Billy Madison
Damn you, Sandler! For the first 20 minutes of this movie I seriously thought I’d finally found the one Adam Sandler movie that validated my attitude to him for the years prior to Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love. I didn’t laugh, it was stupid, ridiculous, embarrassing even. But slowly and surely, it drew its plans against me.
Between the Steve Buscemi scene, the musical number and the O’Doyle’s car slipping on a banana skin (you read that right), it totally won me over, and that’s before I even get to the kids which would usually be the first thing I’d comment on in a movie like this, lol. Heck, it even contains a line that actually kinda pays penance for any stupidity Sandler committed before or since, when, following a cheesy and impassioned climactic speech which should cheesily resolve everything in a movie like this, an authoritative figure shoots Sandler’s character down with:
“Mr. Madison, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. 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 award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
I’m ashamed to admit, I’d be happy to watch this in a double bill with Mr. Deeds on an almost monthly basis, lol. But for now let’s remember I had just watched 300 . . . this could just be desperate talk.