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Going Overboard




Going Overboard, 1989

Schecky (Adam Sandler) is a waiter aboard a cruise ship who dreams of being the ship's stand-up comedian. As he watches the ship's hack comedian (Scott LaRose) inexplicably wow the passengers, Schecky tries to find an opportunity to showcase his talents.

Right off the bat, Sandler breaks the fourth wall to tell us, hey, we had this cruise ship and some cash, so we made this thing.

Does this context make the film less bad? LOL, no. But does it make it easier to watch? Kind of yes.

Everyone is acting on the same level, which is to say three notches above tolerable. But despite this it manages to be vaguely watchable. Dickie the comedian and a character called Croaker (Adam Rifkin) are both pretty gross and odious, but everyone else is mostly fine.

Did the movie get any real laughs out of me? Yes. The running gag of Sandler's shirt changing every time he left and reentered the frame during the final sequence was stupid but dare I say kind of fun? I also liked Billy Zane playing Neptune giving Schecky a snarky booty bump before stalking away. And the line delivery of "You hear that, Miss Australia?! You're dead!"

The offensive elements are definitely there, but none of them are executed with enough rancor to make them really painful. There's some half-hearted ogling of the ship's female passengers (most of whom are international beauty pageant contestants). There's a subplot about South American terrorists (one of whom is also Islamic?!) that's just too dumb to take seriously. And honestly the two actors look like they're having tremendous fun and their decision to make them more of a squabbling gay couple takes the sting out of their portrayal.

It's weird watching a movie about comedy that knows it's a bad comedy. It's the hinge point that really makes the film not work. We're supposed to root for Schecky, but Schecky is terribly unfunny for the entire run of the film. All that really differentiates him from the "hack" comedian is that the hack's jokes are mean and sexualized, while Schecky is delivering material straight out of a cliche 70s stand-up gag.

I'm not a huge fan of Sandler's brand of comedy, and this is definitely the worst of his comedic leanings in an unrefined form. The movie is also easily 20 minutes too long. That said, it's absurd that this movie has a 1.8 on IMDb. That's just people jumping on the bandwagon. Zane's turn as Neptune alone deserves a few stars.



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