User reviews

It's Adam Sandler. Are we expecting a smart comedy, along the lines of Woody Allen and Albert Brooks? Of course not. But like all his comedies, it works. Some of the jokes are truly lame (not in a funny way), but most of them worked. Sandler helped pen the script, so naturally the humor is cheap and juvenile. But everyone, young and old, has a kid or teenager inside of them that is dying to break out. That explains the success of "There's Something About Mary." I'm sure a movie with such widespread success didn't reach only a young audience. When an old man dressed like Colonel Sanders gets hit in the head by a paperweight, call me immature, but I'm going to laugh out loud! Sandler does a great job at awakening the kid in all of us. It's truly evident that the kid in him is fully awakened.

Honestly, I still prefer Sandler's "Billy Madison" (I will always love that movie!) and "Happy Gilmore," but this is a good one too. I never thought Fairuza Balk was hot, before checking out this film. Anyone who has seen "The Craft" knows damn well she looked horrible! And for good reason--she was playing a witch! Here, she looks hot, and walks around in a lot of skimpy outfits--MMMM! No matter how many times I watch this film, I can't help but crack up at Blake Clark as Farmer Fran. God, what an underrated talent! His main gag is you can't understand what the hell he's saying. Sure, it doesn't sound like much on paper--shows how the timing and execution of a joke can really work wonders. He also made a short appearance in "Joe Dirt," so look for him in that one as well. There are a good deal of notable gags: the Roy Orbison tattoo, Rob Schneider's "You can do it!" character, etc. I can't say this is a subtle comedy that you'll want to check out over and over again to search for jokes you may have missed. To tell the truth, I think the film gets more lame in further viewings. Which is why it's good to watch it once or twice. Don't wear it out, because this kind of comedy can wear out easily--like those supermarket brand AA batteries.

"The Waterboy" is funny, mindless entertainment. I recommend watching it--just read a book afterwards...LOL. Critics have criticized Sandler for lowering viewers' comic standards. Sure, his gags may not be as intelligently crafted as those of the late Marx Brothers or Buster Keaton, but he knows how to make people laugh and I'm not going to fry him for that. Some don't find him funny--and if you don't, I understand. But I'm not going to view Sandler as comedy's Hitler. Believe me, I've seen much worse.

My score: 7 (out of 10)

Amusing but typical Adam Sandler vehicle about a water boy for a football team who has the amazing ability to get extremely mad and violent (picture Sandler as the Incredible Hulk). When a football coach (Henry Winkler, a.k.a. The Fonz) sees Sandler's amazing talent, he gets him on his football team...much to the dissaproval of his overcontrolling mother (Kathy Bates).

A lightweight comedy handled with playfulness. "The Waterboy" scores big points for laughs. If you want an hour and a half of fun, see this movie!

3.5/5 stars -

John Ulmer

Adam Sandler's brand of humor may not be award winning,but it doesn't have to be.He creates another memorable character here,and surrounds himself with a good cast,including Henry Winkler,and Oscar winner Kathy Bates.You would be hard pressed to find a film about the sport of football that could be considered a great one,but the majority that I have seen are entertaining enough,and this one is no exception to that. If you are smart,you won't view this movie with an expectation of greatness,but if you want genuinely funny silliness,this is a film for you.It's a worthy edition to the comedy section of anyone's home library.

I really liked the Waterboy. It was crude, raw, and utterly funny. Adam Sandler gives his funniest yet since his 1995 cult hit Billy Madison. In this feel good movie, Sandler plays a dumb waterboy who gets on a football team and becomes a damn good tackler. Everything in this film is funny, from beginning to end. Henry Winkler has his best in years as a down on his luck coach and Kathy Bates is Dead Pan funny as mama. Great all around. A+

I do agree the story takes a long time to develop, the script at times is not great(too many dumb moments) and the pacing is uneven, but The Waterboy is actually somewhat endearing. And it has Adam Sandler in it, an actor I don't care for, but he was surprisingly amusing here. I do think though that Kathy Bates(ever the pro)as the Cajun mum and Henry Winkler as the bewildered coach gave much better performances. The film does look striking, with nice cinematography and scenery, and the soundtrack is nice. The sports sequences are lovingly done, and the direction is efficient enough. Overall, it isn't groundbreaking, but it is an endearing and amusing film. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I have to admit: this Adam Sandler no-brainer is hilarious, just had me laughing right from the start. I'd rank it in my top ten funny movies of my collection and it features one of my favorite characters in film: Bobby Boucher Jr., a heckuva lot nicer guy than Sandler's "Happy Gilmore."

"Bobby" is about as innocent and a gentle-natured a guy as you'll find this side of Forrest Gump. You can't help but root for him, and that's the idea. What the film basically involves is another "Revenge Of The Nerds" theme except it's "nerd "- singular - as the picked-on waterboy turning the tables on the football jocks. Interesting to once again see Jerry Reed, whom I haven't seen much of since his days in "Smokey And The Bandit." He has much fatter face but everything else looked the same. Then there is Henry Winkler, "The Fonz" who now is the opposite: a guy with a terrible inferiority complex. All the characters in here are wildly exaggerated.

This cartoon-like comedy may not be high-brow, but so what? It's not totally low- brow either, but I do wonder why modern filmmakers cannot seem to make a comedy without all the sex references and the profanity. Nonetheless, Sandler's Cajun accent, his strange-looking-but pretty girlfriend (Fairuza Balk) and crazy mother (Kathy Bates, in the funniest role she's ever played) are all great fun to watch.

It's silly, particularly the ridiculous climactic football game, but then this movie is hardly to be taken seriously. It's all absurd humor, and 90 minutes was just right amount of time for it.

This movie Bobby Boucher who is a 31 year old male, who still a water boy since he was a kid.

All the football players always seem to tease him and he also seem to have a way over the top protecting mothers, who calls everything and everyone the devil dose not seem help him, she dose not what him to go as she told Bobby that his father as died.

There a football training going and Bobby Boucher is doing his work, one of the players come over to him and spit in the water.

Then in that moment Bobby Boucher remembers all the people that Have been teasing or bulled him over the years and he final snaps and runs on to filed a knock out a player twice his size.

Then coach asks him to the join the team but he as to keep it secret of from his over protecting mother is played by Kath Bates.

I have seen this movie so many times now, I have lost count, I found this movie really funny, there were some really great jokes in this movie and there also a little big of drama in this movie.

Adam Sandlers was really good and funny in this movie but still not is best movie However Kathy Bates was very funny in this movie.

I going give this 7 out of 10

This was without a doubt one of the least funny "comedy" films I have ever seen. I sat though nearly an hour and a half of this drivel waiting for all the hilarious scenes mentioned in other reviews - I saw them, but just can't see why people thought they were so funny. It was by turn predictable, boring, badly acted,

irritating - and that was just Sandler (who is without a doubt the most over-rated and least talented "comedians" I've ever had to suffer through). Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against moronic or vulgar humour, but only if it is funny and this certainly isn't.

Why Sandler is so popular is a complete mystery to me, he can't act (unless

doing a bad voice impression of Eric Cartman from South Park counts as acting nowadays), he has no discernable writing ability or comic timing. If I could I would give this film a negative rating

The scariest thing about this film is that it is apparently better than Little Nicky which is hard to imagine. 0 out of 5

All of the characters were well developed and entertaining. This movie never pretended to be anything more than it was..a fun, wacky comedy with a bizarre plot. Anyone who beats this up for being dumb should be taken out back and paddled. It is obvious THEY are too dumb to realize that this was DESIGNED to be dumb. Anyway..there are too many scenes that I STILL laugh at today, even though I have seen this 1/2 dozen times. So, if you are looking for the greatest film ever made on all levels..give this a pass..if you can relate to the humor, it's a wonderful hoot! I am not a die hard Adam Sandler fan, but I think he scored a 10 in this one for likability and laughs.

Although, most of the really funny stuff was shown on TV commercials for the film, this movie still entertained me. It made me laugh out loud which is pretty much my basis for a movie being funny. However, it was very predictable, but I wasn't expecting to be surprised so it didn't get in the way of the humor for me. The only huge negative aspect of the movie was Adam Sandler's constant "stupid" voice. It was funny for a while, but got on my nerves by the end of the movie. Overall, I would say wait to rent this movie with friends when you are in the mood to laugh.

Hey, I like dumb humor as much as the next guy. "Austin Powers"? Yeah, baby. "Something About Mary"? Sure. "Beavis and Butt-head"? Huh-huh, cool.

"The Waterboy"? No way. This comedy is dry and dull. This unfunny mess is a major step backward for Mr. Sandler.

Obviously any Adam Sandler fan will love the Waterboy. I certainly did. No matter how many times Sandler knocked some guy out I still found myself laughing, and Rob Schneider's cameo was amusing too. And there's no way I can knock a movie which co-stars Henry Winkler. Overall, not as good as the classic 'Happy Gilmore', but an excellent movie all the same.

There are good sport sequences. It's funny but a little too stupid. I saw the French version and the voices are poor.

Adam Sandler's The Waterboy is a strange cocktail of slapstick absurdity, aggressive sentimentality, and Southern caricature that just barely works, thanks mostly to Sandler's full-bodied commitment to the ridiculous. Directed by Frank Coraci, the film operates in a deliberately exaggerated universe where logic takes a back seat to physical comedy and cartoonish personalities. It knows what it is and never pretends to be more, which is both its strength and its limitation.

Sandler plays Bobby Boucher with a blend of innocence and unhinged energy that makes him both laughable and weirdly sympathetic. He leans hard into the character's speech impediment and social awkwardness, sometimes hitting the mark with gut-punch comic timing, and other times veering into a one-note loop that starts to wear thin. This role is pure Sandler-the kind that divides audiences. You either find his full-throttle foolishness endearing or irritating. But to his credit, there is a sincerity underneath all the gibberish, and it occasionally peeks through the chaos.

Kathy Bates, as Bobby's overbearing mother, is the film's standout. She brings an intensity to every scene that makes even the most ludicrous dialogue land with authority. Her performance is so committed it elevates material that would otherwise fall flat. Bates somehow manages to maintain her dignity while delivering lines about the devil and high school football. That alone is worth watching.

The supporting cast, including Henry Winkler as the meek and damaged Coach Klein, adds a strange charm. Winkler, in particular, finds a rhythm that works: he plays it quiet and nervous, counterbalancing Sandler's manic energy. Their oddball chemistry creates a few surprisingly effective moments of connection, albeit buried in an avalanche of nonsense.

The cinematography and direction are serviceable. The film looks exactly like it should-a bright, loud, cartoon of a sports movie. The editing leans into rapid cuts and quick gags, trying to keep the energy up even when the jokes don't always land. There are a few scenes where the timing clicks-a chaotic football game, a tense locker room exchange-but there's also a lot of dead air between the laughs.

Tonally, The Waterboy is inconsistent. It swings wildly from childish goofiness to unexpected violence to genuine sentiment. This might be intentional, but it often feels disjointed. The emotional beats are rushed, the comic moments are drawn out, and the film never quite figures out how to balance its various moods. Still, it delivers a few solid laughs and enough weird moments to make it memorable, if not particularly good.

Adam Sandler takes on a role of a moderate mannered waterboy to a vicious killing machine. Now I must say that the movie had its laughs, but fell short of any real super comedy. The ending game in the movie was not only predictable to the last play but old and overdone. Henry Winkler and Kathy Bates stole the show, but even Bates's character was overdone and tiresome by the end.

This has to be one of the most underrated films on IMDB. Absolutely hilarious.

Compared to the modern PC drivel being released today, this film is phenomenal.

In fact, I'd rather watch The Waterboy for the umpteenth time than ANY of the films released in the last 5-10 years... except maybe the John Wick series.

I don't think Adam Sandler has made a funnier production to date. This film deserves more than a 6.1 star rating... at least worthy of 8 stars.

Bobby Boucher is 31, lives at home with his mother and is the waterboy for the University of Louisiana Cougars. One day he is fired and ends up being the waterboy for a down-and-out college team, the South Central Louisiana State University Mud Dogs. During an incident in training, Bobby demonstrates himself to be a ferocious tackler, and he is picked for the team's defense. Thanks to him, the Mud Dogs' fortunes soar. However, his mother doesn't approve of him playing football...

Silly but entertaining. Started quite weakly, largely using Bobby's disabilities to score cheap laughs. The whole Louisiana inbred/hick thing was laid on pretty thick and got quite tiresome, quite quickly. However, as the movie progresses it gains momentum, shakes off the cheap laughs and becomes reasonably entertaining.

Not that it doesn't still have its silly moments towards the end, but these become few and further between.

Overall: not a must-see, but if you're looking for something mindlessly entertaining, this isn't so bad.

I never did like anything Sandler did before I saw this movie with very few exceptions -Airheads comes to mind- but this one changed the way I looked at Sandler forever. It is an off the wall ridicule of slow-witted, backwoods rednecks who go out, and become star quarterbacks on their high school football team.

I am glad to see that Henry "Fonz" Winkler is working again, and is good to have a comedy vet abroad the cast. Fairuza is the damn sexiest I've seen her in her whole career. Bates' character is a little annoying but cute.

For a laugh, I'd recommend it.

THE WATERBOY is without a doubt one of the worst movies ever made, plain and simple. I can't even say that it was a waste of money because it was a huge hit. Sandler and his cronies have actually stolen our money with this mindless piece of crap. I know critics are rough on Sandler's films. WEDDING SINGER was actually a good flick that poked fun at the 1980's and why not? The 80's are an open wound that WEDDING SINGER exposed with hilarity. It even developed a half-decent love story with the help of Drew Barrymore. What the hell happened with this? Did they think this was funny while they were making it or was it in post-production when they realized that it sucked? Sandler is too talented to think this was any good. The public bought it. Why? We'll never know.

I saw it on video, so thank God I did not pay $7.50 for a theater run. After watching it, I didn't even want it in the house overnight. Sandler and his funny buddies, who get paid handsomely to make this garbage, go after the deep south for laughs. You get the impression that every person in cajun Louisiana is dirty and stupid. They can't be any dumber than the writers of this dud. The filmmakers, and I use this term loosely, have no knowledge of the sport of football. It is absolutely painful to sit through.

I know some people will read this and say I am too analytical or that I did not "suspend my disbelief" enough to enjoy this debacle. Get real. "Bobby Bouche" is boring, and a good ending would've been for him to drown in the Gulf of Mexico with a football in his mouth. (-1 of 10)

A lot of people are shocked at how dumb, unbelievable, and campy this movie is. Obviously they've lived in a cave and never seen an Adam Sandler movie before.

You don't watch Adam Sandler for a cerebral workout. You'll never see him starring opposite Anthony Hopkins or Merryl Streep. Okay, I realize his IS cast opposite Oscar-Winner Kathy Bates, but don't confuse me with details. This movie is just a bunch of jokes wrapped around a weak plot.

Still, the jokes are really funny. I don't usually laugh out loud at the movies, but I guffawed at many parts of this movie. If nothing else, it stimulates the Three Stooges area of the frontal lobe of your brain.

On the down side, Rob Schneider must be a good friend, because his role was obviously a last-minute toss in. Schneider is not funny in this movie and his "lines" are by far the campiest element of this movie.

Still, it was amazing how the crowd with which I saw it reacted to the football scenes in the movie. I looked around and everyone was anxious or cheering like they're best friend was playing in the Super Bowl. Also, this is the hardest I've seen an audience laugh since "There's Something About Mary".

In short, if you can accept the fact that the plot is completely unbelievable and just watch it for laughs, you will enjoy this movie. If you're looking for Oscar-winning drama, go elsewhere.

It wasent to fun Adam Sandler Was irritating but fun. The movie was'nt real fun to. The acting was'nt to good either But a Adam Sandler fan must see this movie

Okay, now for me to give a movie on this database a rating of 1, I know it must be pretty bad. There is absolutely nothing that I liked about this wretched excuse of a movie. Film has sunk to an all time new low with this. Why even Adam Sandler would get involved with this picture, is beyond me. He has done some good work. I thought that Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore were hilarious. But The Waterboy was just so childish and infantile, it was unbearable. I was honestly surprised that I was able to make it through the entire film without walking out. I can honestly say that I didn't laugh once in the duration of The Waterboy. When I go out to a movie to see a comedy and laugh, this really irritates me.