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9
17
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53
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66
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45
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61
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55
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43
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66
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29
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23
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80
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61
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xx
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30
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34
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60
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32
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27
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41
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39
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46
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73
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78
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55
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66
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69
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58
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47
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66
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34
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33
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54
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67
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51
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42
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28
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63
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86
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35
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48
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30
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53
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24
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83
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33
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45
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55
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47
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96
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35
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28
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88
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71
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67
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28
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73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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96
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56
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78
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72
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76
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86
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13
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70
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26
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57
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45
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xx
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75
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67
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85
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56
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62
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74
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49
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80
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28
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xx
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50
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25
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50
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58
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72
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89
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52
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66
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81
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xx
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63
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73
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xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
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94
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29
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16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
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61
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42
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70
It Might Get Loud
46
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19
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xx
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41
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41
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66
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34
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80
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83
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xx
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59
More Than a Game
67
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34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
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48
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73
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66
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47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
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68
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68
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44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
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76
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69
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79
Serious Man, A
40
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61
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77
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xx
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46
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39
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89
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50
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55
Storm
65
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70
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72
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61
Trucker
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83
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66
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66
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70
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67
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69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
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xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Waterboy, The
EMAILPRINTBuena Vista Pictures

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 21 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 18 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by:
Tim Herlihy
Adam Sandler
Directed by: Frank Coraci
Release Date:
Theatrical: November 6, 1998
DVD: June 3, 2003
Running Time: 90 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for language and some crude sexual humor
Starring Adam Sandler, Kathy Bates, Fairuza Balk, Henry Winkler, Jerry Reed, Larry Gilliard Jr., Blake Clark, and Peter Dante
Just an oddball mama's boy from the back bayous of Louisiana, Bobby Boucher (Sandler) never wanted anything more than to quench the thirst of the dehydrated athletes who treat him like dirt! But when Coach Klein (Winkler) makes the call that allows Bobby to finally stand up for himself, it unleashes a torrent of bottled-up frustration ... and exposes a talent for tackling that transforms him from a meek "water distribution engineer" into the hardest hitter ever to roam the gridiron! (Buena Vista Entertainment)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Around the World in 80 Days Click The Wedding Singer
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Arguably Sandler's most enjoyable motion picture to date, but it's still far from a masterpiece.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Rita Kempley
The Perrier of dumb-and-dumber movies, an effervescent idiot's delight that burbles from the wellspring of silliness inside star Adam Sandler's head.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
This escapist comedy is so cheerfully outlandish that it's hard to resist, and so good-hearted that it's genuinely endearing.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
No one does deranged quite like Kathy Bates (the film's running gag involving Bates and the delicacies of Cajun cuisine is hilarious).
Read Full Review >Variety Glenn Lovell
This yahoos-on-the-bayou farce is neither inventive nor outrageous enough.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
It's not "Billy Madison," quite, but The Waterboy is still pure Sandler. If you like that sort of thing.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) John Haslett Cuff
As a satire on the only true religion of the American South -- football -- The Waterboy is a delight.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack
An unabashed wallow in the moronic humor of Adam Sandler.
Read Full Review >USA Today Susan Wloszczyna
As funny as it can be, this underdawg comedy isn't much more than Sandler's golf-oriented "Happy Gilmore" with a Cajun accent. [6 November 1998, p. 10E]
Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Another film about . . . a cretinous, grating loser.
Read Full Review >Empire Caroline Westbrook
Perfectly watchable, undemanding fun, but you can't help thinking that a slightly darker tone would have gone a very long way.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
Geek-triumphs-after-all comedies can be charming, but in this one the triumphing begins so early it's hard to feel for the geek.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
Of course it's dumb, but every 10 minutes or so, it's also pretty funny.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times John Anderson
Follows a leadenly predictable path that will be more than familiar to anyone who's seen a recent sports movie, or any Sandler movie.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Joshua Klein
A mess of bad timing, bad jokes, and bad ideas so lame that even Sandler's idiot man-child mugging can't enliven the proceedings.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News David Kehr
Working a lisping Southern accent that sounds like Truman Capote on Seconal, Sandler plays Bobby Boucher, a swamp-dwelling Cajun. [6 November 1998, p. 56]
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Sandler is making a tactical error when he creates a character whose manner and voice has the effect of fingernails on a blackboard, and then expects us to hang in there for a whole movie.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
[Anonymous] gave it a10:
I rarely enjoy stupid movies, I watch a film looking at it from a critics perspective, but this film broke me from that, I laughed from the beginning to end its genius.
[Anonymous] gave it a10:
Adam Sandler in this movie is friggin' awesome
Roma M gave it a10:
Brilliant movie! Must be one of the best Adam Sandlers film for sure! Don't listen to critics,this movie is really really funny!
Sam M. gave it a10:
Forget the critics, this is an awesome comedy. Sandler at his best!
Steve gave it a2:
predictable tripe. i can't recall any time that i laughed - not because the jokes weren't funny; just because the punchline was just so obvious.
Bit Burn gave it a9:
Forget the critics, this is an awesome comedy. Sandler at his best!
[Anonymous] gave it an8:
Now this is comedy. The Medulla oblongata part was genius.
