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
