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With the release of this weekend’s sheer awful-looking Jack and Jill, it is not hard to see why Adam Sandler’s reputation of hilarious comedy is losing its sheen. Sure, there is a lot of goodwill given to him from his previous comedies. I have watched Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, and Anger Management countless times. The problem is, the most recent one of these films was released eight years ago. Between then and now, Sandler’s films have been mainly mediocre at best (the average rating of his starring-films since Anger Management on Rotten Tomatoes is 36%).

With one of the most shudder-inducing trailers and posters in recent memory, I’d be surprised if Jack and Jill becomes certified fresh on Rottentomatoes.com. But who knows? Maybe it will be good – after all, I was surprised to find a press screening invite in my inbox last week for it.

There seems to be no rhyme or reason to my liking of Adam Sandler flicks. I hated Grown Ups with a passion, but enjoyed Just Go With It. I couldn’t wait to click Click out of the DVD player, but I have seen You Don’t Mess With the Zohan more than once. So, when it comes to seeing Sandler films, I am always surprised with the outcome.

Today’s column is about another Sandler release this very weekend 13 years ago, and was his first hundred million dollar (and still one of his highest-grossing) hit – The Waterboy.

Unlike Sandler’s other earlier films that I seem to watch perennially one way or another, I cannot remember the last time I saw The Waterboy (although my “7” rating on IMDb means that I liked it at some point).

A once constantly quoted comedy (“Colonel Saunders!”), The Waterboy seems to have faded away in terms of popularity outside of Sandler-fandom, especially after his other football themed comedy, The Longest Yard (fun fact: these are the second and third highest-grossing football-themed movies ever besides The Blind Side).

Sandler plays the socially inept water boy, Bobby Boucher. A water enthusiast, Boucher comes from Jackson Bay, Louisiana, “The Heart of Cajun Country” as the welcome sign reads. Living in the sticks and driving a lawnmower instead of a car (as you can see, we aren’t dealing with sophisticated humor here), the film starts with Bobby getting fired from a championship football team and winding up with a team of college losers as their water boy.

When the coach (Henry Winkler) finds Bobby to have unexpected strength, he makes him a part of the team and introduces Bobby to a world of college education. However, don’t expect any Pygmalion transformations here. Sandler’s Bobby Boucher is so annoying with a grating voice and incessant idiocy that you can’t help but feel that he is just trying to be hated.

The Waterboy does have its fair share of laughs but they aren’t raunchy enough to be hard-hitting or sweet enough to have a replay value. Instead, the film is a weird hodgepodge of gross-out jokes that never knows if it is coming or going.

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