# Waterboy, The (1998)

### reviewed by
Edward Johnson-Ott

The Waterboy (1998) Adam Sandler, Kathy Bates, Henry Winkler, Fairuza Balk, Jerry Reed, Larry Gilliard Jr., Blake Clark, Peter Dante, Jonathan Loughran, Al Whiting, Clint Howard, Allen Covert, Rob Schneider, Todd Holland. Produced by Robert Simonds and Jack Giarraputo. Written by Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler. Directed by Frank Coraci. Rated PG-13, 2.5 stars (out of five stars)

Review by Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly www.nuvo-online.com Archive reviews at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Edward+Johnson-ott To receive reviews by e-mail at no charge, send subscription requests to pbbp24a@prodigy.com

Call it "Happy Gilmore Meets the Bad News Bears" or "Billy Madison Opens Up a Big Ole Can of Whup Ass." Either way, you get the idea: Adam Sandler is back and he's up to his old tricks again, with yet another broad comedy starring a culturally-arrested adult with violent tendencies. Hard- core Sandler fans will cheer his antics and the up-with-people storyline, while everyone else will wonder why he keeps cranking out variations of the same movie.

Now Adam Sandler is no dummy (though he plays one onscreen) and he knows what elements are required to satisfy the target audience for a film like this. His story introduces a lovable loser, simple-minded Cajun Mama's boy, Bobby Boucher. Athletes love picking on the childlike waterboy until they discover his formidable skills as a tackle. Everybody loves an underdog, so the tale pits Bobby and a sad-sack football team with a neurotic coach against a bunch of overgrown, self-satisfied bullies, led by former "Smokey and The Bandit" second banana Jerry Reed. As if that wasn't enough, Sandler further loads the deck by making Bobby's home life equally oppressive, with the kid's ferociously smothering mother (Kathy Bates) deeming everything from young ladies to Dick Clark as tools of the devil.

Add a sexy girl (Fairuza Balk), a Nick-At-Night co-star (Henry Winkler, leaving the Fonz behind to play a timid coach), loads of cameos by celebrities playing themselves (Lee Corso, Bill Cowher, Dan Fouts, Chris Fowler, Jimmy Johnson, Brent Musburger, Dan Patrick, Lynn Swann and Lawrence Taylor), the requisite surprise appearance from a "Saturday Night Live" alumnus (Rob Schneider), a feel-good plot, plus well-staged slapstick out the wahzoo, and you've got yourself a surefire moneymaker. The only thing missing is even the vaguest hint of an original idea.

The explanation for Sandler's artistic rut may lie with his creative team. One of the film's producers is Jack Giarraputo, a college buddy of Sandler's. "Waterboy" director Frank Coraci was another college pal, and Sandler co-wrote the story with former college roomie Tim Herlihy. Sandler states that the group, also responsible for three of his other films, creates a comfortable environment, explaining "I like working with people I've seen in just a towel."

That's a good line, and "The Waterboy" has quite a few genuinely funny moments. The slapstick works more often than not, there are some great sight gags, and a number of strong one-liners (one crack-related joke works on two levels, due to the recent headline-making substance abuse problems of the man who delivers the line). But despite the laughs, this is a tired production. There is nothing wrong with low-brow humor, but Sandler and his frat-house friends have done the infant-in-an-adult-body shtick to death. To paraphrase Danny Glover (from all four "Lethal Weapon" movies), aren't they getting too old for this shit?

A film like this wouldn't be quite as frustrating were it not for Sandler's breakthrough performance in "The Wedding Singer." In that hit comedy, Sandler proved he could charm a wide audience, hold his own as a romantic lead and even play an actual adult, all without sacrificing his trademark style. After enjoying his winning turn in "The Wedding Singer," it's hard to watch him climb back into the playpen.

The cast of "The Waterboy" is varied, to say the least. Kathy Bates has a whale of a good time playing Bobby's Louisiana swamp mama and her performance, cartoonish as it may be, is one you won't soon forget. As a dangerous young woman smitten with Bobby, Fairuza Balk is terrific, projecting confidence, charisma and an edgy trailer-park sexuality. Henry Winkler has a certain odd charm as Bobby's whipped-puppy mentor, while Jerry Reed haplessly blusters as the chief villain of the movie.

As is his norm, Sandler peppers the story with some really strange minor players. Clint Howard, Opie's little brother, leaves a greasy impression as a fanatical redneck football fan, and Rob Schneider somehow manages to be filthy and smarmy simultaneously as a hillbilly booster. Other eccentrics include Robert Kokol as a Kentucky-Fried windbag professor and Blake Clark as assistant coach Farmer Fran, whose incomprehensible Cajun mutterings is a running gag that might have been funny, had we not seen the same joke 24 years ago in "Blazing Saddles."

But, of course, that brings us back to "The Waterboy's" central problem. We've seen this all before, at least twice by Sandler and his pals, and countless times by other "Saturday Night Live" graduates. Speaking of graduating, perhaps it's time for Adam Sandler to graduate; from the comforting sameness of his college roomie production team and from reworking the same movie over and over. Hopefully Sandler will look at "The Wedding Singer" as one small step, and his next movie as one giant leap to a new level of more sophisticated comedic filmmaking.

    © 1998 Ed Johnson-Ott

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