Dumb But Not Funny

Rating: Null/10 (24 January 1999)

Adam Sandler playing dumb just isn't leading man material. He was fine in The Wedding Singer with Drew Barrymore but there he wasn't playing dumb.
In The Waterboy he's the 31 year old lad called Bobby Boucher who gives the grid iron boys their drinks of water. He's still living with his Mum (Kathy Bates) in a Cajun Louisiana swamp.
He has the social graces of the classic Hollywood loser, Jerry Lewis style. But Adam Sandler (Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, Billy Madison) is no Jerry Lewis.
Bobby gets fired by his football team for distracting the players too much, (they spend too much time at practice beating him up for fun) and he gets the gig supplying the H2O to the rival, no hope, Mud Dogs. They're lead by no confidence Coach Klein played by Henry Winkler.
Bobby discovers that he's a sensational tackler and wins the pennant and the girl (The Craft's Fairuza Balk).
But it's just not very funny, not for Aussie audiences anyway. Some of the American references may have helped it do better in the U.S. where it has reportedly done fairly well.
But it's still a bit weird seeing Kathy Bates playing Mum. I keep expecting her to break out a big mallet and break legs as she did in Misery!
The tackles were pretty funny.
Henry Winkler not as The Fonz? Heeeeeyyyyy.
Adam Sandler as Jerry Lewis? Heeeeeyyyyyy.