Another silly tongue-in-cheek farce from Sandler

Rating: 6/10 (13 September 1999)

I find Adam Sandler a bit of a guilty pleasure... I know his
movies are monumentally stupid but I find myself laughing my
head off. And if you look closely, the predictability of their
structure and exaggeration of genre conventions... in 'Waterboy', there's a barely detectable jab at the sort of
hackneyed clichÃ©s that form most of 'Good Will Hunting' or
'Rudy'... you find a bit of a wry satirical edge below the
goofy, affable surface. In the case of 'Waterboy', Sandler's
over-the-top Cajun charicature is eclipsed by Kathy Bates who
nails the accent on the head from the first "Come give yo mama a
kee-yus". Sandler is not in the top form of 'Happy Gilmore',
mostly deprived of his characteristic temper tantrums, but
Bates, along with a great group of supporting archetypes, some
hilarious flashbacks (Winkler sports a humongous afro in his
dream 70s pad), another well chosen soundtrack, and some great
physical comedy on the field pick up whatever slack there is. If
you like the rest of Sandler's films, this won't disappoint. But
it's not likely to change your mind if you don't.