Review of Waterboy, The

Introduction

Here we have the 1999 Adam Sandler comedy The Waterboy.

If you`re a fan of slick, politically incorrect 90`s American comdey, come this
way. If not, turn around and run, run as fast as you can!

The Waterboy casts Adam Sandler as the simple-minded Louisana born and bred Bobby Boucher (pronounced boo-shay). He`s an oddball mama`s boy who grew up on a farm, and doesn`t know very much. Much to the delight of his mother, played by Kathy Bates, he loses his job as the water dispenser for the local college football team.

Not to beaten back, Bobby finds a new waterboy job under the supervision of Coach Klein, played by Henry Winkler. Coach Klein discovers Bobby`s hidden talent of being able to tackle people when he pretends they are picking him, which leads to him being drafted into the team.

What follows is Bobby`s adventures with the team throughout the rest of the season....

Let`s get this straight now, The Waterboy is not a classic film. However, it is a good popcorn movie, and only offensive in the way that the lead character is portrayed - but only the politically correct need worry about this. It is genuinely funny, especially the first time you watch the movie. However, I found that,
like many comedies that rely on the visual element quite a lot, knowing what is about to happen makes it not funny, so you probably won`t get too many repeat viewings out of this one.

The cast are effective in their roles, but without a doubt for me it is Kathy Bates who steals the limelight. She totally dominates every scene that she appears in for me.

Video

The video transfer on this disc is ok - it`s only a widescreen transfer, but there are no faults with the picture at all that I could notice. Due to the nature of this film, there aren`t really any special scenes that showcase DVD that well, but that`s not what this movie is about.

Audio

It`s a similar story with the audio. We have got a Dolby Digital transfer here, but the movie doesn`t really use it. There are some nice crowd effects on the football scenes, but that`s about it.

Features

Unfortunately there are no real extras on this disc - chapter selection just doesn`t count in my book.

However, we have got a good set of subtitles here. Europeans are well catered for by the disc - we`ve got subtitles in a total of 12 (yes, twelve) different languages on offer.

Conclusion

So all told, this is a fairly decent film that is transferred well on DVD. Whether it actually deserves to be on this format is another question - there`s nothing here that isn`t on the VHS version, and the film doesn`t really need digital quality sound. Worth renting if you need a few cheap laughs.