Billy Madison
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| Billy Madison | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Tamra Davis |
| Produced by | Robert Simonds |
| Written by | Adam Sandler Tim Herlihy |
| Starring | Adam Sandler Darren McGavin Bridgette Wilson Bradley Whitford Josh Mostel Norm Macdonald Steve Buscemi Chris Farley |
| Music by | Randy Edelman |
| Cinematography | Victor Hammer |
| Editing by | John Gilroy |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | February 10, 1995 |
| Running time | 90 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20 million |
| Gross revenue | $25,588,750 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Billy Madison is a 1995 comedy starring Adam Sandler in the title role about a slacker who must go back to school in order to take over his father's company. The comedy also features Bradley Whitford, Josh Mostel, Bridgette Wilson, Chris Farley, Norm Macdonald, Steve Buscemi and Darren McGavin. It was written by Sandler and Tim Herlihy and produced by Universal Pictures. The MPAA rated the film with an PG-13 for language and crude humor. It made $24 million worldwide.
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[edit] Plot
27-year-old Billy Madison (Adam Sandler) has spent his entire life reaping the benefits of his father's hotel chain. He spends his days drinking with friends Jack (Mark Beltzman) and Frank (Norm Macdonald), and creating disturbances across his father's estate. One day, Billy ruins a dinner meeting between his father Brian (Darren McGavin) and his associates by acting obnoxiously. This prompts his father to lose faith in his son, and choose Eric Gordon (Bradley Whitford), to become the next owner of the hotel. Billy despises Eric, and begs his father to reconsider his decision. The two finally come to compromise; Billy must pass elementary and high school within the course of twenty-four weeks (two-weeks per grade), in order to prove his competence.
Shortly after enrolling into school, Billy becomes attracted to a teacher named Veronica Vaughn (Bridgette Wilson), who initially attempts to ignore him. Nevertheless Billy successfully progresses through his first two grades. He eventually finds himself as one of Vaughn's students in the third grade. He manages to earn her respect by defending Ernie, his friend and classmate. Billy becomes popular among the third graders, and misses them as he advances through school. Billy's development and progression alarms Eric, who becomes increasingly agitated as Billy completes each grade. Eric takes the offensive while Billy struggles in high school. He visits Billy's grade school principal, Max Anderson (Josh Mostel), and makes numerous references to his controversial past as a professional wrestler that could threaten Max's education career. Coerced, Max publicly states he took bribes from Billy in return for passing Billy to the next grade.
The announcement angers Brian, who chooses to give the hotel chain to Eric. Billy becomes distraught, and reverts to his original care-free lifestyle. Veronica, many school children, and other random characters from previous scenes come to Billy's aid, and forcefully motivate him to keep fighting Eric. He returns to school and begins to study again. However, Billy realizes that he must reclaim the hotel chain. His grade school friends visit Max at his home and convince him to retract his accusations. Brian, is now confused of who to leave to the hotel chain now. So Billy challenges Eric to an academic decathlon, contest of brains and brawn that will determine his father's successor. Although both men excel in different activities, Billy manages to take a single-point lead before the contest's final event, a Jeopardy!-style academic test. Billy attempts to win the contest by answering a question pertaining to the Industrial Revolution. Billy answers the question by presenting an elongated comparison to a children's book that was read to him earlier in the film. The contest's host voices disgust at the answer, telling Billy that "everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it," and awards Billy no points.
Eric is then given the chance to answer a question, and potentially win the contest. He is ironically asked to answer a question about business ethics. Eric cannot answer the question, and begins to break down. Refusing to admit defeat, he begins to brandish a gun. However, Max, clad in his wrestling suit, subdues Eric. The attack fails to keep Eric down; he makes a final attempt to get back at Billy by turning his gun to Veronica. Fortunately, rifle-wielding madman Danny McGrath (an uncredited Steve Buscemi), whom Billy apologized to earlier in the film for picking on him in school, disables Eric by firing a single shot at his buttocks. The film then moves to a graduation scene, where Billy is delivering a speech. He decides that he will pass the hotel business on to Carl Alphonse (Larry Hankin), one of his father's more polite businessmen, and announces he will attend college with hopes of becoming a teacher.
[edit] Cast
- Adam Sandler as Billy Madison
- Darren McGavin as Brian Madison
- Bridgette Wilson as Veronica Vaughn
- Bradley Whitford as Eric Gordon
- Josh Mostel as Principal Max Anderson
- Norm Macdonald as Frank
- Mark Beltzman as Jack
- Larry Hankin as Carl Alphonse
- Theresa Merritt as Juanita
- Dina Platias as Miss Lippy
- Hrant Alianak as Pete
- Steve Buscemi (uncredited) as Danny McGrath
- Chris Farley (uncredited) as Bus Driver
[edit] Nominations and awards
[edit] Nominated
- MTV Movie Award
- Adam Sandler - Best Comedic Performance
[edit] References to the film
- Happy Madison, Adam Sandler's film production company, took its title from this film and the following year's Happy Gilmore, also starring Sandler.
- In 2006, a U.S. bankruptcy judge quoted the contest referee in Billy Madison when he dismissed a defendant's motion on the grounds that it was incomprehensible. [1]
- In the movie, Billy is confronted by a red-headed family of bullies by the name of O'Doyle. In Sandler's movie Click, a bully with the same surname makes an appearance.
- Sandler himself made light of the film's poor reception and sophomoric humor on an episode of Saturday Night Live in his "Opera Man" character. He sings in his trademark opera fashion how Tom Hanks has won back-to-back Oscars and that he is monopolizing the Academy Awards when he sings "take a vacation, go to France. Give someone else a freaking chance!" which then shows a movie poster of Billy Madison, knowing very well it is highly doubtful it would ever be Oscar-worthy.
- Issue 118 of Ultimate Spider-Man featured a brief discussion held by Spider-Man, Johnny Storm and Iceman about Billy Madison.
- In I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Adam Sandler is seen reading the children "The Puppy Who Lost His Way," the same story Ms. Lippy read to Billy Madison in the 1st grade
[edit] References
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This article does not cite any references or sources. (February 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
