THE WATERBOY
A movie review by Joe Barlow
(c) Copyright 1999
STARRING: Adam Sandler, Henry Winkler, Kathy Bates,
Fairuza Balk, Jerry Reed
DIRECTOR: Frank Coraci
WRITERS: Adam Sandler and Tim Herlihy
RATED: PG-13
RELEASED: 1998
RATING: ** (out of a possible ****)
"Now that's what I call high-quality H20."
-Billy Boucher (Adam Sandler), "The Waterboy"
Call him juvenile, call him sophomoric, call him annoying, but don't call him poor. Adam Sandler, the most recent "Saturday Night Live" alumnus to graduate to the big screen, has made a career out of playing eccentric, offbeat characters that terrify critics while simultaneously endearing themselves to the masses. (Witness "Airheads," "Billy Madison" and "Happy Gilmore.") Appealing primarily to teenage boys, Sandler's movies perform respectably at the box office, even as confused adults scratch their heads in bewilderment. But 1998's "The Wedding Singer," co-starring Drew Barrymore, broke with convention and allowed Sandler the chance to experiment with a more low-key acting style. The result was arguably his best film to date, and the new, more "mature" actor seemed poised on the brink of bigger and better things.
"The Waterboy," alas, is a step backwards. Full of cheap humor, stereotypes, and jokes that misfire as often as not, the film drags us through a story which contains not an ounce of freshness or originality. One set-up leads to another so predictably that the only thing that surprises us is the fact that director Frank Coraci thought he could get away with it.
Sandler plays Bobby Boucher, a 31 year-old Louisiana simpleton whose only passion is serving as waterboy for his local college football team. After the despicable Coach Beaulieu (Jerry Reed) fires him, our lowly hero accepts a similar position with a rival team, headed up by the eccentric but friendly Coach Klein (Henry Winkler, in a performance that's definitely the movie's bright spot). Although Bobby lives for the team, they despise him and his feeble mind. Even though he's kind and friendly to them, they call him names and subject him to cruel pranks.
But when the shy, introspective waterboy is finally pushed to his breaking point, he reveals a side no one previously suspected: sheer animal rage. Noting this, Coach Klein devises a plan to end the team's losing streak. Giving him a defensive position on the team, Klein instructs the confused Bobby to pretend that their opponents are people who have personally insulted him. With this mental trick, Bobby becomes an unstoppable tackling machine.
From this point on, things progress exactly the way we expect them to. The team gradually gets better. The people who hated Bobby at the outset of the story will eventually come to respect him. Everything will culminate in a big game, which Bobby will have a chance to single-handedly win or lose. And naturally, our hero will fall in love.
The gal in question is Vicky, a tomboy played by Fairuza Balk (the spooky gal from "The Craft"). Her character serves no purpose whatsoever other than to provide the requisite sexual titillation and "falling in love" scenes (once again proving the BArlow Theorem of Cinematic Amour (B.A.T.C.A.), which states: "A movie's main character is never in a happy relationship at the outset of the story"). Balk is a fine young actress, but I wish she'd actually had a reason to appear in this film.
Other facets of the movie are also disappointing, not the least of which is the silly voice Sandler uses throughout the tale. A high-pitched, mumbly, lip-smacking Louisiana drawl, it starts out moderately amusing, but begins to grate on one's ears after... oh, three minutes or so. Sandler uses the exact same voice for a character called The Southerner in some of the stand-up routines on his comedy CD, "What the Hell Happened to Me?". It's funnier on the album, possibly because the skits last no longer than two minutes each. After twenty minutes of hearing him speak in "The Waterboy," I wanted to crawl under my chair.
Henry Winkler, on the other hand, is tremendous from start to finish. His performance as Coach Klein is eccentric, goofy, and impossible not to like. I admired the way Winkler threw self- consciousness to the wind, going all-out for a role that certainly didn't deserve his considerable talents. But Kathy Bates is more or less wasted as the fretful mother who wants to make sure her Bobby isn't playing "da fooz-ball." She's a walking stereotype, included only for cheap comic effect. This is the same actress who won an Oscar for "Misery?"
Is "The Waterboy" funny? Yeah, at times... like when Bobby tells his mother that his black eye was caused by a rampaging gorilla, to disguise the fact that he's playing football. Other scenes, such as those involving the mule that the Bouchers keep in their house (as though it were a cat), border on the surreal and are equally entertaining. But most of the other gags are standard physical comedy fare (including a shot of the former Fonz's uncovered bottom, which I quite honestly could've done without). The movie's not exactly overflowing with intellect, but it does have spirit, and is neither the best or worst of Sandler's offerings.
("The Waterboy" comes to video on March 16th.)
E-Mail: jbarlow@earthling.net Joe Barlow on Film: http://www.ipass.net/~jbarlow/film.htm
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