November 22, 1998 -- Adam Sandler ("The Wedding Singer") stars as Bobby Boucher, a sort of Forrest Gump with attitude, in " The Waterboy," a lightweight comedy about an overgrown waterboy who becomes a football hero.

Boucher, dominated by his overbearing mother (Kathy Bates of "Primary Colors"), has been downtrodden and ridiculed all of his life, when he finally hooks up a broken down football coach (Henry Winkler) who sees his potential. Boucher is able to channel his years of frustration and anger into furious play on the football field. He becomes the leading tackler in college football and he leads the team to victory.

There are some funny scenes in the movie featuring some jokes and physical humor. Much of the humor centers on people with bad teeth, strange food and Cajun accents. There's also a running gag with a housebroken mule. The movie is really more than a comedy, however. It is a warm-hearted story (co-written by Sandler) about how people need encouragement and acceptance in order to reach their potential.

Ironically, the film makes fun of people in the South by using crude stereotypes at the same time it is preaching acceptance. While some of the jokes in the film hit the mark, a lot of jokes fall flat. It is also predictable, because you just know the climax is going to be the BIG GAME. While the film doesn't have much of a brain, it does have heart. It also benefits from a great performance by Kathy Bates. I also liked Fairuza Balk ("American History X" and "The Craft") who plays Vicki Vallencourt. This film rates a C.

So why is this film so popular? Beats me. I would not have gone to see it at all had it not done so well at the box office. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Adam Sandler's act, with his stuttering and odd facial expressions, reminds me of Jerry Lewis. It is obvious Sandler has real acting talent, but his success goes beyond that. He seems, like Jim Carrey, to have tapped into some need in large numbers of moviegoers.

I don't think it is any coincidence that in his last two films, "The Wedding Singer," and "The Waterboy," Sandler has played losers who get revenge on their enemies. Maybe Sandler has come to represent every loser who thinks he hasn't gotten a fair shake from society and who would like to show up all those people who have made fun of him. Jerry Lewis made a career of playing similar kinds of characters. However, if Sandler keeps making big money from low-budget films like his last two, he's going to have a lot more success, and money, than Jerry Lewis ever did.

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