going overboard (1989) and testing dirty (1990)

so i watched going overboard (1989) last night.

i don't even know where to begin with this one, so i'll begin somewhere else. since i've decided i'm going to 100% adam sandler's filmography on letterboxd, i thought i'd also include the after-school special, "testing dirty" (1990), since it's so short.

you can watch "testing dirty" here on youtube.

this short begins with a pta meeting, where teachers push to implement random drug testing at a high school. meanwhile, adam sandler tries to give away perfectly good weed to some high schooler at a party. the high schooler declines him, but runs into him again where adam is dealing drugs in the locker room to his buddy. the kid and his buddy both get chosen for a random drug test, but only the sober kid's urine tests positive, and he gets expelled. his girlfriend refuses to do the drug test when she gets selected after she learns about probable cause in class. the drug addict kid dies. the sober kid appeals his suspension and retakes the test, but the college he applied to rejects him now. thanks a lot, adam sandler!

this short was straightforward, a bit corny, but miles ahead of....

going overboard (aka babes ahoy)

synopsis

a fetus named adam sandler plays an unfunny young man who works aboard a cruise ship, but dreams of one day becoming the onboard comedian. the hired comedian locks himself in the bathroom accidentally, and adam sandler heroically volunteers to perform stand-up in his stead. the ship, full of beauty pagent contestants, becomes the target of Panamanian terrorists, after one of the contestants criticizes the body odor of general noriega.

opinion

approximately three seconds into the film, after the animated opening sequence, adam sandler looks into the camera and tells the audience not to expect too much, because this film has "zero" budget. apparently production was so short on cash, they couldn't afford jokes.

multiple times, adam sandler's friend begs him to give up on comedy, telling him he isn't funny. the movie seems to pick up on this, too, and it takes frequent breaks to randomly show women tanning in their bathing suits, desperately trying to hold the viewer's attention.

there's also this odd subplot about a rocker named "croaker" (adam rifkin), who doesn't really do much besides play a song, lay around, and whine a bit. the movie honestly should have been about him.

i fell asleep roughly an hour into the movie, so i revisited the final leg of it for this post. sandler saves the passengers of the cruise ship with "the power of comedy" by bringing one of the terrorists up to the stage to perform some more unfunny material, where he realizes his passion is for standup comedy, not working for noriega. this movie is a CHORE.

the current ranking is fairly straightforward for now:

testing dirty (1990)
going overboard (1989)