Directed by: Harold Ramis
Written by: Harold Ramis, Brian Doyle-Murray and Douglas Kenney
Produced by: Douglas Kenney
Starring: Michael O'Keefe, Ted Knight, Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, Sarah Holcomb, Bill Murray, Cindy Morgan
Buy it!, Buy it, rent it or skip it: Buy it

I'm someone who believes that if you get the right comedians, you can make any modern, every day setting funny. Ricky Gervais and Steve Carell made me think differently about the workplace with their wonderful series, The Office. Other greats who fall into that category are Zach Braff with the hospital-set Scrubs and Joe Dante's gigantic New York skyscraper with Gremlins 2: The New Batch. However, what about a place where one of the most boring sports of the world is played in: a golf club. Harold Ramis and a great cast helped make it funny with Caddyshack.

Danny Noonan (Michael O'Keefe) is a caddy at the highly prestigious golf club, but he wants to go to a very good university. He sees his chance when the president of the club (Ted Knight) comes for a visit and tries anything to get him to give him some college money. Other funny happenings occur when a loud-mouth property builder (Rodney Dangerfield) arrives and constantly annoys the president. Meanwhile, Carl the greenkeeper (Bill Murray) tries to catch a gopher who is running the greens. However, Carl makes more destruction than the gopher does.

Caddyshack is a unique comedy that manages to mix intelligent and sexual humour together very successfully. Harold Ramis's screenplay is great, but one of the many reasons why this film is so good is its ensemble cast. Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray and Brian Doyle-Murray all give wonderful performances. The only fault in the main cast is Michael O'Keefe. His character is somewhat flat, but it's difficult to really judge what with all the great actors and characters around him. Now, I usually am not a fan of manure jokes, but the one in the swimming pool scene is classic. It is definitely in the top three best manure jokes (along with George's break-down of the word in Seinfeld and Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo from South Park). Seeing as it's a fairly young film, I'm surpried by the slightly low quality of the picture. There are various spots that appear in the film, but the video is still clear so it gets a "B-." The audio also isn't that great and gets the same grade.

I'm surprised that Warner didn't give that much attention to such a beloved comedy classic, but we get some good extras. First is a really good documentary about the making of Caddyshack. Most of the cast and crew appear and chat about their experiences making the film. It's a great show. There is also a very funny theatrical trailer and the always useless cast and crew biographies. I'm glad that studios don't put those on DVDs anymore, because they are a waste of disc space. Despite not that many extras (especially a lack of a cast and crew commentary), the documentary and trailer are really good. This section of the disc gets a "B-" like the rest. Caddyshack is no doubt a comedy classic and the DVD is well worth owning if you're a fan of the film. If you can find it together with Blazing Saddles, it's worth even more a purchase.