jokes are equivalent to that of a straw hut against a hail of cannon shells. But hey: aren't Adam Sandler films supposed to be like that? Of course! But as it is with all of Sandler's vehicles, the jokes are going to be funny, or they're going to be excessively stupid. "Billy Madison" thankfully stays on the funny side for the most part, but during its last twenty minutes it decides to hide under the covers and let everything run amok with useless tie-ins and different characters popping in and out every five minutes. There's no problem with this, but the overkill is so unfunny that it single-handedly brings the entire film down to a disappointingly mediocre level, shadowing most of the best jokes. It's not to say that "Billy Madison" is bad. It just narrowly missed being thoroughly good.
Here Adam Sandler plays a spoiled and retarded rich kid named Billy Madison, the son of hotel industry owner Brian Madison (Darren McGavin), a man so rich he even paid for his son's grades. Since Billy wasn't capable of earning such good grades on his own, his intelligence is equal to that of a three-year-old. He spends his days roaming around his father's province, reading nudie magazines, drinking daiquiris with his friends, passing out, and chasing a non-existent penguin he constantly visualizes. By night, he and his equally retarded friends spend their time lighting bags of dog droppings on fire and leaving them on porches, laughing whenever their victims say "poop" rather than a certain s-word.
These jokes do manage to be funny, mostly thanks to the surprising level of amusement that comes from watching Billy and his friends perform them. They're not interesting characters or anything: just entertaining. While at a burger place, for example, one of Billy's friends asks him who he would rather -- er, get up close and personal with: Meg Ryan or Jack Nicholson. Guess who Billy picks?
Suddenly, however, Billy's life takes a turn away from this when his father announces his retirement from head of the hotel company. Now, all of a sudden, Billy becomes motivated to take his father's place. But he's dumb, remember? So the only way he can become chairman is if he repeats grades 1-12 in a few weeks, although there is an evil executive (Bradley Whitford) who sets out to stop Billy and assume his father's position.
During Billy's tenure at school, the film throws at us every farcical crack that would expectedly come out of, well, a film with Adam Sandler going to grade school. But like "Happy Gilmore", it's still enjoyable and even hilarious if you know where to set your expectations. We all know how misplaced yet suitable Billy will be in the first grade, for example, and surely enough he acts like any seven-year-old would (in one scene, Billy gets in an argument with another boy about which video game is the best of all time. When the kid claims that "Donkey Kong sucks", Billy shouts back, "You know what? You suck!"). Whenever he completes a grade, his father throws a huge party, complete with clowns, cake and ice cream, balloons, and games. When he wins the class spelling bee, he shoves his opponent's mistakes into their face and gloats like a heavyweight boxer at a fight announcement. He insults the kid who stumbles over the words while reading the next chapter in history, much to the disapproval of his teacher Veronica Vaughn (Bridgette Wilson), who later becomes Billy's required love interest. In high school, he even tries to become the center of attention with the outdated tactic of letting the radio blare out from his car while standing by it clad in denim jeans.
All this is funny, but when Billy agrees to face his rival, Eric Gordon (Whitford's character), in an academic challenge, the film speeds straight downhill with only an occasional laugh or two to stop it. It was also at this point that the film had gained my trust, but then proceeded to slap me right across the face. In the end, I didn't hate "Billy Madison" at all. But the jokes just died too quickly, and with the film being surprisingly consistent with the humor, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.
For any Adam Sandler hater who watches this film, the best scene is arguably the one in which Billy decides to apologize to Danny McGrath (Steve Buscemi, in a brief but fun to watch cameo), a student whom he bullied years back. He gives him a call, apologizes, and even invites Danny to meet with him some time. Danny quietly agrees, hangs up, and crosses Billy's name off his "People I need to kill" list up on the wall. Then he kicks back and applies some lipstick while Electric Light Orchestra's "Telephone Line" plays in the background, as it had for the whole scene. It's out of proportion and all, but it's still funny, and like always Buscemi doesn't fail to deliver an entertaining performance, even if it is short.
Note: This review is purely of my doing, and I do not copy off other reviewers.
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