Golf and those who play it becomes the subject of some heavy duty humor in Caddyshack. Some of the funniest folks in the last half of the last century are involved with Caddyshack.With many little subplots going the main plot involves the rivalry between the head of the club Ted Knight who is also a judge and Rodney Dangerfield who is a filthy rich and brash visitor. Dangerfield is his usually cheerful and obnoxious character, but he presses Knight's buttons. Some of the funniest moments of the film is Knight reacting to Dangerfield. Chevy Chase is an interesting fellow himself, a rather iconoclastic character who doesn't even keep score as he explains his philosophy of life to young Michael O'Keefe who is one of the caddies just trying to pick up some extra dollars and suck up to the rich who are regulars at the club.Knight reminds me of the character of the father of the prospective bride whom Auntie Mame was desperately trying to keep nephew Patrick from marrying. Willard Waterman in Auntie Mame was not on his home ground and Rosalind Russell capitalizes on that. You see Knight on his home turf (no pun intended) but it yields him no advantage as Dangerfield just shows him up over and over.We cannot forget Bill Murray who is an iconoclastic character in his own right. He's one of the groundskeepers and has been assigned the task of ridding the world of gopher who has taken residence at the country club and leaving inconvenient holes in the ground. It's a battle of wits and guess who comes out on top?Henry Wilcoxon plays a Catholic bishop who likes to golf. He isn't exactly Father O'Malley moved up in the ranks. Wilcoxon is best known for all the Cecil B. DeMille films he did and his final scene has a DeMille like quality. With the gopher character Caddyshack expertly blends animation with the live players. Big kudos go out to the animators for the gopher.Don't expect any sophistication, but Caddyshack will give you lots of belly laughs with many to spare

I've watched this film at least twice a year for a quarter of a century, and the last time I watched it, I realized something: this film is an anomaly. It shouldn't exist as a classic of comedic cinema yet, against all odds, it does. The story is pretty unimportant and there is almost nothing in the way of cogent plot or character development. Furthermore, it objectively fails as pretty much any formulaic type of comedy film. It fails as a romantic comedy, it fails as a coming of age story, and it fails as a class comedy despite its tagline of "the snobs against the slobs". However, like a McDonald's cheeseburger, it's greater than the sum of its parts. Taken individually, their ingredients are awful. But when you put them together, I don't know, it just works. I'm of the opinion that the reason that it remains a classic, and that countless golfers across the world chant "na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na- na-na-na" as they putt, is squarely on the shoulders of the brilliant performances of the cast. Some of the greatest comedic actors of that era, namely Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, and Chevy Chase, are firmly on their A Game here, and are absolutely sublime in this film. And with the help of the great Harold Ramis behind the camera, they raise these characters that should've been easily forgotten to some of the most quoted in the history of comedy. It shouldn't have worked, but it did. This film is not for everyone. If you aren't tickled by these performances, then there's very little to hold your interest. And I get that. But that's the way comedy works. It either hits you or it doesn't. And this film still makes me laugh out loud every single time. And I imagine that it probably always will.

"Caddyshack" was Harold Ramis' first job in the director's chair, and it shows: the tension is slack, there is far too much improvisation, and there's a lack of focus both in narrative and theme. Caddyshack features fine performances from Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, Ted Knight, and of course, the gopher. This motion picture is replete with sight gags and one-liners that to this day are repeated by aficionados of clever satire. As far as the improv goes, one gets the sense that Chase, Dangerfield, and even Murray just sort of steamrolled Ramis. I'm sure it was a fun set to be on perhaps too much fun.I can see that the jokes are mostly lame, the subplots are predictable and the acting rarely rises above the adequate. But I still can't help laughing like a drain whenever I watch it. You don't have to be a lowbrow to like this movie, and just because you think it's funny doesn't mean there's something wrong with you. Caddyshack and Animal House withstand the test of time as two of the funniest comedies ever made... and that stands for a lot! Overall rating: 6 out of 10.

CADDYSHACK is yet another movie that everyone else but me has seen until now (apparently). It's directed by Harold Ramis and features Bill Murray and Chevy Chase in their prime, along with Rodney Dangerfield. Why wouldn't it be good? Well, if 90 minutes of improvisation with little to no plot is your idea of good comedy (and considering comedies these days, there are a lot of people who feel that way), then you'll feel right at home. For me, there were a number of individually funny bits from each of the main cast members, but the unfocused, episodic nature of the story kept me from being invested too much in the goings-on at this snooty country club. The best running gag is one that everyone is probably familiar with: Bill Murray and the gopher. But it was only funny in and of itself, feeling mostly tangential to the story (or to justify Bill Murray's presence). There was the potential to do a satire on class conflict, but Rodney Dangerfield threw a wrench in that (most of his bits didn't work for me at all). Chevy Chase got to do some of his shtick as well, but overall it felt like all the cast members were just trying to show each other up instead of being a real ensemble cast. I will say that the soundtrack, heavily featuring Kenny Loggins, was quite good though. Ultimately, I did laugh a handful of times but the script and its execution left a lot to be desired.