Review of Caddyshack (1980) by Andrew M — 12 Sep 2016

Like Meatballs, which Hold Ramis co-wrote a year prior, Caddyshack is a disjointed comedy with a lot of aspects that really work, and a lot of aspects that don't. There's multiple subplots happening at one in Caddyshack: you have the feud between country club co-founder Judge Elihu Smalls (Ted Knight) and hot-headed Al Czervik (Rodney Dangerfield), you have Danny Noonan (Michael O'Keefe) working as a caddy and hoping to gather up a scholarship for college, you have the womanizing Ty Webb (Chevy Chase) wrapped up in the golf games, and you have the antics of Carl (Bill Murray) as he attempts to rid the country club of a gopher infestation. The moments where Chase and Murray are the focus are truly the highlights, the latter in particular being extra hilarious in a role that was completely ad-libbed and proving once more his ability to improve a film with his presence alone.

Unfortunately, those two have the least amount of screentime in the film: a majority of the movie is focused on Dangerfield and Knight, and the characters involved in their subplot. Frankly speaking, their portion of the film is dull, and rarely packs the same kind of comedic punch as Animal House (another Ramis screenwriting outing), and the same kind of comedic punch that we know these actors are capable of. It seems to try to aim for brief stints of character development as well, but it lacks the sweet charm of the main relationship in Meatballs. It does have the same kind of deliberate aimlessness of Meatballs and Animal House, which at least allows for light and mostly entertaining viewing. This one just missed out on that birdie, and will have to settle for a par.