Billy Madison

It succeeds as a reasonably smart no-brainer. If you've ever had a yen to relive the third grade, this must be the next best thing.

A more kid-friendly version of "Dumb and Dumber." And there's even a moral: "Yahoo for education," though the movie doesn't really put any muscle behind it.

By the end, you feel like a drill sergeant-you want to wipe that stupid grin off Sandler's face.

Sandler mugs through a back-to-school daze. [13 February 1995, p.D1]

Okay, a couple of sniggers sneak out, but on the whole the effect is stone cold.

Billy Madison is so singularly stupid that "Dumb and Dumber" looks (almost) like a beacon of braininess and taste in comparison.

One of the most execrable movies ever made. [6 March 1995, p.100]

The movie was one of the best comedy movies ever made, period. This movie is still funny today, regardless of cheesy acting and randomness in the film. At least it somewhat had a plot and was successful at being funny, which was it's main purpose. I frigging learned about Hamlet though this movie and witnessed one of the best scenes in a movie, Billy Madison's final speech in the "marathon", or whatever it was called. Anyways, 10/10

Born in the heart of SNL's goofball idiot comedy golden age, Adam Sandler's first major starring vehicle lands somewhere near the middle of the pack. The premise, of an immature adult who goes back to speed run his primary education, serves as nothing more than a thin vehicle to move from one throwaway sight gag to the next. To its credit, it never has any illusions about evolving into something bigger. Instead, Billy Madison sticks with its bread and butter; a series of skits that would've been right at home on a particularly brainless Saturday night episode, while dedicating as little time as possible to furthering the plot. Fortunately, many of the jokes and puns are still genuinely funny, although the ratio between those that kill and those that go down in flames is awfully low. A few great one-liners from this one still pop up in my vocabulary today, but not with anywhere near the frequency of the best moments from Wayne's World or Tommy Boy. Like Ace Ventura, it hasn't aged spectacularly but I can think of worse ways to kill ninety minutes.

Billy Madison has inspired moments of lunacy, but doesn't exactly live up to classics like Wayne's World or Austin Powers. There is one good thing though: This is nothing compared to what Sandler will make later in his career.

Young Sandler. This one just hasn't aged as well as his other stuff. Still somewhat enjoyable, but nowhere close to his top 5.

Billy Madison doesn’t really work for me. The story is predictable, the humor feels forced, and the tone jumps between normal moments and exaggerated cartoon silliness. The cameos don’t add much, and most of them come from actors who don’t really bring anything memorable.Adam Sandler’s performance feels like overacting rather than genuine comedy. As a kids movie it might be fun, since the whole thing plays like a loud child’s fantasy, but as a comedy for adults it ends up feeling flat and pretty dull.