Billy Madison

Billy Madison
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Tamra Davis
Produced by	Robert Simonds
Written by	Adam Sandler Tim Herlihy
Starring	Adam Sandler Bradley Whitford Bridgette Wilson Norm Macdonald Darren McGavin
Music by	Randy Edelman
Cinematography	Victor Hammer
Editing by	John Gilroy Jeffrey Wolf
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	February 10, 1995 (1995-02-10)
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$10 million
Box office	$26,488,734

Billy Madison is a 1995 American comedy film directed by Tamra Davis. It stars Adam Sandler in the title role, along with Bradley Whitford, Bridgette Wilson, Norm Macdonald and Darren McGavin. The film was written by Sandler and Tim Herlihy, and produced by Robert Simonds. It made over $26.4 million worldwide and debuted at #1. The film is about a slacker (Billy Madison) who must go back to school in order to take over his father's company. The comedy also features Chris Farley and Steve Buscemi with uncredited appearances.

Plot

Billy Madison (Adam Sandler), a 28-year-old heir to a wealthy father, has spent his entire life reaping the benefits of his family's hotel chain, Madison Hotels, a Fortune 500 company. He spends his days drinking with best friends, Jack (Josef Fritzy Fritzl) and Frank (Norm Macdonald), and creating disasters across his father's estate.

One day, Billy ruins a dinner meeting between his father, Brian (Darren McGavin), and his associates by behaving obnoxiously after being provoked by Eric Gordon (Bradley Whitford), Brian's executive vice-president who openly expresses his hatred towards Billy and secretly harbors hatred towards Brian as well and impatiently waits to become Brian's successor as head of Madison Hotels. This prompts Brian to lose any remaining faith in Billy, as he chooses the conniving Eric to become the next CEO of the company. When Billy, who despises Eric in return, protests that he can be responsible, Brian reveals that he secretly bribed all of Billy's school teachers in order for him to pass. Billy begs his father to reconsider his decision. The two finally come to a compromise: Billy must pass elementary, middle, and high school (grades 1-12) on his own 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 third grade teacher named Veronica Vaughn (Bridgette Wilson), who initially is disgusted with Billy and finds his enrollment to be a distraction for the other students. He eventually finds himself as one of Veronica's students and earns her respect by defending Ernie (Jared Cook), his friend and classmate. Billy becomes popular among the third graders and begins to miss them as he advances through school.

When Billy reaches ninth grade, he finds that rather than being the cool guy that everyone looks up to, he is now considered a loser; realizing how it feels to be on the receiving end of bullying, he calls up an old classmate, Danny McGrath (Steve Buscemi), and apologizes for the way he treated him in high school. Danny accepts his apology, and crosses his name off a list of people to kill.

Billy's progress frustrates and alarms Eric, leading him to take the offensive while Billy struggles in high school. He visits Billy's grade school principal, Max Anderson (Josh Mostel), and threatens to go public with his hidden past as a professional wrestler that is filled with controversial incidents, especially a particular one back in 1983, when Max accidentally caused the death of another man while performing a stunt, all of which could spell the end of Max's career in education. Coerced, Max publicly states he took bribes from Billy in return for passing him.

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 and others come to Billy's aid, convincing him to keep fighting Eric. His grade school friends helps Billy's plight by visiting Max at his home and convincing him to retract his previous statements.

With Billy's name cleared, Brian and Carl Alphonse (Larry Hankin), a loyal, long-time employee of Madison Hotels, argue to Eric that Billy deserves another chance, but Eric disagrees and finally shows his true colors by disrespecting Brian in front of the group and threatens to file a lawsuit. Billy challenges Eric to an academic decathlon 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. Eric chooses "reflections of society in literature" as Billy's topic. Billy uses a book that was read to him in the first grade to answer the question, but the judge calls his answer "insanely idiotic" and gives Billy no points for his answer. With scores still the same, Eric is given the chance to answer and potentially win. However, Billy chooses a question for Eric about "business ethics", which ironically Eric knows nothing about and breaks down because he can't give an answer. Refusing to admit defeat, he brandishes a gun at Billy. Max, clad in his wrestling outfit, subdues Eric. The attack fails to keep Eric down and laughing maniacally, he makes a final attempt to get revenge on Billy by turning his gun on Veronica. Suddenly, Danny McGrath appears with a high-powered rifle and defeats Eric by firing a single shot into his buttocks. Danny and Billy share a quick wave, before he departs.

At Billy's graduation, he announces that he is passing the hotel business down to Carl and will instead attend college with hopes of becoming a teacher. He and Veronica share a kiss and the film ends.

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
• Jim Downey as Principal/Judge of the "Decathlon"
• Hrant Alianak as Pete
• Vincent Marino as Cook
• Robert Smigel as Mr. Oblaski
• Chris Farley as Bus Driver (uncredited)
• Steve Buscemi as Danny McGrath (uncredited)

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. On the film review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, it received a 45% review by critics and a 79% rating by audience, with a consensus review of "Billy Madison is typical early immature fare from Adam Sandler, even if it finds moments of inspired lunacy.". Peter Rainer of the Los Angeles Times commented; "Sandler has a bad habit of thinking he is funnier than we do." On At the Movies, Siskel and Ebert gave the film thumbs down, and Roger Ebert said of Sandler, "... Not an attractive screen presence, he might have a career as a villain or a fall guy or the butt of a joke, but as the protagonist his problem is he creates the fingernails on the blackboard." Gene Siskel added "... you don't have a good motivation for the character's behavior." Rotten Tomatoes reports that based on the 38 reviews counted, 45% of critics gave the film a positive review. On Metacritic, the film has a rare score of 16 based on 13 reviews.

Box Office

Billy Madison debuted at No.1

Awards and nominations

Nominated

• MTV Movie Award
  • Adam Sandler - Best Comedic Performance

Songs featured in the film

• "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" by Culture Club
• "Beat on the Brat" by The Ramones
• "ABC" by The Jackson 5
• "The Stroke" by Billy Squier
• "Telephone Line" by Electric Light Orchestra
• "Renegade" by Styx

External links

• Billy Madison at AllRovi
• Billy Madison at the Internet Movie Database
• Billy Madison at the TCM Movie Database