At least from where I was sitting, Billy Madison is probably the dumbest movie I’ve seen in years, perhaps ever. The story is full of holes, the dialogue is laughable and the acting is shaky even at its best moments.
Adam Sandler stars in Billy Madison as the son of a hotel tycoon. I guess that would make him the male equivalent of Paris Hilton, although his character seems to be far dumber, something many may have questioned was possible, but Sandler achieves that level of stupidity here. He lives a relaxed life, drinking and swimming all day. As he only finished school because his father paid the teachers, he is not well suited to inherit the hotel chain. To convince his father that he is suitable to run the family business, Billy decides he will redo grades 1-12, spending two weeks on each grade. Billy later falls in love with one of his teachers and encounters problems with his father’s business partner who wants the business to become his own.
Adam Sandler is such a hit and miss actor, often hitting more misses than anything else. Yet I still seem to like him as an actor, why I do eludes me. While Grown Ups and Bedtime Stories were fine, his new movies like Just Go With It are horrific, that’s not to mention Jack & Jill. The only real exception is Funny People, a joyful comedy-drama directed by Judd Apatow. While I know Billy Madison was his first ‘big’ movie, it is a horrible way to introduce the actor. Sandler is a likeable guy, but not when he plays Billy.
While I don’t mean to bash too hard on Adam Sandler, regrettably – in this film – he deserves it. His portrayal paints Billy Madison as neither a hero nor an antihero, a protagonist unable to spell the word “rock” who becomes even more incomprehensible when intoxicated. Of course the director Tamra Davis deserves some of the blame, and so do writers Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler. If watching characters far below the description of ‘dim-witted’ in an unintelligent film sparks your interest, I don’t know what to tell you. Go see Billy Madison I suppose, its Dumb & Dumber without the plot or the laughs.