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Category:    Home > Reviews > Comedy > Billy Madison (HD-DVD)

Billy Madison (HD-DVD)

 

Picture: B     Sound: B-     Extras: C-     Film: C-

 

 

Along with Happy Gilmore, the commercial success of Billy Madison (1995) put Adam Sandler on the comedy feature film map permanently for worse.  Both films have the strong common denominator of being one-joke comedies that don’t work unless you really, really, really leave your brain at the door.  Thus, it too was a hit.

 

Sandler is the tile character, who stands in inherit tons of money, but he head Madison (Darren McGavin, who helped make this work with as much as it did with his performance) and father to Billy is going to cut him out of the will unless he finishes 12 grades of grade school he skipped in 24 weeks.  That also happens to be how long this film feels if you land up not liking it.

 

Sandler survived Jim Carrey by simply out-dorking him until that collapsed with the bomb Little Nicky, leaving a strange career path since.  Even if McGavin was here more and the likes of Bridgette Wilson and Norm MacDonald had been used to better effect, it is hard to save a film that was part of the dumbness cycle of the time.  Now, it is a time-capsule and relic of that kind of film that turned many brains to goo.  No wonder we landed up in Iraq before we knew it.

 

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 VC-1 digital High Definition image looks good, but not great or much above a DVD, but Victor Hammer’s cinematography is adequate for a flat comedy.  The Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 is worse, with a mostly dialogue-based mix and Randy Edelman’s score occupying the surrounds with gag sound effects and the like.  Extras include director’s commentary, outtakes and over 25 minutes of deleted scenes.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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