Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Good concept, poorly executed.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

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.

Adam Sandler has always been one of those known comedians to be grouped into the category of you either love him or you hate him. Very few audiences find him somewhere in the middle. After proving his comic ability on Saturday Night Live, Sandler began moving towards the movie business, getting into bigger and bigger projects. As for director Frank Coraci, it would not be until him, Sandler and writer Tim Herlihy met together to make The Wedding Singer (1998). From there, the three would pair up to make a number of future films. Of this list, this would be their second feature and probably second most respected of that bunch. According to many to be the 1990s highest grossing football game (until later films), this comedy isn't clever in a lot of ways but isn't completely void of laughs either.The story is about Southern son of Kathy Bates' momma's boy Bobby Boucher Jr. (Sandler) who gets nothing but disrespect by the people he tries to help stay hydrated. After being on the job serving beverages to Coach Beaulieu (Jerry Reed) and team for 18 years, Bobby gets fired. Looking to keep doing what he's good at, he finds Coach Klein (Henry Winkler), a coach who can't find a way to get his team to accomplish anything. Initially, no one respects Bobby's entrance but soon, they and Bobby discover that he has a knack for tackling others. With that, Bobby is recruited to play for the team as well, leading to unexpected results. For what was written, Tim Herlihy was competent in the construction of the story. All subplots are started and completed and the character develop is noticeable for certain individuals. Possibly the best message this movie sends to its audience is to always try and better yourself. It doesn't exactly come out and say that but watching Bobby progress as a character speaks that in some respects.The other enjoyable aspect to the writing is watching how Bobby's life begins to turn around. Initially Bobby doesn't have any friends except his mom (Kathy Bates). But as time goes on, the respect and size of Bobby's circle increases in diameter so much, it's hard not to like the guy. This leads to the performances and comedy. For both, it's half-and- half. Sandler as Bobby makes his character sound and act innocent (which is what makes him likable) but the way he goes about it is a slight bit obnoxious at points only because of how he talks. This involves a squealy voice that only can be made by the way Sandler shapes his mouth. Surely there could've been another way to make his role sound just as innocent without looking so obviously prepared. Seriously, nobody talks with their jaw in that position. But this is the least of silly comedy. Because the setting to this story takes place in the Southern States, a number of exaggerated stereotypes are used in order to make the viewers laugh. One example of this is making Bobby's mom full on rural, no education, alligator barbecuing, the devil is everything wackjob.Really? There's no problem portraying Southerners and accentuating their culture but there's no reason to be going over-the-top ridiculous about it to the point of absurd and deranged. Another example of this is the character Blake Clark plays, which is being a deep voice mumbler who nobody understands. Who the heck cares about this character? He's just wasting time. However there are other characters that make up for these overblown fabrications like Henry Winkler who's goofy in his right and Jerry Reed (his last role) as the anti-football coach for being nothing but greedy. Fairuza Balk (best know for playing Dorothy from Return to Oz (1985) who plays Bobby's love interest also has more of grounded personality than other Southern supporting characters. Even wrestler Paul Wight has a brief role that isn't as superfluous as it could have been made out to be.There's still a couple of things left to look at. Unfortunately the cinematography covered by Steven Bernstein isn't much of anything significant. Much of the shots taken are very plain looking with nothing that really grabs its viewers' attention. However, the football games are engaging but not because of the camera-work. This is based more on the how the game is played and how characters react and work together as a team. Even for the silly comedy that it is, the game still feels like there's something riding on it that can't be missed. Finally the music provided by Alan Pasqua (which is his last film composition thus far) worked when it needed to. There was no main theme or anything and much of his music was substituted for other well-known songs to help with the comedy. The only reason why his music is getting a pass is again going back to the football games. Although they were not intense and as engaging as the game, the tracks did help elevate the viewing experience.The story itself is written properly and the energetic football games are what this comedy really has to offer. The comedy works at times but the stereotyping and exaggerations do get overdone, especially when it comes to Southern culture. Thankfully, the main protagonist is portrayed in an innocent manner that allows it audience to at least like Adam Sandler's performance.

It's obvious many people think too much of their film critic credentials, and they miss the overall point of "The Waterboy": There isn't a shred of "serious" to the story, simply a spoof of all things related to big time college football, the deep South and over-bearing mothers. To see it as anything else is to lose grasp on the human comedy. Much like folks misunderstanding the camp nature of "Starship Troopers," "The Waterboy" is a classic in its own right, with a flip of the finger to anyone who doesn't comprehend the intentions of the production. In fact, if they don't understand, they should take mama's place in the hospital bed!

Adam Sandler has succeeded in making his lamest, most desperate feature thus far. The Waterboy is an atrocious picture, comically and socially inept, pathetically humorless, and void of all things likable.Sandler has taken the formulaic structure of his previous feature, Happy Gilmore, made a few adjustments to the character and pacing, and somehow made a less likable film altogether. I've mentioned before that despite all the praise I have heard, I found Happy Gilmore to be a mediocre comedy. The Waterboy manages to take an already unnecessary screenplay and formula of creating an unlikable protagonist that is nothing shy of intolerable and again making him the main character in the film. The first step to making a bad film.The film is played the same way as well. Sandler is Bobby Boucher a stuttering water boy for the Louisiana Cougars. He is constantly pushed around for his strange lisp-like accent and the fact that he never fights back. After being kicked off the Cougars team, he approaches Coach Klein (Winkler) of the South Central Louisiana State University Mud Dogs. Klein discovers that when Bobby becomes angry, he becomes violent and that can help the team. So commences underdog story number two-thousand as Bobby goes from nothing to something.I am beginning to reach a personal quandary. How is possible to assemble a comedy film where not a single character is likable or even remotely tolerable? This shouldn't come as a surprise. Sandler's exercise in poor taste can be considered even poorer than poor taste. Let's look at his past and current filmography. We have the mediocre Happy Gilmore, the crass and pathetic I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, the melodramatic but strangely acceptable Click, the well-crafted 50 First Dates (despite a few problems I mentioned in my review), the underwhelming Grown Ups, the incredibly unlikable Just Go With It, and the most recent abomination, Jack and Jill. Man, can a filmography get anymore divided? I believe the reason Sandler is such an unbalanced actor is the fact he can't make a comedy without making characters that are shallow, immoral, and intolerable, or make a drama without being ridiculous and unnecessarily comedic. The Waterboy is on a whole different level, though. It doesn't even feel like it is trying to be creative or clever. It's an assembly of repetitive sequences, plagued with an immediately unconvincing character that is sadly our protagonist, a script that feels distended and uninspired, and a formula that may as well have just told us in the beginning how the thing turns out. You know how movies do that? They make the end sequence first, hardly leaving any suspense for the real ending? The Waterboy needed that so many unfortunate audience members would be spared of inane dreck.Starring: Adam Sandler, Kathy Bates, Henry Winkler, Fairuza Balk, and Jerry Reed. Directed by: Frank Coraci.