Above average comedy of its era

Rating: 7/10 (18 March 2016)

I find the po-faced seriousness with which golfers take their sport to be rather funny, so this lampoon of the whole golf industry is a delight to watch. It's a bit of a madcap character piece with lots of offbeat stars interacting and getting involved with one another, and at some moments it's similar to the surreal highlights of AIRPLANE, although it also has that 'frat house party' style atmosphere popular from the early '80s.
What I particularly enjoy about CADDYSHACK is that there's no single star. Chevy Chase pops up here and there to deliver some delightful non-sequiters, and Bill Murray steals every scene he's in playing the slow-witted groundsman. My favourite star of all, though, is Rodner Dangerfield, who ably mixes stand-up humour with acting and zings off the screen for all of his five or six moments.
CADDYSHACK isn't an entirely successful production, and some elements are rather silly; that stupid gopher, for example, which looks like it belongs in a kid's film. But it's affectionate, it has plenty going on, and Harold Ramis does a very good job of holding it all together as director. The JAWS spoof is a definite highlight.