The Reel Rejects - BILLY MADISON (1995) MOVIE REVIEW!! FIRST TIME WATCHING!!

Episode Date: May 26, 2024

T-T-TODAY, JUNIOR!! Visit https://www.asteproallergy.com/ to Save on Allergy Relief! Billy Madison Full Movie Reaction Watch Along:  https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects With reports of a Happy Gilmore 2 on the horizon, John & Aaron Alexander return to give their First Time Reaction, Commentary, Breakdown, & Full Movie Review for the wacky '90s comedy starring Adam Sandler (Happy Gilmore, Grown Ups, 50 First Dates) along with Bridgette Wilson (Mortal Kombat, Last Action Hero, I know What You Did Last Summer), Bradley Whitford (Get Out, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The West Wing), & Darren McGavin (A Christmas Story, Kolchak: The Night Stalker) + appearances from Norm MacDonald & Chris Farley (Saturday Night Live), Steve Buscemi (Fargo, The Big Lebowski), Robert Smigel (Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, You Don't Mess with the Zohan), & MORE! John & Aaron react to all the Funniest Scenes & Most Hilarious Moments including Billy Mocks a Third Grader, Billy Has a Cursive Problem, Billy Pees His Pants, Billy at Dinner, Billy's a Loser at High School, Billy's Musical, The Academic Decathlon, & Beyond!! Where does this land among the likes of Big Daddy, The Waterboy, That's My Boy, & Beyond? Let's find out! Follow Aaron On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealaaronalexander/?hl=en Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Music Used In Manscaped Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's a nasal allergy spray that I've been a loyal customer to for quite some time now. Tell you more about them and just a little bit, Reject Nation. Got anything you want to let the people know before we billy it up? I don't even know what this movie's about at all. I haven't just known his name. I'm ready to Billy on with some Madison. Ready to Billy our Madison's. Let's do this thing.

do the thing you get the shirts look at us I got a shirt he got a shirt we got these shirts too beautiful you know we got nipple chills we got we got bad jokes we get crude language we got the classic tickets right here we also got a whole bunch of other stuff we just got a brand new x-men inspired tea yeah yeah yeah the x-men 97 inspired tea we got the brand new super marvel brothers tea we got the Dr. Who tea is coming back. We got the Space Babies. We got the Who influences the influencers. The classic Rio Reject's logo variations.

We got a whole bunch of things. We're finding those things. Yeah. If you want to go over to Rejectnationshop.com, that's where you can be finding all those things. You can drip yourself out and support the channel all in one fell swoop. We appreciate it. We appreciate it greatly.

Appreciate you. You're thebom.com. Oh, thebom. net. dot org. You're the bomb.gov. Government organization. Aaron.

What did you think of Billy Madison? Oh. Before you, tell me what you thought, leave us your thoughts as in the form of a rating. If you're watching, listening to this on Apple or Spotify, we're getting there. My brain has been thoroughly

liquefied by those movies. So we're going to, yeah. How does you feel about Billy Madison? it was an experience. It's definitely an experience. You know. Yeah. Adam Sandler is all the way Sandlered up in this movie. He's probably the most unhinged we've ever seen him in in the movies we've watched. Unbridled Sandler. Unbridled Sandler in his 90s career. It was, it was wacky. It was unhinged. For me, it had moments of of humor that were really piqued to my personal sensibilities. And they had

you know I like the overall theme like you know this this kid who's there's man child who's kind of immature who then kind of immature just kind of you know just a little bit sorry I'm not ignoring you I'm Googling Tamara Davis because that was going to drive me insane very offended no I'm sorry no we're watching stuff we're talking me and you me and him we're all we're all in conversation we're all here and anyway what I was saying is that I it was all right this appeals to your sensibility as an immature young man

Yeah, 100%. No, I'm gonna keep it a stack. This is not my favorite Adam Sandler movie. Oh, what? Why not? Why not? You know, I think I just like... Give the people something to comment on.

Give the people a thing. Hit me, hit me, the best shot. I thought it, look, I would say it had its moments that did make me laugh. Okay. You know, it had its fun to it. But I think ultimately, a lot of his humor did not hit for me on this one. I know John was having a hoot and a hollering and having a good time. I was hollering.

I think it was just a little too random for me. And I just have a hard, as much, as much as I enjoy Adam Sandler being his goofball self, I did have a hard time buying the love interest, like with how insane it is. Why? It's just, it doesn't make, it doesn't compute in my brain. It's the transition there. It's ridiculous. There was so many scenes that we've seen.

I know, so many scenes of just. All those times I was sitting here going, could we skip past this romantic comedy subplot? They're way, they're going to. Too granular on the character growth here, all right? I don't need to hear these entire characters' life stories. You got to mean? I know what you mean. I just.

Tamara Davis directed, half-baked as well as something else there. I've never seen half-baked. Well, you crossroads, Britney Spears. Hell yeah. Let's go. I know what that is. You, what is your life even, man? I don't even know.

I'm all over the place. I like, like, we watch a few here. my old Johnny boy and I So I like to have a Madison Big Daddy I liked Love love wedding I mean happy Gilmore

Don't get the people confused What did I say Oh we watched Madison is the yeah You're right oh yeah I flipped the title Happy Madison is the production company Billy Madison is this movie Yes okay

The fusion of the two But yeah I like I liked happy Happy Gilmore And Big Daddy and Wedding singer But yeah Out of those four This is probably my least a favorite, but it did have moments of humor that did make me laugh. I do like, I think,

I like random humor. I think I, as far as like, I've had to pick a favorite type of humor for me personally. It's like absurdist humor. And this was more random slapsticky, which I do like slapstick. I just, I don't know. Something about it wasn't, uh, was not hidden for me consistently. But it did have its moments, like I said towards the end of the movie where it was like, that was the, you made everyone in this room dumber. Like that was. That was probably the funniest thing in this movie. That's how you felt about the entire movie. Yeah, and just, I was like, you know, I understand like not everything in humor in movies

is going to make sense. But I think the fact that he was, was he like, was he like schizophrenic? Was he on drugs? Like, I don't know. I was confused. I'm still confused. The internal logic and rules of this movie are not the clearest element. Like, I don't need, I don't need a movie.

I don't need a movie to play to like our real world logic. but I need a movie to have some sort of foundation of its own logic. Sure. And I feel like this movie never did that or committed to that. And we'd have random bits or we'd like re... It's definitely freewheeling and fast and loose in those departments. Yeah, it feels like they just kind of like put it together.

And it's like there's parts where like we're having information that's like we already know that's also restated to us. But also the fact that, well, I will say it was another positive. I really liked the guy who played Eric. I thought he was really funny and he really Bradley Whitford yeah Bradley Whitford yeah he really had to get out he wasn't that that was him that's him

yeah blew my mind looks so different oh yeah he's all over the place now holy crap yeah wow blew my mind but yeah like the stuff of money I thought was cool that was really out of pocket that's a requisite Adam Sandler trope I feel like is it's either like the old lady or the maid or somebody around who's like unlikely to be super into him and and like aroused by him yeah and everybody wanted to to get at him yeah it was you know it was definitely entertaining i was never bored during the movie for sure um yeah just not my

particular cup of tea had its moments but overall was not my favorite okay well let me earn the people back erin the people back uh i mean certainly this is not exactly the kind of comedy that I pick like first out of a lineup I'm torn because I do really enjoy you know blunt force absurdity as this

presented it anyway in that like I started to enjoy the movie partly because of the fact that I'm like I'm disoriented and I have a feeling that they don't really they don't not that they don't care too much but just like the focus would not

be on creating consistent rules for or clarity for certain gags. I feel like, yeah, they are kind of relying on the fact that this is a bit random. You're going to fill in the blanks yourself and we're going to get as madcap and as wild as possible. And yeah, like, it's predicated on being super juvenile. And this is the kind of movie, too, where, like, you know, it reveals itself and it calms down ever so slightly as it goes along.

Like, I could see somebody starting this. And if this really isn't your vibe, like being off put within like five minutes. because like, you know, the way you meet Billy is so just like overboard with, yeah, you're just like, what is this guy? What's going on with this dude? And, you know, they allude to it every once in a while or like auxiliary characters will comment about like, what's wrong with this guy? But yeah, it's like, it's hard to tell if he's like, you know, if he actually is mentally a child to that degree or if he's just, you know, drunk and never. ever had to take responsibility, if he's just, yeah, like, drunk and partied up and, you know, on whatever drugs, I assume he has access to as well, versus, yeah, just being, I don't know, I think all of that is kind of in the salad. It's like, yes, he's had everything handed to him. He's benefited from the most extreme privilege you could imagine, you know, he's been

scooted through all of his schooling up till now via money, and, you know, certainly he can afford to hang and get wasted all day. So I feel like it is all those things. It's like, you know, truly a person who's just never, ever been challenged, really, and who had the means to, yeah, I mean, this level of analysis is more than I think the movie is begging for. Like on paper, the concept of someone who's a man child who has a responsibility that they have to live up to and have to go back to school to reteach them what it means to be mature. Like, on paper, that simple concept, I think is cool. I like it.

I think it was just the way that it was executed that didn't work entirely for me. This feels really, of a lot of movies, not every Adam Sandler movie feels to me like a live action cartoon, but this one really, really did feel like I was watching something that was like inspired by cartoon energy. Because like every time, like I genuinely got a kick out of, in a sort of meadow kind of way, because it's just so on the know. Every time you cut to Bradley Whitford, he's just in his office,

sniveling, turning his head dramatically like, I gotta, I must find a way to end him, you know, and like that, you know, it was silly in a way that, that, yeah, like, charmed me at least. And then, you know, you get the endearing bits where like he's actually warming up to some of the kids. And there are enough, I guess what I enjoyed about this experience was partly that there were enough of these moments that were able to sort of dangle in this weird in-between space of like, I get what the joke is, but I also can't tell if this was in the script or

if this was just some random thrown out their bit that someone decided to do and then they committed to it and then there are these moments and beats where they decide to like be thoughtful real quick like whenever it was I don't know why when everyone's going into the decathlon and you just hold on that shot of the

high school administrator guy with the wife just standing there as everybody walks in just kind of like you know looking like he's kind of looking forward to this and hopeful and I'm just like this is such a weird weird beat to include you know and it's just like it's just a weird little character thing and uh and yeah you have darren mcgavin is his name as the dad who you know just kind of like neat to see him and like

the they did a good enough job selling me at the right times of like why would he even agree to this weird little wager but the way the actual like i kind of forgotten about the hook of the movie until it came up and i feel like they handled that gradually enough where billy comes up with the idea and it's sort of the first spark of him taking any kind of initiative towards anything when he's like hey, if I can go through and I can pass all these courses, you know, maybe then I can inherit the company. And then, you know, going for that ending of like, he doesn't even really want that. We all know. It's just that this guy's such a jerk that he shouldn't have it. So, yeah, I mean, like, I don't know exactly at this moment where I would rank it in terms of

Sandler's because I feel like the spectrum has gone from like some of them feel like more of a, you know, quintessential, like some of the ones we watch seem like they're also trying to pitch Sandler as like a leading man for a more direct romantic comedy or something like that, whereas this is full on like SNL, wild character man stuff. And so, you know, I, again, for that level of energy, this is kind of like the thing I think about from back in the day when I would think about what I might be repelled by for Adam Seller because it is so predicated on mugging. It's just like lots and lots of mugging. And like it definitely took me a minute to start enjoying everything that was happening

but I guess I was always amused by how off center I felt almost immediately and at all times like off balance I felt asked a pro and go it's faster bro ladies and gentlemen

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I heavily vouched to them, Reject Nation. Give them a shot. Thank you. This is the first time we watched the Adam Sandler movie, and I don't know this is a really popular movie. I know people grew up on this. It's one. Yeah. So I'd be curious to see where people rank it among his classics.

Yeah. I'm sorry. I know. I'm not going to speak for John. I don't speak for myself. I'm sorry that I'm, I didn't love it, guys. But I will say, it felt like somebody didn't tell Adam Sandler no at any point. And they're just like, yeah, do whatever, man. It feels like all of the movie was shot around him. Yeah. Yeah. And then just like that the finale just felt kind of like, it felt like they were writing the movie as they were filming. in and they're just like, ah, what are we going to do for now? Like, all he's going to pull out a gun and the guy's going to come wrestle. And then the guy came is going to shoot him, even though he's going to, he originally wanted to kill Adam Sandler. And I was like, what is going on?

I mean, granted, it was funny. It was like, it was wild. It's weird and wild. But it felt like off the cuff as hell. Yeah, the way, and I mean, I got a kick out of it, but the way certain characters are reacting to that versus others is kind of silly. And again, in the madcap wildness of the rest of the, it's that thing. where every moment feels

like a spontaneous decision and so like the reactions to that are fitting it's like he pulls out the gun and it feels just like I don't know and then this happens next maybe it wasn't even in the script I'm sure that was in the script but it didn't feel like a moment that was quite

essentially in the script so you have like the guy moderating who looks kind of fine the whole time and then you've got Sandler who only takes it seriously when he actually cocks the gun and it's a really big exaggerated you know like dirty hairy looking gun for his dirty, hairy-ass haircut, you know? And just like, yeah, I don't know.

It's one of those movies where I think the lines are less defined between, like, I feel like some of these have Adam Sandler as the big eccentric character, and then everyone else is around him reacting and whatnot. And certainly there are broader characters. His friends are usually broader. And here, like, I was kind of tickled by the fact that, again, we cut back to Norm McDonald and the other guy, you know, or we cut back to certain characters

like literally just for like here's a quick comic strip of these two and then we're moving on you know like so yeah it felt like reading comic strips or it felt like like watching cartoons or something like that Josh Mustel the guy who played principal Anderson who was also

a big daddy like I thought he had a nice you know like I appreciate his presence as like a character actor like everyone's bringing a different level of like earnestness to these roles except for maybe a Sandler who is like like, again, going off the charts mugging. But yeah, yeah, I feel like we ultimately, like, had a similar experience reacting to similar

stimuli. And then it's just a matter of, like, for me, it was so blunt force and just so much that, like, even the stuff that was not funny took on some kind of, it just added to the absurdity for me. So I got swept up in that. I feel like the absurdity. And I think Andrew Gordon was just here shooting before we shot this. And he mentioned, like, you know, something offhand that I didn't really consider. at the time. He was like, you know, he's got a really absurd sense of humor. And I see that

now very clearly. Bushemi, though. MVP, love that bit. We just saw him in something else in what we were watching. I won't spoil it in case that video's not out yet, but we just saw him in something else where he is, again, kind of separate, separated a bit from the main cast, and he's just always so dedicated. Like, he always shows. No, me and Andrew watched. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Something a little bit more action-oriented. But, yeah, he's just always so, committed and like there's something about him we're like even in these earlier movies and these more comedic movies I see him and I'm like

man that guy's special he's special presence he's very diverse he's very special so yeah this was this was wild and bonkers and I don't know how I would like critically assess it but I certainly laughed a lot I enjoyed the ride

this is a movie where I would say I enjoyed the ride I'll have to go back and think some more on how I feel about it as just an actual movie I laughed, I was perplexed, and I don't regret watching it, and I was never bored. Nope. There you go. Those are put that on the poster.

Yeah, exactly. For this kind of movie, it could have gone much worse, you know, because if this kind of movie was either boring or like, this could easily become grading and tedious. And thankfully, I don't think we dip too far for me into that. But again, I'll say it went by really fast. It was a very fast pace. Definitely. And, and hey, we'll do a little trivia before we hop. on out of here because big props

to Chris Farley. It was fun to see him in something like this from the era of his heyday again. Chris Farrell. During the school bus scene, Chris Farley turning bright, red and aggravation was improvised according to Sandler in IM Chris Farley, 2015. Chris, before every scene would chug entire cups of

espresso to maintain his trademark manic energy. I think he would do in pretty much every movie since... Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Poor guy. That's a lot. A cup of espresso? Oh. Oh, okay. here's a good one. Adam Sandler said of the title character,

Billy's the closest I've come to playing myself. That's lovely. Okay. That's beautiful. During the dodge ball scene, Adam Sandler hit kids with the dodge ball as hard as he possibly could. Yeah. The editor had to cut away after each hit so that he didn't show the children crying.

What? Yeah. It looked like hard. It looked like he was hitting him really hard. What? I was like, oh, okay. I don't think they'd get away with that today, but Jesus Christ.

I thought they would have like, slightly undercranked that or something like i'm sure he would have hit them him on those kids i'm sure he would have hit them good but not hard enough for crying of course he was hit them in the back in the stomach and the head wow i wonder what days on set during this were like that was a real bradley their parents agreed to this though hey you know i guess if that's the worst thing your parents agreed too dubiously for you in hollywood maybe you got off easy Bradley Whitford

Never actually saw the film After it was released But according to his brother People would often shout Business Ethics Reference to the scene Where his character is challenged And that was a scene

I thought was very funny Because obviously it's dumb It's right in your face And he's so unethical He can't even bullshit About business ethics He's so nervous about He's gonna shit his pants

He's just stammering It's nothing to say. Norm McDonnell was drunk in the scene where his character is wasted. That's great. That's just called method acting. That's what we like to see. That's what we like to see. When Billy Madison apologized to Danny McGrath for being mean to him in high school,

Danny Cross Billy's name off the kill list. The other eight people left are all crew members of the movie. I thought that might be the case. Oh, good. Oh, good. Here's one about that scene in the, the decathlon. And his famous insult that the academic decathlon judge gives to Billy after giving his speech. He tells him, everyone, quote, in this room is now dumber for having listened to it.

At Saturday Night Live, Jim Downey would often say to Chris Farley, say that to Chris Farley whenever he pitch sketches in writers. Oh, my God. Hell yeah. And this also confirms, though he co-wrote the script, Adam Sandler also ad-libbed a lot of his performance. Director Tamara Davis said it was important to let Adam be Adam. and I think that absolutely comes across in this. And let's see, Tamara Davis was not actually the original director either, which is interesting. Stephen Kessler, whom the studio had hired at Sandler's request originally began the film.

But after three days on set, he was fired for having trouble getting good comedic material out of Sandler and running behind schedule. They brought in Universal brought in Davis after they liked her work on previous films she did with them. the Chris Rock Comedy CB4 from 1993. When she took over, she brought her own DP, but the most of the original crew remained. One scene not directed by Davis

was the exposition scene in which Billy attending a new grade every two weeks was discussed. Damn. So like a pivotal moment in the movie. Yeah. Charles Bronson turned down the role of Billy Madison's father, which

that would just be that's just been funny to see because it'd be a totally different vibe. Well, all right. Gang, gang, gang. And I guess to close it out, yes. I was being, I couldn't, I don't know if you could tell.

I was being sarcastic before. The romance did come right out of nowhere. They literally do just go like, she likes him now. You know, she spent a day with him, so now she likes him. But you know what? Props to Bridget Wilson.

I feel like we would have seen her a lot during this era as well, and she was quite charming as the romantic lead. She was Sodea Blade in the 1995 Moral Combat. And she voiced her in Mortal Kombat 11, too. Dude, look at that. See, and they were talking about moral combat in the movie. The kids were talking about Mortal Kombat in that one scene.

Easter egg for you guys. Anyway, why did you think Juanita was the best character? Leave your comments down below. Leave us your thoughts on the movie, where you would rank this among the other Adam Sandler's in the pantheon and uh yeah any other thoughts you might have what's your favorite scene in the movie every one of these questions i want to answer in fact answer some of the questions from the classroom sequences whatever you got we'll check it out and uh we'll catch you on the next one

much love party people cheers gabriel hey bud gabriel sometimes i just say people's names and then i go something's going to come out of my brain and i'm going to nail it it's going to And that's what's happening right now. Gabriel, get ready. Nothing prepared for you before going in. May 224. Once I started talking, I was like, it's going to come out of me. Shout out you're about to speak from the heart.

I can't even begin to describe it. Words are going to be vomiting about what his inspirations were before he was going to say. I had to write it down and a no-pad it. But he was like, hey, I was like, there's a stream of consciousness thoughts. I locked myself in a room based on all the things I didn't know about him. And I started to weave. It had to be like decoded. I grew a long beard, long hair.

Because I was just so. It was just scribed all over the, it was like, there was numbers involved. I felt just hearing about this. A astrologist involved. We had to get a mathematician. And they were like, we don't quite understand what it means. You're going to see. Bam, hot young, leading lady.

She had an aha moment. She said, wait a moment. What she did was, she had a, she had a cup of coffee. She put it. down. It's going to be like radical. She's like, come on. Then she moved it. It's just like, I get it. And they're like, what do you mean? And they're like, give me a minute. Bam, she figured out what the shout out was. And then you're going to realize what life is all about. That's what this shout out is. Coming at you.

Coming at you right now.