It had its moments, but Sandler could have done SO much better

Rating: 5/10 (27 December 1998)

The Waterboy is more like Billy Madison than it is to Happy Gilmore. In Happy Gilmore, Sandler used comedy techniques that have been effective in the past, yet made them his own, with new, fresh ways of executing them. Look at the classic scene with Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation, where he goes off for a couple minutes screaming and cussing out his boss. Compare that to Sandler when he was screaming at the golf ball for 'not liking his home' and going in the hole. Essentially the same, but Sandler does a better job. Now, in the Waterboy, there ARE some new comedic strategies, and yes, a couple of them are pulled off well, but others fall flat and are just not funny at all. To make things worse, most of the funny parts were shown in the commercials, so when you see them on screen, you know what's coming, and aren't that interested. Overall, I did think this movie was worth the $4 matinee price, but would not be worth the regular $8, the characters weren't interesting enough, and the humour just wasn't frequent or funny enough.