The Waterboy
USA 1998
Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Bobby Boucher, a simple 31-year-old, lives with his Cajun mother in the town of Jackson's Bayou, Louisiana. He is fired from his job as waterboy for the University of Louisiana's football team, despite his 18 years of loyalty in the face of constant abuse. His mother is delighted, since she wants Bobby to stay home, but he's despondent. He finds an unpaid job as waterboy for SCLSU, a backwoods college whose team has lost 40 games in a row. Coach Klein, who is recovering from a mental breakdown, soon discovers that when Bobby is reminded of all the humiliation he has suffered, he becomes a fearsome defensive player, able to tackle any opponent.
Bobby's fury drives SCLSU to a winning streak and an invitation to the Bourbon Bowl, where they will face the University of Louisiana and its coach Red Beaulieu, who fired Bobby and drove Coach Klein insane. Beaulieu learns that Bobby never attended high school and so is not eligible to play, and Bobby's mother learns to her horror that Bobby has been playing football and seeing a local bad girl named Vicki, both against her wishes. Bobby passes the high-school equivalency examination and the townspeople convince his mother to relent. On the day of the Bourbon Bowl, Bobby shows up at half-time, leads SCLSU to a last-second victory and then marries Vicki with his mother's blessing.
Review
A witless and utterly predictable comic fantasy about a misfit turned hero - think of it as Forrest Gump-Lite, if such a thing were possible - The Waterboy stands or falls on the nerd-chic appeal of its stammering star Adam Sandler. A major box-office draw in the US after his roles in Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer, Sandler is an agreeably buffoonish sketch comedian, a combination of Jerry Lewis, Andy Kaufman and the Three Stooges, with just a dash of Harpo Marx. Like each of those performers his persona is funniest in small doses, and to me he can grow awfully wearisome across the length of a feature film (although millions of moviegoers evidently disagree). Sandler's enormous popularity isn't easy to explain; he himself has wisecracked that he became a multimillionaire despite being neither handsome nor talented. Perhaps his appeal lies in the imperturbable good cheer he projects - Bobby Boucher's paroxysms of rage are funny precisely because Sandler's performance so rapidly returns to the happy median of a man visibly content with life. Seen in this light, he's the perfect comic for America's blindly optimistic long boom.
Between Sandler's wobbly Cajun accent, the film's laundry list of played-out Southern stereotypes and its setting amid the bewildering autumnal rituals of American college football, it's hard to know what sense British and European audiences will make of The Waterboy. Admittedly, it's gratifying to watch the polite and easily flustered Bobby pulverise opposing gridiron goons the first few times it happens. But as the virtually identical football-action sequences mount up, the enterprise feels increasingly shoddy and trivial. This is an entertainment designed to make you forget, albeit temporarily, that weak and vulnerable people all over the world are constantly victimised - and maybe there's nothing wrong with that goal. But The Waterboy is too dull and shallow to fulfil it; you can't help thinking that a real-world Bobby would never get the girl or play for the varsity team, but would just keep on smiling while he's tripped and spat on.
Imprisoned by the relentless clichés of Sandler and Tim Herlihy's screenplay, even the estimable Kathy Bates can do nothing with the part of Mama Boucher, who lives with a mule named Steve in a cluttered bayou shack where she's forever cooking alligators, snakes and squirrels. Fairuza Balk and Henry Winkler, however, are the film's bright spots. Balk vigorously attacks her role as Vicki, the trailer-trash tramp cum love interest who gets to utter the line: "I find Deputy Dawg very, very sexy." Winkler, a seasoned veteran of the broad, televisual comic style on display here (he was the Fonz in the television series Happy Days), plays the lovably hapless Coach Klein with cheerful restraint, even delicacy. The supporting cast of formulaic Louisiana eccentrics features Larry Gilliard Jr and Jonathan Loughran as Bobby's friendlier team-mates, along with Jerry Reed as the sadistic Coach Beaulieu.
Frank Coraci, who directed Sandler in The Wedding Singer, does nothing here to indicate that time ever passes or the weather ever changes in Jackson's Bayou. Every daytime scene has the bland, bright feeling of a Fourth of July parade. His two oft-repeated tricks are: the use of computer graphics to show how Bobby almost schizophrenically conflates his opponents with his tormentors; and the injection of well-known football commentators and coaches in forced, peripheral skits. Sandler is not to blame for the fact that audiences eat up his modest talent for clowning, most of it borrowed from other, better comedians. But surely he has the money and the clout to hire more skilful collaborators.
Credits
- Producers
- Robert Simonds
- Jack Giarraputo
- Screenplay
- Tim Herlihy
- Adam Sandler
- Director of Photography
- Steven Bernstein
- Editor
- Tom Lewis
- Production Designer
- Perry Andelin Blake
- Music/Orchestra Conductor
- Alan Pasqua
- ©Touchstone Pictures
- Production Companies
- Touchstone Pictures presents a Robert Simonds/Jack Giarraputo production
- Executive Producer
- Adam Sandler
- Co-producer
- Ira Shuman
- Associate Producers
- Phyllis Alia
- Michelle Holdsworth
- Rita Smith
- Production Co-ordinators
- Office:
- Leslie S. Stevens
- Football:
- Zoila Gomez
- Unit Production Managers
- Mark Indig
- Ira Shuman
- Location Manager
- John Garrett
- 2nd Unit Director
- Allan Graf
- Assistant Directors
- Marty Eli Schwartz
- Adam Druxman
- Michael E. Finn
- Kurt T. Kulhanek
- Leo Bauer
- 2nd Unit:
- Adam Druxman
- Marten W. Piccinini
- Script Supervisors
- Melinda Taksen
- 2nd Unit:
- Jillian Amburgey
- Casting
- Roger Mussenden
- LA Associate:
- Karen Church
- Florida Principal:
- Ellen Jacoby
- ADR Voice:
- Terri Douglas
- Caitlin McKenna
- 2nd Unit Director of Photography
- Charles S. Cohen
- Camera Operators
- Stephen Campbell
- William Papp
- Additional:
- Frank M. Miller
- 2nd Unit:
- Charles S. Cohen
- Steve Andrich
- Steadicam
- William Papp
- 2nd Unit:
- William Papp
- Visual Effects
- Flash Film Works
- Visual Effects Supervisor:
- David Fogg
- Digital Compositors:
- Dan Novy
- Jeffrey Arnold
- Bruce Pearson
- Rotoscope Artist:
- Etienne Terblanche
- Visual Effects Editor:
- Lincoln Kupchak
- Digital Scanning/Laser Recording
- Digital Filmworks
- Additional Visual Effects
- Dream Quest Images
- Special Effects
Co-ordinator - Ken Gorrell
- Art Director
- Alan Au
- Set Designer
- Derrick Smith
- Set Decorator
- Barbara Peterson
- Storyboard Artist
- Mark Simon
- Costume Designer
- Tom Bronson
- Costume Supervisor
- David Rawley
- Make-up
- Key:
- Erin B. Koplow
- Lee A. Grimes
- 2nd Unit:
- Christine Wostak
- Key Hair
- Tish Simpson
- Title Design
- Goodspot
- Titles/Opticals
- Buena Vista Imaging
- Orchestrations
- Daniel Hamuy
- Alan Pasqua
- Music Supervisors
- Michael Dilbeck
- Brooks Arthur
- Music Co-ordinators
- Lori Lahman
- Wende Geikie
- Executive in Charge of Music for Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group
- Kathy Nelson
- Supervising Music Editor
- Steve Lotwis
- Music Editors
- Stuart Grusin
- Scott Grusin
- Orchestra Recordist/Mixer
- Dan Garcia
- Rhythm Group Recordist/Mixer
- Gabe Veltri
- Soundtrack
- "Born on the Bayou" by John Fogerty, performed by Creedence Clearwater Revival; "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by Charlie Daniels, Tom Crain, Fred Edwards, Taz DiGregorio, Jim Marshall, Charlie Hayward; "Always on the Run" by Lenny Kravitz and Slash, performed by Lenny Kravitz; "Boom Boom" by John Lee Hooker, performed by Big Head Todd & The Monsters; "Sooner or Later" by Miles Zuniga, performed by Fastball; "Space Atmo" by/performed by Klaus Stuehlen; "Block Rockin' Beats" by Tom Rowlands, Ed Simons, Jesse Bonds Weaver, performed by The Chemical Brothers; "Peace Frog" by Jim Morrison, Robbie Krieger, John Densmore, Ray Manzarek; "Feed It" by/performed by The Candyskins; "Sports Center Theme" by John Colby; "House of the Rising Sun" by Alan Price, performed by Eric Burdon; "Hail to the Chief/Drum Cadence" (trad) arranged by Gordon Henderson; "Let's Groove" by Maurice White, Wayne Vaughn, performed by Earth Wind & Fire; "Doin' My Thang" by Sherwin Charles, Ivan
- Norwood, James Carter, Travis Lane, performed by Lifelong featuring Incident; contains a sample of "Best of My Love" by Maurice White, Al McKay; "Hooch" by Rich Bradley, Nate Brown, Craig Honeycutt, Wolfe Quinn, David Slankard, Steve Van Dan, performed by Everything; "Temptation" by Arthur Freed, Nacio Herb Brown, performed by The University of Michigan Marching Band; "Entry Cadence" performed by The University of Michigan Marching Band; "Lonely Boy" by/performed by Andrew Gold; "Ring My Bell" by Frederick Knight, performed by Anita Ward; "Small Town" by/performed by John Mellencamp; "New Year's Eve" by Waddy Wachtel, Joe Walsh, performed by Joe Walsh; "ABC Sports Logo" by/performed by Anthony DiLorenzo, Vince Frates, Gwendolyn Thornton, Bryan Hofheins; "Hard Chargin'" by Stanley Dural Jr, performed by Buckwheat Zydeco; "Hawaiian War Chant" by Johnny Noble, Leleiohaku, performed by The University of Michigan Marching Band; "Join the Parade" by/performed by Keith Papworth; "Tom Sawyer" by Geddy Lee, Neil Peart, Pye Dubois, Alex Lifeson, performed by Rush; "Drum Cadence" performed by The UCLA Bruin Marching Band; "Band Drum Cadence" performed by Al Nelson; "King Cotton" by John Philip Sousa; "Open" by/performed by Tom Hedden; "No One to Run with" by John Prestia, Dickey Betts, performed by The Allman Brothers; "More Today than Yesterday" by Patrick Upton, performed by Goldfinger
- Sound Design
- Elmo Weber
- Sound Mixer
- Jay Meagher
- 2nd Unit Sound
- Mark Weber
- Re-recording Mixers
- Scott Millan
- Bob Beemer
- Jim Fitzpatrick
- Recordists
- Andrea Lakin
- Brian Lucas
- Supervising Sound Editors
- Elmo Weber
- Gregory M. Gerlich
- Dialogue Editors
- David Bach
- Russell Farmarco
- Stewart Nelsen
- Robert Troy
- Sound Effects
- Al-Ling Lee
- Derek Vanderhorst
- Donna Lynn Biggs Weber
- Paula Fairfield
- ADR
- Editors:
- David Bach
- Russell Farmarco
- Stewart Nelsen
- Robert Troy
- Foley
- Artists:
- Paige Pollack
- Adam DeCoster
- Sharon Michaels
- Mixers:
- Warren Kleiman
- Matt Beville
- Football Team
- Co-ordinator:
- Allan Graf
- Head Trainer:
- Kevin L. Mercuri
- Trainer:
- Robert Garrett
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Allan Graf
- Animals Provided by
- Birds & Animals
- Animal Supervisor
- April Mackin
- Cast
- Adam Sandler
- Bobby Boucher
- Kathy Bates
- Mama Boucher
- Fairuza Balk
- Vicki Vallencourt
- Jerry Reed
- Red Beaulieu
- Henry Winkler
- Coach Klein
- Blake Clark
- Farmer Fran
- Larry Gilliard Jr
- Derek Wallace
- Peter Dante
- Gee Grenouille
- Jonathan Loughran
- Lyle Robideaux
- Al Whiting
- Casey Bugge
- Clint Howard
- Paco
- Allen Covert
- Walter
- Rob Schneider
- Townie
- Todd Holland
- Greg Meaney
- Robert Kokol
- professor
- Frank Coraci
- Roberto
- Jennifer Bini Taylor
- Rita
- James Bates
- West Mississippi lineman
- Kelly Hare
- drunk cheerleader
- Dawn Birch
- Red's watergirl
- Steve Raulerson
- Sheriff Loughran
- Chris Mugglebee
- Sheriff Jack
- Brett Rice
- Laski
- John Farley
- Tony Dodd
- Kevin Farley
- Jim Simonds
- Lee Corso
- Bill Cowher
- Dan Fouts
- Chris Fowler
- Jimmy Johnson
- Brent Musburger
- Dan Patrick
- Lynn Swann
- Lawrence Taylor
- themselves
- Paul 'The Giant' Wight
- Captain Insano
- Jamie Williams
- young Bobby
- Marc Kittay
- youngest Bobby
- Matt Baylis
- student
- Jack Carroll
- Bible College coach
- Tom Nowicki
- Community College coach
- Ric Swezey
- male cheerleader
- Matthew Lussier
- redneck
- Haven Gaston
- Tina
- Michael Hold
- Central Kentucky quarterback
- Kevin Reid
- West Mississippi quarterback
- Mattie Wolf
- Cajun lady
- Phyllis Alia
- assistant
- Dave Wagner
- announcer
- Tina Barr
- cheerleader
- Michael Giarraputo
- Bourbon Bowl statistician
- Marty Eli Schwartz
- moderator
- football team
- Mike Hold
- Pat O'Hara
- Kevin Reid
- Sean Weaver
- quarterbacks
- Alton Gerod Davis
- Horace Knight
- Brian Osborn
- running backs
- Christopher C. Siegried
- Altman R. Carter
- wide receivers
- Jeff Brockhaus
- tight end
- David Martin Golloher
- Harry J. Harding
- Mark Jackson
- Kenneth C. McClendon
- Eric Miller
- Christopher C. Tabscott
- offensive line
- James Bates
- Jermaine Benoit
- Scott Smith
- John Clark
- linebackers
- Kevin S. Brown
- Rick Hamilton
- Corris Ervin
- Lucruz A. Dunlop
- defensive backs
- Tarveres Tate
- Marty Hochertz
- Michael F. Osuna
- Kenton Rickerson
- Victor L. Hall
- defensive line
- Carlton Williams
- kicker
- Certificate
- 12
- Distributor
- Buena Vista International (UK)
- 8,073 feet
- 89 minutes 42 seconds
- SDDS/Dolby digital/Digital DTS sound
- In Colour
- Prints by
- Technicolor