ivko Billy (Adam Sandler), an adult who lives his life as an obnoxious man-child, is told by his father that he will not inherit the family hotel business unless he can pass grades one to twelve in a giant three month sprint. It's not clear what this will prove, exactly, since the problem his father is trying to avoid is putting someone unqualified in charge of thousands of employees, but that's the premise so whatever.The villain of the movie is played by Bradley Whitford, who wants to take over the company himself and says mean things to Billy (usually after Billy has said something obnoxious or weird to him). We're supposed to root for Billy, despite his objectively anti-social behavior: he and his friends leave burning bags of feces on neighbors porches, play games that involve throwing food at restaurant walls to see which item will fall first, and grabs a woman's breasts on a dare, even after correctly identifying it as assault. In general, he behaves like a bored member of medieval royalty torturing the peasants for amusement, but just listen to those funny voices!Of course, everyone knows that Billy will win in the end and get the girl, because we are supposed to identify with his sense of childlike whimsy and know that his crimes don't count because there's no malice behind them. It's a depressing message because it supports the idea that our society should be divided into castes and we need to accept that Billy is from the rich and powerful caste and should stay there.Billy, by every conceivable standard, does not deserve and is not qualified to control the fate of thousands of people. Eric, Whitford's character, is a jerk. But a jerk who put in his time and is already quasi-performing the job of running the company. And presumably he is doing it well enough that the owner views him as a good replacement despite the animosity he clearly has for his own son.But the message is that despite that Billy should be put in charge anyway because of his family name, regardless of his behavior and the legitimate possibility that he is suffering breaks from reality (he sporadically hallucinates a giant penguin that he chases and has bizarre, unhinged conversations with).The other message, only slightly less depressing, is that money fixes all problems. Want everyone to like you, even after you've treated them poorly? Buy them expensive gifts. Did you make a waste of your life? No problem, just buy a second chance and force your way into school with other, less rich, people's kids. Who cares if you're disruptive to their education? They only exist to teach you life lessons and build up your self-esteem.In the end, I think that maybe I'm just not the right audience. For one, I'm way to old to even be in the vicinity of the target demographic for this film. I would never have even watched it but for a younger relative of mine who wanted to see it (and did enjoy it). But I also just don't enjoy this kind of humor. Sandler has tons of fans who idolize this movie as one of his greatest, so it's safe to say it's at least partially just me.Still, none of this probably matters. There's little point to worrying about the message this movie is sending; it's over two decades old and, young movie buffs aside, is hardly influencing the current generation. I enjoy writing reviews so I thought I'd add my take, but really I doubt many will even read this review among the thousands of reviews already written. If you enjoy really silly humor and simple plots, you might enjoy this film, otherwise it's probably best to just pass.

nuoipter termer Billy Madison is a great hilarious movie. I've also seen Happy Gilmore, The Waterboy, The Wedding Singer, Big Daddy, Little Nicky, Anger Management, and Click. All of those are very good movies. Billy Madison is the best Adam Sandler movie I've seen. A goofball named Billy goes to school starting with first grade so he can manage his dad's company. The movie is extremely silly. It's packed full of great entertainment. One of my favorite scenes is where Billy says to a student in school something and the kid just stares at him in shock. So Billy turns to the student on the other side of him and says the same thing. This is a wonderful movie.

Predrag Billy Madison is a typical Adam Sandler film, not the greatest plot but a barrel of laughs, if you like any other Sandler film i.e. Happy Gilmore, Little Nicky etc. then you will love this comedy. Billy Madison is the dim-witted son to the head of the Madison hotel chain, for years Billy had been told he will take over the company when his father retires, however after getting drunk & attempting to chase an imaginary penguin he embarrasses his father in front of all his associates at a dinner in the Madison household. Billy's father tells him that he will not be getting the company in preference of the evil Eric. Eric is mostly seen with Carl, another associate of Billy's dad whom he likes. Billy pitches an idea where he can go back to school, complete all grades in 2 week periods in order to win back the company.Billy Madison is a movie with a number of hilarious scenes. In one such scene, a third grader accidentally "pees his pants" and is afraid to get on the bus during a field trip. Sandler throws some water on his pants and tells the other children that "peein' in your pants is cool"! thus saving the child from embarrassment. In another scene, Billy calls ex-classmate Danny McGrath (Steve Buscemi) to apologize for picking on him as a kid. After the phone call, Danny crosses Billy off of his master list of "people to kill". Later, Danny comes to Billy's aid. Overall, this is a fun movie. If you like lighthearted comedy with just a touch of outrageous behavior, then you'll enjoy this breakout Adam Sandler hit.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Evan Wessman (CinematicInceptions) There are few if any comedies that lack a story as much as Billy Madison does. The plot basis is slightly redemptive, but the actual story structure is flimsy at best. But, as we've seen happen before, the film is still appealing to a number of viewers and is pretty successful. I mean, let's face it, no matter how bad a movie is, it's guaranteed to make a lot of money if Adam Sandler is in it. Even if most of his movies are essentially the same thing with a different subject matter and he's not a stellar actor, people will go to see it or rent it.So, the basic plot is that man-child Billy Madison has to go back through first to twelfth grade to prove to his dad that he can run the family hotel business. What little story there is comes with the character of Veronica Vaughn, and the fact that her name sounds like it comes from an old Bond film pretty much shows how much depth her character has. The antagonist, Eric, tries to steal the company from Billy like how Rob Lowe's character does in Tommy Boy. Apart from those story engines, the movie is pretty much just propelled by the irony of a grown man going back to elementary school. The academic decathalon climax, while sort of funny, isn't at all impressive from a storytelling perspective.Billy Madison's character has a pretty distinct personality, and we see that even though he's the biggest goofball you can find, there is some kind of intelligence behind all of his superficial stupidity. He doesn't have any real arc, apart from maybe proving himself to have some kind of intellectual dignity by the end. Eric is a fairly standard-issue greedy villain that makes a fool of himself for the amusement of the audience. His gags can be funny, but they aren't very original or clever. Billy's dad, while important in a plot sense, is hardly present in terms of screen time. Veronica Vaughn has some kind of personality, but is really just put in as the improbably love-interest for Billy. I thought Miss Lippy, the first grade teacher, was probably the most accurately portrayed stereotype in the whole movie, and her line about the "importance" of dodgeball is pretty funny. Even though he wasn't a very prominent character, I want to briefly mention the bus driver since he was probably the best combination of acting (thanks to Chris Farley) and scripting. His part really stole the show for me, but that's not to say that he should have had more screen time. The other minor roles are Carl, the gay ex-wrestler principal (whose entire character probably should have been cut for the sake of the story and the sake of all gay people), Juanita the maid, Billy's two friends, and the few kids that Billy befriends during his time in school. Most of them contribute one or two good lines and maybe a more extended gag.The comedy has a consistent goofy tone to it and feels a lot like Happy Gilmore, although the Gilmore humor hit it's mark a little better than this did. I can't think of one scene throughout the entire movie that isn't included to generate some kind of comedy, and in some ways that might make amends for the poor story. Some of my favorite jokes were the running "O'Doyle rules!" thing, the Broadway spoof when Veronica comes to help get Billy back on his feet, every scene involving the bus driver, and the "t-t-today junior!" scene. I think they could have cut the drunk penguin hallucination scenes, everything involving the principal, and could have spent a little more time in middle school instead of third grade since that could have provided some prime comedic situations.The acting is probably the strongest executional point. It isn't Oscar worthy, and all of it is very overblown and excessively goofy. The script definitely could have used some work, but it's protected by the comedy genre and the decent acting.If you like some of the older Sandler movies, being anything pre-Mr. Deeds, then I would recommend renting this at the cheapest price you can find. If you have doubts about whether you'll like it, watch up to the end of first grade, then go with your gut on whether to continue. It's borderline as a family film. Most of it is PG level, but there's a couple of scenes that you might want to mute or skip with your ten-year old. If you don't have any actor preferences, I will only caution that you're not in for any mind-blowing cinema, but you might get a few laughs out of it if you can get past the low-intelligence atmosphere. Overall Rating: 8/10.