Going Overboard

At the beginning of this no-budget cheapie, Adam Sandler tells us this is a "loosely thrown together story" built around free access to a cruise ship and "a lot of good-looking women." So they get an A for truth in advertising. Sandler (very green in his first feature film) plays Shecky Moskowitz, a cruise ship waiter with dreams of being a standup comedian. At one point, General Manuel Noriega sends some goons to take over the ship. And there's a lot of voluptuous women hanging around in bikinis. So much for the plot. Sold as a wacky sex comedy, Going Overboard is more of a funny-nose-and-glasses movie, desperately trying anything for a laugh. Sandler's trademark being-funny-by-being-unfunny hadn't started to click yet. Only Billy Zane (as a sort of long-suffering-Jewish-grandmother-ish King Neptune) and Adam Rifkin (as a self-absorbed, mossy-toothed heavy metal star) seem to have any comic timing. A number of the supporting cast would go on to play roles in other, better Adam Sandler movies. Look fast for Billy Bob Thornton(!), appearing here as "Dave the heckler." --Geof Miller