You almost need a special sense of humor to enjoy Adam Sandler's goofy comedies. Thankfully, I have that sense. The Waterboy is as stupid, incoherent, and intolerable as movies can get. That's exactly why it is so much fun.
Bobby Boucher (Sandler) plays a mothered water distribution engineer for a college football team. Tormented by not only the players but the coach as well, he is fired for distracting practice. He soon heads over to the campus of the L.C.L.S.U. Mud Dogs. He is recruited by Coach Klein (Henry Winkler) as a desperate attempt to ditch their 40 game losing streak. It doesn't take long for the team to realize he has a talent for power bombing people when he gets mad. Thanks to his play, the team ends up at the first ever Bourbon Bowl game for a final showdown against the coach that rejected him.
The key to this (and almost all of Sandler's movies) is to not make any sense out them. They don't. They exist simply to work that portion of your brain that tells you not to watch movies like this. This is a film that taught the world about the medulla oblongata, has Fairuza Baulk eating the head of a cooked baby alligator, and exposes the world to the finer points of Henry Winkler's rear lower extremities. Kathy Bates is great as Bobby's mother as well. This is certainly not fine filmmaking in any form, but just plain dumb fun, and hilariously funny at the same time. (**** out of *****)
The Waterboy is presented like it should be, in 1.85:1 widescreen. This is a very soft and colorful transfer, at times bursting with so much color that severe bleeding is noticeable with the reds. There is a light layer of film grain over the proceedings, but is usually only annoying in the darker scenes. The print shows signs of wear with a disturbing amount of scratches for a movie that is not that old. Other than these few problems, this is a pretty much perfect transfer. The football scenes are just gorgeous as is just about any other daytime scene. If they took some time to lower the color levels a bit and clean up the nighttime scenes, this one would be spectacular in the inevitable double-dip. (****)
Article comments
1 - Lono
I won a radio station contest years ago for this movie and got a whole bunch of free stuff, including the movie and soundtrack. Though I haven't watched the movie again, that Soundtrack is outstanding. It has the Doors, Allman Brothers, Big Head Todd, CCR... just some really good stuff.
2 - Eric Olsen
thanks as always Matt, I like this one a lot also, probably the fullest realization of Sandler humor without all the sappy crap. It makes very little sense but the characters are vivid and at least the extreme expression of rage makes sense for football, as opposed to, say, golf
3 - Matt Paprocki
Yes, it makes sense for football, but it surely works better in Happy Gilmore where it so out of place that it's gut-bustingly funny. Lets face it, non-golf fans only watch the sport and wait for someone to miss and easy putt and watch the clubs go flying. It's the most entertaining aspect of the sport. =;)