Billy Madison (1995) Review

“Do you have anymore gum?”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

It is important to find your calling as you get older, but you have to always make an effort when you get to it. 


PLOT


1995’s Billy Madison follows a titular spoiled 27 year old who is the heir Madison Hotels founded by his father Brian (Darren McGavin). Rather than preparing to take over the family business, he spends most days partying and causing chaos in the estate. Because of this, Brian plans to pass responsibilities to his vice president Eric Gordon. Since Billy sees him to be far more conniving, he makes a deal with his dad to finish school again on his own, attend each grade for two weeks to prove he’s responsible enough to lead the company. He does start off well in the first two grades and ends up falling for his third grade teacher Veronica Vaughn. She doesn’t reciprocate until she sees him defend another student named Ernie (Jared Cook) from embarrassment. With success quickly occurring as he makes it to eighth grade, Eric gets desperate to keep him from succeeding. He blackmails elementary principal Max Anderson (Josh Mostel) into going public with a false claim Billy bribed him to finish elementary, all to cover up his incident of accidentally killing in a wrestling match as The Revolting Blob. As Billy starts high school, he realizes he wasn’t a good kid in his youth due to bullying others. He takes Veronica’s advice in apologizing to former classmate Danny McGrath (Steve Buscemi) for past behavior. Max does go public with the false claim as Eric wants, which makes Brian call off the bet with him. Discouraged, he drops out and continues his old ways until Veronica encourages him to keep going. Her third grade even gets involved by convincing Max to tell the truth. When Eric objects the thought of Billy to finish the previous bet, the young Madison then decides to challenge him to an academic decathlon. After competing in multiple competitive events that make them tied up, they conclude the competition through a Jeopardy-like quiz. Billy does fumble an answer about ‘Reflections of Society in Literature’, decided by Eric, but when he selects ‘Business Ethics’ for him, his rival breaks down and pulls a gun on him. Thankfully, Max intervenes when giving him a wrestling blow. He then almost shoots Veronica until Danny shoots him first, out of respect to Billy. Billy still gets to graduate since he still took the remaining classes before the decathlon. During his speech, he shares his new inspiration in wanting to attend college to pursue a teaching career, thus passing the responsibility of Madison Hotels to loyal operation managers, Carl Alphonse who never looked down on him. As Eric walks away disappointed, the film ends with Billy kissing Veronica for the first time whereas all his friends find significant others to kiss with.


THOUGHTS


If you were unaware of the name that is actor Adam Sandler, you will hear he became a household name with this comedy so absurd you love it for embracing every bit of it. He writes this story with Tim Herilhy and director Tamra Davis, which is able to be filled with the most fun batch of insanity. Believe it or not, you likely would crack with seeing Sandler being a man child which was half of his gimmick in SNL. And if that didn’t make you crack, so many other things will. Whether it is him thinking he’s seeing a big penguin, or being insulted by the decathlon host for his incorrect answer, you’ll likely be laughing nonstop to Sandler’s fellow SNL pals adding up the laughs. Particularly, it’s the pair of Norm Macdonald’s Frank and Mark Beltzman’s Jack being just as immature as Billy if not more because it’s not everyday you see two grown men steal field trip lunch with an erratic bus driver. That then leads to me going nuts for Chris Farley as the latter because he really gets into it as a guy going off the rails to the point you’ll say ‘let it out man’. And don’t get me started with Jim Downey making the coldest roast as the decathlon judge who scolds Billy for having an answer far from correct. When I look back at this one, it seems to me people adore this in the same vein as Happy Gilmore because it straight up shows the gift of self improvement when much needed, which is what Billy Madison needed more than anyone around him. Sandler makes us love this character because we relate to him wanting to have nonstop fun and being afraid of being mature as that can go south based on the environment. Even though Billy never wanted to be a boss like his dad, he goes out of his way making the bet with him just to prove he can change at his own will, which he did unconventionally. In a certain lens, you can totally see Eric as the more realistic heir because he’s willing to suit up and pay his dues. That opinion ends up changing because Bradley Whitford would slowly peel the layer that his greed is so visible that even Billy sees it. He definitely fails in letting him get in his head that he stops caring the way he does. Like any other villain, he takes it too far by disrespecting his dad and being a sore loser when pulling out a gun. So when it came to him getting caught on fire before getting shot, you’re not really wrong for not feeling remorse for the douche he revealed himself to be. Hell, he even put too much salt on the wound when it came to blackmailing Max because that’s walking into trouble when making enemies with a pro wrestler as it followed for him. If you’re not pleased with Eric’s comeuppance, you would likely get a crack with the bit of the O’Doyle who walk all over Billy throughout because they think the rule for saying so, only for them crash thanks to a banana peel the bus driver threw out. You don’t get a lot of time with Carl, but Larry Hamlin made him a standout because his support was genuine when it came to trusting Billy’s growth. He’s known him since he was a kid and knows he’s harmless with how he lives life, thus never judging him the way Eric does. Of course, it wasn’t really him that pushed Billy to exceed expectations. Veronica has to be the most underrated love interests in terms of how fast she falls for a Sandler lead, but Bridgette Wilson makes it clear she ain’t exactly easy to impress. She emphasizes her intentions that she prefers men and not boys, and her point is proven because she is only interested in Billy when he proves how big heart is. Hell, it was genius that she would knock some sense into him when he doubted himself because it was a given no one else was gonna bother at that point to help. If it wasn’t for her, Billy would never find his calling to be a teacher because she was the most passionate one he ever met. With her by his side, there’s no doubt she’ll keep teaching him how to do things the right way which he’ll sure cherish. I give this movie a fair amount of credit with its creativity, but there were still multiple things that confused me and bothered me way more than Max making unwanted advances on Billy. Continuity errors already are a problem when Billy’s drink in the opening disappears between takes and it drives me nuts. And even the pickles Billy throws at the window don’t match when they slide down which is weird. Hell, I don’t really think Brian should invite Billy to business dinners at the estate if he knows he’s gonna start a ruckus. I mean there’s no point if he can’t get him to suit up. And if you’re telling me Brian actually bribed spelling bee parents to let Billy win after already bribing judges at the time, that’d be pretty damn crazy. It even feels crazier Billy is stuck with kids bathrooms when he’s in elementary rather than be allowed a faculty bathroom due to his age. It then feels dumb on Eric’s end to not get a legit investigator if he’s working for a wealthy man like Brian. I can’t even figure out what was more confusing than Frank & Jack actually following Billy’s field trip to steal the lunches, or the fact Veronica was willing to answer Ernie’s questions of her relationship status let alone leave Billy a headshot of herself. And lastly, I refuse to believe nobody noticed Billy was missing a shoe during the science section of the decathlon. Ignore all these issues however, then you’re still set for a good time. In short, Billy Madison is up there as a delightful comedy compared to Sandler’s later films because it’s able to show how fun it can be to find fun in growing up. If you dig these kind of comedies, check this out when you can.