Review of Billy Madison

Movie #29 - Billy Madison

Billy Madison is the story of a man child in his late 20's that has never learned responsibility or had to grow up. When he is supposed to be offered the position of taking over his father's company, the offer is given to someone else. Billy challenges the man that will be taking over the company. If Billy can pass 1st-12th grade by June 15th (2 weeks per grade), then the company will be his. Although Billy stumbles and runs into a few road blocks, he accomplishes the goal. He graduates, and he is given his father's company - which he then hands over to his father's long-time associate, Carl. The premise of the movie is ridiculous and unrealistic. Tack on Sandler's dumb 90's humor, and the movie is a flop.

Adam Sandler, let me specifically say 90's Adam Sandler, is not funny; he's dumb. He plays the idiot that talks jibberish and yells a lot, because apparently that is funny. My husband loves Adam Sandler; that's why we own his movies; however, I am not a fan at all. I will say that I like 50 First Dates, but that's it...and I don't even think it has anything to do with Adam Sandler. I like 50 First Dates because of Rob Schneider, Sean Astin, and Drew Barrymore.

Adam Sandler is hokey, and I don't buy into his comedy at all. He was funny in a few skits on SNL, but none of them were anything to rave about. Now Chris Farley, on the other hand, his scenes were hilarious in Billy Madison. Chris Farley is a comedian that we lost waaayyyy too soon. He was a diamond in the rough. And then team him up with David Spade, and you had comedic genius. RIP Chris Farley. You are definitely missed by your fans.

Billy Madison has some good quotes, but other than that the movie is crap.

There is no way that someone would be able to disrupt a school system like that for almost 5-6 months just for the personal gain of one person - no matter how rich that person was...okay, I take that back. A school district would probably let this happen IF the price was right. HOWEVER, the media attention that this would get would cause a major uproar with the parents, which would end this charade quickly. There's no way parents would be okay with this. Being a teacher myself, I know how parents can get. If my students had a 30-year-old man in the classroom with them, the parents would be furious. This story is just not believable at all. I don't connect to the characters, so the movie is uninteresting to me.

I will say one good thing about the movie though - I love the support the teachers give Billy. They are behind him 100% throughout his journey, and it's refreshing to see teachers shown in a positive light.

Overall, this movie was definitely watched only because my husband owns it, therefore it's in my DVD collection - and I did commit to watching ALL of the DVDs, no matter if I like it or not.

I give Billy Madison 2 out of 5 stars. This movie ranks down there with Back to the Future Part II. Ugh. God awful.