This year is the 30th anniversary of the movie Caddyshack. Most people refer to it as the greatest golf movie ever. I pretty much have to agree since there aren’t very many competitors. That being said, I constantly go back and forth as to whether I like the movie or not.
This weekend is the PGA Championship in golf, and on my drive home from work, I heard an interview with Cindy Morgan on the local Sports Talk Radio station. She played Lacey Underall in Caddyshack, (as well as Yori in Tron). She was a fantastic interview and got me thinking more about Caddyshack.
First, I’ll go through the reasons why I should like it.
The movie had some great comedians. And we’re not talking a collection of chumps who are funny on the internet or washed up stand-up comedians like a some movies do nowadays. These were legit, in their prime, improv and stand-up comedians delivering comic gold. Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, and Bill Murray. They don’t make em like that anymore. Funny on the internet will never be as funny as Rodney Dangerfield.
The movie also had some of the most classic one-liners and quotes. Things like “Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper, now, about to become the Masters champion. It looks like a mirac… It’s in the hole! It’s in the hole! It’s in the hole!” are timeless and still said on golf courses around the world to this day. Just look at the memorable quotes on the IMDB page for Caddyshack, and it shows almost the whole script.
The final reason I should like it is that fun 80’s movie feel. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you’re probably over 50 or under 25 years old, or thereabouts. That feeling you get when watching Ghostbusters, Police Academy, Romancing the Stone, Crocodile Dundee, Goonies, Three Men and a Baby, Lethal Weapon, The Karate Kid, Tron, and on and on and on. Were they necessarily great works of filmmaking achievement? No. Did they make you love them? Yes.
Those are all great reasons to love Caddyshack.
Now on to why I don’t like it.
It’s not really as polished as it could be. Yes, I know that they did a ton of ad-libbing to get those great one-liners, but the one-liners shouldn’t be at the expense of a good movie. It’s hard for me to explain, but it feels like they were just throwing as many jokes in and hoping they all fit. This was pretty much the same reason why I didn’t love The Hangover. Very funny parts, but not a polished movie.
Also, the story wasn’t very good. It really is just a bunch of jokes thrown together around a loose plot. This lack of a solid story is why I don’t like Anchorman. Again, good one-liners and quotes, but little story. I know it sounds picky, and it’s not as horrible as a movie like Step-Brothers which had absolutely no story and not enough jokes to hold it together, but it still hurts the movie for me.
The last reason why I don’t like Caddyshack is that I saw it too late. I wasn’t even born when Caddyshack came out in 1980. By the time I did finally see it, everyone else had seen it and the jokes were old. Maybe it was overhyped for me. That’s what happened when I saw Forest Gump after it won a bunch of Oscars or when I saw Reservoir Dogs after Pulp Fiction. After the hype, or after you’ve seen something better, it’s not as good. Add that to the fact that I saw Caddyshack 2 first, didn’t help. I’m probably the only person in the world who for a time liked Caddyshack 2 better than Caddyshack.
So there you have it. This is the battle that goes on in my mind constantly. Well, not constantly, but it came up again today.
But hey, Caddyshack is coming on AMC on Friday August 20, so I’ll have to set the DVR and give it another shot.