Favorite Sports Movie.

My favorite sports film is The Waterboy starring Adam Sandler. In this movie, Sandler plays the stereotypical role of a Cajun boy (Bobby Boucher) who lives in the bayous of South Louisiana with his mother. The Waterboy is fictional comedic sports film about how Bobby starts off as a waterboy (with his motivation being he was told that his father died from dehydration serving in the Peace Corps in the Sahara) for the football team (The South Central  Louisiana State University Mud Dogs) who tends to get picked on and pushed around by the football team. Upon seeing this, Coach Klein (played by Henry Winkler) tells Bobby that he shouldn't let them push him around and to hit them back. At first, Bobby is reluctant but then Coach Klein convinces him to imagine that the opposing player is saying something bad about his mother. In his rage, Bobby charges and tackles one of the players. This impresses Coach Klein and he then asks Bobby to join the team, but Bobby said not without his mother's permission. So Coach Klein makes a visit to the Boucher's house for dinner to discuss football. After Klein leaves, Bobby's mother Helen (played by Kathy Bates) tells him he can't play football because it's "the devil." This leads to Bobby sneaking behind his mother's back to play for the school.

Bobby then comes into contact with an old friend and crush he had when he was a child named Vicki Vallencourt (played by Fairuza Balk). Vicki has a history of being in prison a few times so Helen tells Bobby that he's forbidden from seeing Vicki. She convinces Bobby to still see her by sneaking behind his mother's back. When it becomes known that Bobby never finished high school and that he is ineligible to attend the college and play football, he has to pass his GED exam. His mother, who is against him going to college, keeps pretending to be sick so she has Bobby to take care of her.  Helen had Bobby living a sheltered life. She admitted to him that the reason for that is because his dad left them while his mom was still pregnant and she didn't want to lose Bobby like she lost his dad. After a whole crowd of people showed up at their house to tell Bobby how much they needed him, Helen encouraged him to keep playing.

They make it to the Bourbon Bowl at about halftime with the Mud Dogs losing. Bobby motivates them to do better and helps Coach Klein get over his fear of Red Beaulieu (the coach of the University of Louisiana Cougars), which leads Klein to make new plays that helps them win. By the end of the movie, Bobby and Vicki get married and then Bobby gets a surprise visit from his dad saying that he heard on ESPN that Bobby was good enough to go to the NFL but Bobby declined saying he wanted to stay in school to finish so he could graduate. While in the process of trying to convince Bobby to go to the NFL, his dad Roberto gets tackled by Helen. Then Bobby and Vicki ride off on a lawn mower.

I like this  film because it's funny, despite it being the cliche "the "nerd" gets the "hot" girl". Bobby, living the sheltered life he did, didn't have much knowledge on what outside life was. It was because of Vicki that he started to see these things. Despite his mother's wishes of him not doing these things like play football or date Vicki, Bobby had a feeling that he likes life on the outside and no longer wants to stay "hidden" because of things his mother doesn't approve of. This movie shows that great things can come from the unknown. Even with his little bit of knowledge of anything except his mother and what she says, Bobby knew how to tackle like a beast.