Caddyshack




License to kill gophers by the government of the United Nations.

A favorite among golfers and caddy alumni, Caddyshack is an interesting if sloppy chance to see a bunch of former comedy stars improv off each other.

There's um, this golf course. Kind of snooty place. Oh yeah, and there are caddies there. One of the caddies named Danny (Michael O'Keefe) is poor and needs a scholarship. The snobbish Judge Smails (Ted Knight) is miffed that a richer clown (Rodney Dangerfield) can come to the golf course and do pretty much whatever he wants. And Carl Spackler (Bill Murray) is the groundskeeper engaged in that immortal battle with man's fiercest subterranean foe: the gopher (himself).

There are a lot of great idea in Caddyshack, there's no denying that. There's plenty of talent and room to work with, which leads to the question of why they're not funny. Sure some of them work, but too many don't. Some of the blame is no doubt due to Harold Ramis' first outing as a director. Whereas the original script may have had something of a cohesive plot to be followed, Ramis found that he had gathered up quite a cast of comedians. Forgoing the original focus on the caddying caddies, he indulges most of the time pampering his older comedic stars. And he doesn't even give them any management, more or less turning them loose to improvisation. While that revered art in acting has its place, having a whole movie saturated with it produces about as much passion as a chill out session with some of Murray's special grass. The editing is slapdash and the bits of plot that do manage to claw their way up are mostly pointless, just like the gratuitous sex.

Chevy Chase is in his element as the blissfully clueless guy, the lazy Zen golfer. While his moments come and go, it's easy to miss a lot of his subtler stuff. Michael O'Keefe is routine as the young hero. According to Ramis, the movie chronicles his search for a role model. Yeah, whatever. Ted Knight is decent as the snob always getting the short end of the stick and Rodney Dangerfield is as annoying as ever. He's probably the reason why this one doesn't do it for me. Bill Murray is admittedly funny as the crazy groundskeeper, but his performance is nowhere near what it has become renowned to be. In fact, it's a lot funnier seeing him match wits (the decade's overstatement) with his fuzzy little foreigner of a boss rather than the self-gratifying and endless scene between him and Chase.

Though it has got a few moments, great scenes are squandered with Ramis' early direction.



-The Gnome