THE WATERBOY - ADAM SANDLER IN FORM
There's nothing special about the story. In fact, the same can be said for all the other Adam Sandler films (barring The Wedding Singer). They are formulaic and typical Hollywood scripts. However, what these scripts have are the talents of Adam Sandler. Sandler can play the role of fool so well that it is very infectious. Unlike high brow critics, Waterboy made me laugh and made me laugh often. It is like Sandlers other films escapist fun and a little more. While cinema when art should challenge and make us think, or even move us, its other function is to entertain. And to entertain is part of the art form of the cinematic experience. You can have a movie like "What Dreams May Come True", and it's all very beautiful, but it's a pile of crap as cinema because it doesn't entertain - it doesn't keep us in our seats. Sandler's talent lies in having an almost Jerry Lewis like talent, but behind his silly exterior lies some intelligence. Waterboy is yet another entertaining film - with excellent supporting roles by Kathy Bates as the possessive mother, the Fonz, who plays an excellent coach, and this hilarious man who mumbles his words and thinks that everyone understands him and actually thinks they think he's interesting. Sounds just like me.
70/100