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“Man, I’m so nervous. First and second grade were easy, but social studies, division? This is gonna be tough!” One of the earliest feature film showcases for Adam Sandler‘s alternately hilarious and intolerable man-child persona, Billy Madison stars the SNL alum as a career slacker who spends most of his days completely blotto and talking to an imaginary penguin as he lives off the benefits of his father’s successful hotel chain; after he ruins an important dinner meeting with his shenanigans, Billy is given an ultimatum from his father (Darren McGavin) — unless he passes elementary, middle and high school on his own to prove he’s a responsible adult (so to speak), he won’t be named his dad’s worthy successor. To say that Sandler’s aggressive, bizarrely mannered form of comedy is an acquired taste is an understatement, but unlike some of his later films, Billy Madison actually works a little more often than it doesn’t, with Bridgette Wilson delivering a sweet and likable performance as an elementary school teacher who becomes the apple of Billy’s eye. You also get Chris Farley, obviously jacked up on so much coke (and God knows what else) that his face is just one big giant about-to-burst vein as the school’s temperamental bus driver, and Steve Buscemi as a former high school classmate of Billy’s who receives an unexpected apology from his longtime tormentor. Favorite (and most unexpected) sight gag: the O’Doyle station wagon plummeting off a cliff as the O’Doyle family chants “O’Doyle Rules!” until the off-camera double explosion cuts them off.
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