Representing as big a break from the usual Adam Sandler-style character as The Wedding Singer this is sadly one of the comics weakest films. Laughs are few and far between and though his sweetness, often forgotton about by the critics, remains it's not why people watch his movies. You'll find very few people over the age of nine who have a good word to say about Sandler yet his films have continued to attract huge audiences and big profits, making him one of Hollywood's most bankable stars.
Unlike in Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore and Big Daddy Sandler plays a quiet, docile person who has dedicated his life to the perfection of water technology and it's subsequent use in college football. Despite being regularly taunted and assaulted he continues unabashed until a particularly brutal encounter has him kicked out by the teams coach. He finds another job at a lowly University and it is there that his talent for 'ass-whooping' is discovered.
To say that Sandler reuses his own material and does anything but challenge the audience is like admitting that the sky is blue. The plot is basic and childish and ends in the most predictable manner possible, the characters are thin and there just doesn't seem to be the utterly-whacked out humour that one has come to expect from its writer/star. His films are characterized by their outlandish vulgarity and unusual supporting characters, the latter appear but the former simply refuse to in any more than a handful. As such you find yourself drawn in by the emotional vulnerability of the lead character (another Sandler trait) but not by the scripts laugh count which is surprisingly low.
One to catch on TV, especially for fans of his earlier work, but certainly not to pay for. |
