The Waterboy (1998) Review

“You can do it. Cut his fucking head off!”

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

When someone says you're special, it's best to find the reason why rather than wait for a false explanation.


PLOT


The Waterboy follows 31 year old Bobby Boucher who is socially inept and suffers from stuttering. He lives with his overprotective mother Helen who apparently lost his father Roberto to dehydration in Sahara in the 60s. Due to his predicament, he is constantly bullied in the titular position at the University of Louisiana and gets fired by the Cougars’ head coach Red Beaulieu for being disruptive. He finds another position however at South Central Louisiana State University, hired by Mud Dogs’ coach Klein who does so on a voluntary basis. With the Mud Dogs losing 40 straight games, players share equipment due to budget cuts. While the only teammate who chooses to be nice is kicker Derek Wallace (Lawrence Gillard Jr.), the team chooses to pick on Bobby much like the Cougars did, and Klein encourages him to stand up for himself. He takes the advice personal by tackling quarterback Gene Grenouille (Peter Dante). Klein sees his potential and despite not getting Helen’s approval, he still convinces Bobby to play, knowing he’s eager to attend college. Once settling in as a linebacker, Boucher sets up a winning streak for the team. He does reconnect with childhood crush Vicki Vallencourt, but Helen still doesn’t approve of her as she believes everything outside home is the devil. When the Mud Dogs celebrate getting new uniforms and that they’ve qualified for competing in the Bourbon Bowl against Cougars, Beaulieu drops a bombshell when exposing Bobby never went to high school which makes him ineligible to do football. While this disappoints Boucher’s team, Klein schedules him to pass a GED exam. Before he begins studying, he shares how Beaulieu intimidated him into stealing his football playbook 20 years prior and got him fired, causing him to have writer’s block for new plays. During studying, he slips his secret to his mom what he’s been doing and when she expresses disappointment, he stands up to her believing he enjoys everything he does outside home and isn’t afraid anymore. He then passes the exam but shortly after, he finds out she went into a coma. Feeling responsible, he chooses to stay by her side at the hospital until he recovers. Wanting to cheer him up, Vicki rallies the town to convince him to play. When Helen wakes up, she admits Roberto left her when she was pregnant and has been so protective over him ever since because she was afraid of losing him too. Having confessed, she gives him her blessing to compete in the Bourbon Bowl. He does play the next day and joins during halftime. When struggling to transition from offense to defense, Bobby passes the same advice from Klein to him and the team to visualize and attack all the things that upset them, thus inspiring the coach to come up with new plays. Once the Mud Dogs catch up, Bobby then suffers a cheap-shot by the defender Meaney (Todd Holland). Luckily, Vicki revives him with the same Alaskan water he gifted her, leading to them winning the remaining game by 30-27. After a historic victory, Bobby celebrates by marrying Vicki only to get a sudden reunion from Roberto who tries convincing him to go straight to NFL so he can share in his son’s fame. That doesn’t happen since Helen tackles him to the ground for abandoning them both and the film ends with Bobby leaving with Vicki to consummate their marriage.


THOUGHTS


Actor Adam Sandler struck gold in the 90s when making an iconic man child as Billy Madison and a sports underdog that was Happy Gilmore. Reuniting with co writer Tim Herlihy and collaborating with director Frank Coraci, we get an amalgamation of both classics to make a whole other that has become beloved overtime. Crude absurdity is the jackpot when it comes to Sandler movies because the pacing of it mostly works here. Like Billy Madison, seeing him work with close friends makes it feel genuinely fun. You get your chuckles with Clint Howard as a passionate fan named Paco or Paul Wight being a harsh wrestler as Captain Insano who mocks Bobby being a fan at his age, but it’s hard to not be delighted when Rob Schneider playing a local townie constantly shouting ‘You can do it’ at every given opportunity. You just believe in the hype he is feeling when seeing Bobby and we now use the line to hype ourselves up, so I’m proud to use it whenever. On the other hand, it was also easy to be chuckling with Blake Clark doing Cajun gibberish as assistant coach Farmer Fran and him partying with the cheerleaders had me falling off my seat. The final nail in the coffin would also be Lawrence Taylor mistaking Bobby’s stuttering to be a result of drug addiction. It’s totally on Klein to not give a heads up, but his confusion gets me every time. Looking back, people still seem to enjoy whenever they make the time because it is able to teach viewers to never hesitate in proving yourself or you'll never be happy with the life you have holding back. That is why people adore Sandler as Bobby Boucher because behind his differences, he proves he has the heart to take command and prove incredible inner strength. We all want to unleash our anger in a way that can excel us in our day by day lives. There's no doubt he loved his mom no matter how overprotective she got, but even he made his breaking point that he needed to grow and he found his calling in the process. It is definitely hard to like Helen in any matter since she took it too far with heartbreak in deciding to shelter her only son from society. Kathy Bates assured us the love was always genuine no matter insecure she was feeling and once she saw how much football meant to him, she finally did the right thing in letting him go. On the bright side, it was quite ironic how the very end showed exactly where Bobby got his exact traits from; The stuttering may came from his dad who is also played by Coraci, but all the strength came from his mama. Luckily, the first person to truly get him out of the comfort zone was someone who was in a familiar place of feeling rock bottom. Henry Winkler makes a solid mentor as Coach Klein because he sees himself in Bobby, seeing all the self esteem and nervousness taking a toll on him that he gives him the needed advice that he was also trying to give himself. With Jerry Reed making a greedy traitor as Beaulieu, he felt that his potential could never be made but once Bobby reused his advice, his mojo hit an all time high. Luck really was on Boucher's side once he started playing football, because it also paved the way for him to get the girl of his dreams. Fairuza Balk was awesome as Vicki because she's straight up his polar opposite as she's visibly fearless with whatever comes her way due to her felonious background. She always was attracted to Bobby because she was the first person apart from his mom to appreciate his big heart and he was always crazy for her because she's the first person to see his potential. Had she never took a chance each time, it's not likely he'd ever listen to Coach Klein to begin with. Luckily, everyone got to be a winner at a point where they almost thought they wouldn't ever be. Whatever Bobby does now after happy ending, there's no doubt he'll enjoy the rest of his life as a diverse man. I can give this movie a fair amount of credit with most of the cleverness in being unserious, but there were multiple moments upon re-watching that don't make much sense. For example, Red shouldn't be excited seeing Bobby in the opening when he knows he is still assigned waterboy. The guy has a big water station to put to use for god's sake. Also if Bobby is gonna be driving around in a lawnmower wherever he goes, howcome he never applies for a job like that? It's not like the college fields don't need it and if there were suburban homes nearby, they'd sure appreciate service before he starts playing football. It even feels a little too dumb when his teammate Lyle (Jonathan Loughran) is cheered by the others for spitting onto the water he shares with the team, just to bully Boucher. He's asking to get some damn germs and pass it on to the team, which makes everyone dumber than how they see Bobby. And I don't blame Bobby for defending his mom when he tackles his professor, but that shit should get you kicked out whether you're mentally disabled or not. It can be sensible Bobby will do anything to spend time with Vicky behind his mom's back, but it is so out of character for him to condone her stealing the Porsche of Lawrence Taylor. I mean that is the definition of playing with fire and he knows it better than her. I wanted to be impressed with how Bobby got to decorate the hospital almost spot-on to home for his mom's sake, but how was the horse Steve allowed to be part of it? Just because Bobby became popular does not mean he can get away with the impossible. The same can be said with Mama driving into the stadium with the fan boat let alone have coffee prepared for the cheerleaders no matter how funny it looks. Ignore this, then you'll still be in for a good time. Lastly, who were the children at the wedding? There's no point in having kids there if we don't know their relations to any of the characters we've seen throughout. In short, The Waterboy is still an entertaining sports comedy that has enough time to get you to smile. If you dig these kind of movies, check this out.