<NEG> it's amazing how a comedian can have the some of the funniest stand-up around but completely fall flat in the movies </NEG> . take adam sandler . on the basis of his first two cds ( " they're all gonna laugh at you ! " and " what the hell happened to me ? " ) , he's the best thing to hit comedy since robin williams . but when you put him in front of a camera , it just isn't the same . i kind of enjoyed happy gilmore and thought that it warranted a marginal recommendation , <NEG> but his latest film , the waterboy is about as funny as a root canal . seriously , i'm willing to wager than there were more laughs in saving private ryan than there are here . in fact , i found this movie to be more depressing than comedic </NEG> . the first half hour <NEG> generated not one smile in me </NEG> , with it's scenes of emotional abuse towards adam's character of bobby boucher not only by the cruel football players , but also by his very disturbed mother ( kathy bates - what is the world coming to ? ) . granted , after the film gets rolling , there are a few mild chuckles throughout ( i'm even willing to admit that it actually had me laughing once or twice ) , but <NEG> not nearly enough to sustain </NEG> the waterboy for it's nearly hour and a half running time . you're all familiar with the plot because you've seen it at least a million times before ; everyone picks on the hero until he shows a hidden talent and leads the underdog team to victory over the champions , in the process not only winning the respect of his teammates but also getting the woman he loves . and believe me , i'm not giving anything away by saying that sandler's team wins . if you would actually feel any degree of suspense watching this movie , then god be with you . <NEG> the only things that keep this bomb from getting the big banana </NEG> are the winning performances from henry winkler as the insecure coach and the severely underrated fairuza balk as bobby's love interest . i mean , they should be lending their talents to some loftier purpose , but they do extremely well with what they are given here . kudos to both of them . my advice to adam is to try and follow in the footsteps of veteran comedians like williams and steve martin , who made a very smooth and successful transition from stage to screen . rely more on actual comedy rather than <NEG> strange voices and rude noises </NEG> to make people laugh . or maybe even show what dramatic talent he might have , like jim carrey did with the recent truman show . with the obvious and considerable talent that he possesses , he just can't keep going on like this .
