Billy Madison
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Billy Madison
Written by: Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler
Directed by: Tamara Davis (she also directed Half Baked, a bunch of music videos, and tv shows)
Starring:
Adam Sandler
Bradley Whitford
Josh Mostel
Bridgette Wilson
Norm Macdonald
Darren McGavin
Released: February 10, 1995 (almost exactly 10 years after our previous film, The Breakfast Club, released February 15th, 1985)
Budget: $10M ($17.9M 2021)
Box Office: $51.5M ($47.3M 2021) worldwide
Ratings: IMDb 6.4/10 Rotten Tomatoes 42%
Metacritic 16% Google Users 88%
In 1995 Adam Sandler was nominated for the MTV Movie Award of Best Comedic Performance, against:
Tim Allen – The Santa Clause
Tom Arnold – True Lies
Jim Carrey – The Mask
Jim Carrey - Dumb and Dumber
Adam Sandler – Billy Madison
Jim Carrey – Dumb & Dumber won
First time you saw the movie?
Plot:
We open with Billy floating in a pool, obviously fucked up, worried about ultra violet rays, when he consults with his friends about something he was supposed to do that day... he recalls it's nudie magazine day. He takes off to the front gate, running over the landscaping as he goes. Excited at checking out he latest copies of Shemale fiesta, women over 80, and he favorite, drunk chicks... When he then spies his nemesis, a giant penguin (SOUND 2). He chases the penguin to the house, where a bunch of guys in suits are watching him trying to catch the imaginary penguin, and collapses. Jaunita the maid, collects him and sends him off to get ready for dinner, commenting he's a fine piece of ass, as the business men wait to eat dinner. Billy is having an argument in the shower about if shampoo or conditioner is better (SOUND 3). He crashes the dinner, and yells at Eric when he starts making weird faces at him (SOUND 4). At a burger joint, he laments about getting yelled at, while Eric, Carl, and Brian discuss the future of Madison Hotels. Billy, Frank, and Jack are shown putting dog shit in a bag, and lighting it on fire, laughing at Old Man Clemmons when he steps on it, calling the shit, poop. Back at the house, Brian tells Billy that he's going to give the company to Eric, but Billy objects. Brian explains he paid for Billy to pass throughout his school career, but now regrets it, and he leaves. Billy follows and proposes that he go back to school, first through twelfth grade, two weeks per grade, and if he passes, he gets the company. Eric, of course objects, but Brian takes him up on it.
S:
-I want to know who was in the penguin suit (Chris Mei, his ONLY acting credit on IMDb, apparently now does a weather history podcast...That's all I could find on him).
-The director's assistant posed as one of the Drunk Chicks cover girls.
-Norm McDonald was actually wasted in the scenes where he appears wasted
-Ever done the flaming bag of poop gag to anyone?
-Think you could do first through 12th grade again? No level classes. (If they say yes, ask what a chemistry mole is: a standard scientific unit for measuring large quantities of very small entities such as atoms, molecules, or other specified particles).
The next morning, Billy is ready for school, (SOUND 5) Billy is dropped off, and immediately starts hitting on Veronica Vaughn. Billy joins the first grade class, and Miss Lippy reads the Puppy who lost his way. As she finishes the book, Billy has some issues with the story about the boy finding the fucking dog. They go outside for dodgeball, and he is immediately tagged out by the First Grade O'Doyle (SOUND 6). After an awkward encounter with Miss Lippy, Billy goes back outside and owns the fuck out of the little shits... I mean the kids. At lunch, Billy threatens to beat a kid for his snack pack, and a brief discussion about the best video games. Some back and forth of Billy in first grade, hitting on a mom, Eric saying he wants to get rid of Billy, Billy is endearing himself to the first graders with fart jokes, and hits on Veronica again, asking if she wants some milk (SOUND 7). Billy draws a blue duck and passes first grade. They have a party for Billy and everyone celebrates. Eric has the janitor spying for him. Billy wins a spelling bee in second grade, and passes second grade and another party. Billy is in Veronica Vaughns third grade class, (SOUND 8) and makes a 69 joke. Veronica isn't taking any of his shit when he makes fun of a kid for trying to read (SOUND 9). He complains to Jaunita about Miss Vaughn, who offers to take off her shirt for him. He goes back to school, but runs out when having to write cursive and doesn't want to go back to school, which he does when Jaunita offers to let him help shave her armpits, which he relents and goes to school; Miss Vaughn isn't there and Principal Anderson is substituting and catches a kid passing a note about him, suggesting he walk his fat ass in to traffic... Similarly to what Tuckers high school teacher suggested he do. Billy gets some valentines from Jennifer, Susan, and Principal Anderson, who is apparently horny, again, like Tuckers high school janitor/uncle. Billy is hanging out with Ernie, who he gets to call Veronica and ask her if she'd ever go out with anyone from class, which she says she wouldn't, and Billy accuses him of blowing it. On a field trip, the kids start messing with the Chris Farleys bus driver, and Billy is double dared to touch Veronicas boobs, which he does, and she double dares him to go sit back down. It's cut away to the bus driver throwing a banana peel out the window.
S:
-I love that in the trivia, they talk about how when editing the movie, they had to quickly cut away from the kids being hit with the dodgeball, bc Adam Sandler was throwing it as hard as he could. I also read that some of the parents of the kids got upset with him, too.
-Thoughts on cursive writing? Do you remember how to make a cursive "z"?
-The boob grabbing this today would not fly. Sexual Assault.
-Anyone else find it weird he's hanging out with a third grader?
On the field trip, Veronica is shown to be warming up to Billy, and he continues to hit on her. Frank, Jack and the bus driver have stolen the kids lunches, so they cut the field trip short. Billy sets a terrible example that peeing your pants is cool (SOUND 10); reminding me to ask Chris when he realized he needed to start wearing depends? As they get on the bus, the bus driver has an awkward exchange with Billy about Veronica (SOUND 11), and cut to another party for passing third grade. Veronica shows up and brings Billy some snack packs. Eric schemes who will help him take down Billy, and focuses on Principal Anderson. Billy and Veronica go to his tent, as they're about to kiss, Carl interrupts them and he warns him about Eric. A musical montage of Billy going though 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th grade. He mimes making out and feeling up Veronica. Billy is eating with the third graders, when they're brought sloppy joes by the lunch lady. At Billys 8th grade party, Eric approaches Principal Anderson, blackmailing him about his past as a professional wrestler. Billy pulls up to high school in a Trans-am, totally missing the mid-90's aesthetic, and everyone laughs and scoffs at him. High school O'Doyle welcomes Billy, and he begins to make friends with the old losers, now that he's the new loser... Which reminds me, Tucker, what advice would you give Billy for being THE loser in high school? Billy then goes to see Veronica, and she gives him a bit of a moral lesson about being a loser, and how to treat people; which prompts Billy to make a phone call to Danny McGrath, and he apologizes to him for being a dick in high school. Danny forgives him, and removes Billy from the "People to kill list." He puts on some lipstick and lays down... A news story is then shown where Max gives a press conference saying Billy bribed him to pass him, upsetting Brian, who calls off the deal and Eric gets the company. Billy spirals back out of control and gets wasted. He goes to Veronicas house, but she, weirdly, does not want to go light dog shit on fire, but Billy sees the penguin and knows what's going on there, so he leaves; much like Tucker having a woman pick an imaginary animal over him. Veronica shows up the next day and beats the shit out Billy, telling him she believes in him, and motivates him... in to a song/musical number. (SOUND 12)
S:
-Who would be on your "people to kill" list?
The third graders go to Principal Andersons house, asking who is lying... Which prompts him to retract his statement. Billy, Brian, Carl, and Eric argue about who should get the company; with Eric saying they breached the contract, and he says he'll see them in court. Billy proposes an academic decathlon, and Eric agrees. Billy is getting notes from the high school losers, when his locker is stuffed with horse shit, and O'Doyle rules, and Billy predicts the whole O'Doyle family is going down (SOUND 13). In his tent, Veronica is "helping" Billy study... by taking off her clothes as he gets answers correct. This is another benefit of home schooling, right Tucker? Teacher getting undressed when you get questions right, right? But puts them back on when you get one wrong. A montage of Billy and Eric studying, and Billy finishes studying with the Bus driver helping, by taking off his shirt (SOUND 14). The decathlon begins: Eric completes a large equation, Billy writes that eric drinks his own pee... Probably like the Eric that writes us emails, too. Hard to get clean water in Beauregard, so just recycle what you got, right? Billy bakes a cake, and Erics cake is on fire, then Eric catches fire. They race, and Eric wins, like Trey beating Tucker in a foot race. The musical portion, Eric is good. They do a scene from Hamlet, which Billy out performs. The O'Doyles are shown hitting the previously thrown banana peel, and they all go off a cliff to their deaths, chanting O'Doyle Rules,(SOUND 15) and everyone cheers. The final event, Eric does not choose burning dog poo and the human response as Billy wanted, instead, he chooses Reflections of Society in Literature... Which Billy is to give a discussion on how the industrial revolution changed modern novels, and he gets inspiration from Miss Lippy and the Puppy Who Lost His Way... Fade to Billy ending his speech, and the principal (SOUND 16)... Which is how I feel at the end everyone of Tuckers stories. Billy chooses Business Ethics for Eric to discuss, which he can't, so he pulls a gun and demands a new question. As he's about to shoot Billy, Principal Anderson comes out in his Revolting Blob costume, and stops him; but he gets back up, and is about to shoot Veronica, when he's shot in the ass and we see Danny McGrath with the gun, he gives Billy a thumbs up, and takes off. Billy hugs Veronica and cut to graduation. He gives the company to Carl, he wants to go to college and become a teacher, Max hugs him and tells him he's still horny, Billy gets away and he and Veronica kiss, then everyone else kisses also, Miss Lippy and the Clown, Frank and the lunch lady, the losers and the snot mom, Danny and Jaunita, the bus driver and the penguin. Cut to black. The end.
S:
-The bit where chris farely takes off his shirt... Is that supposed to be real or Billys imagination?
-I find it funny that both Bradley Whitford (Eric) and Larry Hankin (Carl) haven't seen this movie. Whitford, doesn't say why he never saw it, but his brother reported that people routinely shout "Business Ethics" at him. Hankin, is not a fan of the film. He disliked the film because he didn't like the type of humor used in the movie, he didn't find Adam Sandler very appealing as a person (saying he found him too crude as well as immature), and his friend was fired from the movie.
Overall, funny movie, if you like Adam Sandler movies, this one is a classic. It's shallow, basic, but still funny in a sophomoric way. Even Adam Sandler himself said, "Billy's the closest I've come to playing myself."
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