User reviews

So there are a lot of bad reviews for this movie and although we don't all have to agree with the same thing, I feel some reviews were made out of spite. Is it a stupid movie? Yes. Is it immature? Yes. Did some of the reviews take this too seriously? Yes. It's a movie about a man-child who goes back to school in the hope of getting grades so he can own and run his fathers business. There is a cast of children. Why did anyone try to take this seriously??? Look it's not the funniest movie ever and it's really silly in places but it's enjoyable and harmless enough. There are some random but funny acts and some strange scenes but all in all it's not that bad. I first watched this 26 years ago and I still giggle at some of the stupidity. Especially a random song.....

This is one of those lucky cases where the opening sequence of a movie gives you an excellent idea of what you are in for.

If you do not enjoy Billy's sunblock song, or the bit with the penguin, then you must turn off the movie and stop being such a nag about it.

But for those of us who happen to enjoy movies that are silly and stupid, this is one of the best ones out there.

Billy Madison is a 1995 comedy and is Adam Sandlers first big hit in a feature film. It's about an underachiever who goes back to school grades k-12 on a bet and if he graduates he'll get to take over his father's company upon retirement.

It's a very silly and ridiculous movie, but I've always thought it was quite funny. Sandler amps up the goofiness to the point that you'd think he knew he wasn't going to get another film so he just went all out. The story is decent, the cast is good, and the overall end result is a fun flick that won't win any awards, but will tickle your funny bone for an hour and a half.

If you haven't seen this before and like silly humor, I would recommend checking it out.

Out of all of Adam Sandler's comedic efforts, Billy Madison still stands as his most profoundly weird and dare I say, surreal.

Many of Sandler's worst comedies, such as Jack and Jill and Grown Ups are comedies that fail due to how horrifically lazy and uninspired they are. From their premises to their jokes and gags and their overall execution, those movies just have nothing to offer in terms of inspired humor or even just surface-level entertainment. Billy Madison may be absurdly idiotic and juvenile, but the movie isn't lazy or uninspired.

Many of the jokes and gags in this film are supremely strange, such as Billy making a call to an old schoolmate he used to bully and apologizing to him, then later on, that same guy comes back at the end of the film to save Billy from the film's antagonist, Eric, by shooting him in the ass with a sniper rifle. This movie does genuinely feel like an inspired piece of alternative comedy that totally works for me.

And the film manages to avoid what many of the worst Sandler comedies indulge in, which is trying to trick the audience with moments of phony sentimentality as a way to convince them into believing that the film has an emotional core. Billy Madison knows exactly what kind of movie it is and it makes no apologies for how stupid or ridiculous it gets and I both respect and appreciate that.

Billy Madison is a childish, bizarre, and kind of dark comedic film at times which is what makes it unique from most of Sandler's other films. It's an acquired taste for sure, this movie certainly wouldn't turn any Sandler haters into believers. But in comparison to most of Sandler's other comedies, Billy Madison is one that stands out.

"Hey Billy, who would you rather bone, Meg Ryan or Jack Nicholson?"

"Jack Nicholson now, or 1974?"

"'74"

"Meg Ryan."

Very much a movie of it's time. Watching it now, if you didn't watch it in 1995 or thereabouts, is probably going to leave you shaking your head.

Look, all I can say is that Adam Sandler was king of juvenile humour back then, and that it was a different time. Yes, there are some jokes that would never make it to the screen today, and some of the scenes made me cringe a little. Billy Madison is spectacularly dumb, but it's fun in a 1990's comedy sort of way, which is a whole different realm.

Adam Sandler plays the titular character who is basically a lazy slob, but needs to graduate elementary and high school to take over the family's hotel chain. Standing in his way is the villain of the moment, played hammily by Bradley Whitford. So many dumb jokes you can't help but laugh, and the expected cameos from Sandler's buddies - Steve Buscemi and Chris Farley in this instance.

Billy Madison has always been my favourite Adam Sandler film, I have never found him funnier than in this one.

It's very goofy and juvenile but it's definitely funny. The cast are all decent enough, and the late Chris Farley is entertaining in his role. Bridgette Wilson does a good enough job as the titular character's teacher/love interest. Some people view this film as being slightly problematic these days but I don't think it's that offensive. The story feels like it should have developed more but overall the result of the film is one that is entertaining and funny at the same time. There is no doubt that the film's humour is not complex but some films don't need more complicated stuff.

As a goofball 90s comedy, this is a good example.

If you want to see a movie that is fun, puts you in a good mood, and never gets old, then see Billy Madison. All of you Sandler haters will think this is stupid, but everyone who likes Adam Sandler, or doesn't mind humor that is kind of stupid will love Billy Madison.

This is one of Adam Sandler's first movies, and it's one of his best also. This is a movie that I've seen so many times, but I still enjoy it every time. This is good to watch when you're in a bad mood, or if you're stressed out, because it will perk you up quicker than any coffee you can name. Other movies that put you in a good mood are Happy Gilmore, Beavis and Butthead Do America, South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, and Tommy Boy.

Overall, Billy Madison has a somewhat stupid sense of humor, but it does make you laugh, and it's such an entertaining movie. If you haven't seen this yet, see it now and see what all the laughing is about.

I'm quite surprised at the number of people who found this movie funny, but I suppose we all have different tastes.

Sandler's whiney voice and stupid faces are annoying, unoriginal, and done better by many others (e.g JL Lewis). His character is unlikeable, the plot is boring, and I just cant believe that this script was ever written.

I can identify the jokes but fail to understand why they are funny (like the clown with blood out of his mouth).

I enjoy most comedies but not this one. I would like to note that I am a teenager (not old like someone said most people who dislike this movie would be) and I found Happy Gilmore to be an OK film.

What can I possibly say? This is no "Citizen Kane," but this is one of the movies that sticks out in my mind the most. It's a twisted, crude, tasteless comedy but never ceases to bring out extreme laughter, even after I've seen it approximately 200 times--give or take. I just cannot get tired of this movie! There are things in this movie that cannot be understood, like every Sandler flick. What the hell was the deal with the penguin? However, it's a memorable moment. There are so many memorable quotes from the film. It's one of those movies I can quote line per line off the top of my head.

Here's a share of my favorite quotes:

(singing) "Suntan lotion is good for me. You protect me. Tee-hee-hee."

"O'Doyle rules!"

"It's too damn hot for a penguin to be just walkin' around. I gotta send him back to the South Pole."

"You're giving the company to Eric? He is a bad, bad man."

Adam Sandler has that brand of comic genius in which you don't know what you're laughing at, but it's damn funny! You can't help it! I can't rant and rave about anything artistically brilliant about "Billy Madison." Yet it's one of my favorite movies of all time.

It's funny, it's original, it's Sandler! Nuff said.

My score: 8 (out of 10)

Looking at some of the reviews here reinforces the fact that there are certain people that like different types of humor. If stupid humor makes you laugh, this is your comedy. If you like stale British cerebral humor, maybe you should stay far away from this. I'm sure we all have our favorite and unfavorite comedians. I happen to like Sandler because he is immaturely funny. I think Dave Chapelle's show is pretty damn funny too. I never thought Sam Kinison was funny (the screaming is annoying) nor do I care for Chris Tucker.

I saw Billy Madison at the theater, a friend and myself and the 8 other guys randomly scattered around the seating area found this to be pretty damn hilarious. I laughed at about 8 different scenes and that is a lot for me for any one movie. I still laugh at a few of the scenes when I see repeats and yes I have it on video.

Those of you who dislike this movie are more than likely too old and stuck on your Bob Hope type era comedians and refuse to admit any others. Sandler isn't the greatest comedian who ever lived but his shtick was fresh and original when this movie came out. I have a video of him back when he did stand up and the guy is brilliant.

Again, people who get easily annoyed and upset with the stupid type humor steer clear of this movie and save yourself the aggravation that these sad negative reviewers subjected themselves to.

Let me say before anything else that I like Adam Sandler and I like goofy comedies. There is however a difference between a goofy comedy and 90 minutes of letting the kids run loose. This movie is so bad on every level, the script, the lame humour, the bad acting and horrible cinematography that it is hard to fathom how anyone over the age of 10 walked away from the final cut thinking they had accomplished something. Clearly based on some of the other reviews this movie more than found an audience, so anything I might say will only appeal to certain movie goers.

Lesson 1 in any movie is that the viewer has to identify with at least some of the characters, most importantly the lead character. Unfortunately, there is nothing interesting, redeeming or funny about the character of Billy Madison so there was no desire to watch him succeed. Unlike the Happy Gilmore character, Billy Madison is nothing more than a driveling idiot from the start of the movie to the end.

I had avoided watching this movie for years because I figured it would be rather bad, but I figured that my kids, after watching and liking Happy Gilmore, would get a kick out of it. After 30 minutes, my 6 year old leaned over and said "I think this must be his first movie". 'Nuff said.

Adam Sandler plays Billy Madison, the son of a wealthy businessman, who is about to hand over the reigns of his company to a greedy businessman. So, in a last effort to have the company handed to himself, Billy enters a bet, that if he can make it all the way through school over again, the company is his. But he cannot flunk school this time around.

We can expect what ensues.

Basically, the film has a decent premise. It may be thrown together a bit sloppy at times, but overall it is good. The thing that is bad about this movie, is the characters, the dialogue, and the film's progress.

There are some laughs in the beginning, but I didn't find the addition of Norm MacDonald very funny, nor did I think it great how the teacher who hates Billy is suddenly, for no reason whatsoever, willing to take off her clothes for him.

There are some great cameos in this movie, especially the always-enjoyable Steve Buscemi. Unfortunately, his short appearance cannot make up for the bad flow, dialogue and character progression in Billy Madison.

Sure, the film has its laugh-out-loud moments, but not enough, and when it all comes down to it, the film has a half-baked, sentimental ending thrown in to enthuse the easily-pleased, and never really focuses on all the laughs it could have achieved throughout its scenes. It seems to take the lowest amount of jokes considering, and look at them as "look how many jokes we have," instead of "look how many more jokes we could have had."

In the end, what could have been an interesting and lively comedy resorts to typical Sandler fare, and nothing more.

My summary: worth seeing, but not great.

2.5/5 stars -

John Ulmer

Billy Madison is hilarious! Adam Sandler had a very funny role (he always does in his movies), and this movie was hilarious! Adam Sandler and Bridgette Wilson did a funny and terrific job. This movie is one of the best comedys. I also like the other movies Adam Sandler plays in (The Waterboy, Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, Little Nicky). Adam Sandler brings great hilarity to the film, and the rest of the cast were very funny. I also thought Billy's teacher (Bridgette Wilson) was funny. The movie is pretty funny, and very enjoyable. If you are an Adam Sandler fan (which I am) you should like this movie. Adam Sandler is very funny in this movie. I give it a 7 out of 10, which means, you should see it.

Billy Madison (Adam Sandler) is a goofball slacker who drinks all day and do nothing. His father is not happy and is looking to hand control of his hotel empire over to sleazy executive Eric Gordon (Bradley Whitford). It turns out his father had pay to pass Billy through his entire academic life. As a last ditch effort, he dares his father to give him control if he could pass each grade every two weeks and graduate high school.

This is low brow comedy of the highest order. Adam Sandler is the master goofball and he is hilarious. I laugh at his idiocy and I love it. How can you not laugh at the little kids being pounded by a dodge ball? So you're a nice well adjusted person. That's your problem, not mine. And I want to touch the hiney too.

There's a scene in BILLY MADISON where our doltish hero is faking making out with a photo of his hot teacher. Not only does the unabashedly sophomoric Adam Sandler french the glass of the frame, he also unbuttons her imaginary blouse and cops an imaginary feel. It's the sort of thing you'd expect to see in a junior high classroom after the teacher leaves the room. It's also quite hilarious because, you see, BILLY MADISON is the kind of movie you'd roll your eyes at if that immature side of you wasn't still kicking.

BILLY MADISON launched the big screen career of Sandler, who was winding down his memorable stint at the floundering Saturday NIGHT LIVE at the time. He's perfectly cast as a young man (man-child, really) forced to go back to grade school in order to inherit the family fortune. Why? Because Billy is such a dipstick that his daddy had to pay off his teachers to pass him the first time around. Now the jig is up, and Billy must prove he's got what it takes to get through each grade on his own. Come on, be honest... how can you resist that premise?

Along the way, Billy makes nonsensical inspirational speeches, accepts a dare to touch his teacher's boob (yes, the same teacher... and yes, Sandler was just as keen on boob jokes a decade ago), and somehow makes it cool to pee your pants. No wonder, then that just about every mainstream critic condemned BILLY MADISON to the turkey table. Their biggest beef? That the film is little more than a childish mishmash of bathroom (and boob) jokes.

Is that a fair assessment? Objectively speaking, you'd have to think so. But that doesn't make it a bad movie. Sandler wasn't trying to create something that would make the Turner Classic Movies lineup fifty years from now. He was trying to make a certain (and surprisingly broad) audience laugh, and in that he succeeded. It ain't perfect, and there are a lot of misses for every funnybone hit, but BILLY MADISON is worth the 90 minuets -- as long as your immature side is still kicking.

DO NOT WATCH THIS! EVER! There was only one funny line in this movie, although not remotely fresh or innovative, and it perfectly describes the whole experience: "Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul." Please save yourself this hour and a half and don't watch it. It's just plain bad, and not because it's just another Adam Sandler movie. His other movies are Oscar worthy compared to this thing.

Watched it as a kid after a bully at school punched me in the forehead and I landed on my rear-end and he didn't get in trouble because he told the teacher he was just practicing his karate. Watched it as a teen after a boomer sideswiped me and lied about what happened and the cops believed him and I got blamed because he was a grown adult and I was only sixteen. Watched it as an adult after I met a good looking woman in a bar and she took me to a motel room and like an idiot I let her tie me to the bedposts and she invited her friends over and they all laughed at me and made fun of my underwear and then they stole my wallet and ran off and left me there. Those were all really great and memorable days for me, because I got to watch Billy Madison.

This was back when I couldn't get enough of Adam Sandler. Maybe it was because I was younger or maybe because Sandler was younger, but his style worked.

This was on TV last night, and I watched it on the strength of the reviews here at imdb.com. I am AMAZED that so many people liked this pustulent, fetid, rancid discharge of a film. Its lack of comedy is only equalled by its immaturity and pointlessness. There is no acting, no humour, and a plot so thin I can only wonder how it survives holding the weight of its own rancid patheticness. I was literally slack jawed with shock at how bad this film is. I was frustrated with sorrow for the people who actually liked this - one reviewer says that he / she was laughing out loud. At what? How films like this ever get released? How Adam Sandler still has a career after this moronic turd of a film? Just awful. Dont say I did not warn you. By the way, this is only the 2nd review I have written on imdb.com. Generally I feel little need to, as previous posters sum up (generally) the pros and cons of a film very well, but I feel in this case, the public should be warned. I cannot BELIEVE there are so many good reviews for this film, and the truth needs to be told. I am actually offended that this rubbish got greenlighted, made and released, where actual (would be) decent films never see production.

Shocking.