At an exclusive country club, an ambitious young caddy, Danny Noonan, eagerly pursues a caddy scholarship in hopes of attending college and, in turn, avoiding a job at the lumber yard. In order to succeed, he must first win the favour of the elitist Judge Smails, and then the caddy golf tournament which Smails sponsors.
Ratings
Curator score: 2.0/10
IMDb: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 73%
Metacritic: 48
TMDB: 6.6/10
Director
Harold Ramis
Production
Orion Pictures
Cast
Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Bill Murray, Michael O'Keefe, Sarah Holcomb, Cindy Morgan, Albert Salmi, Scott Colomby, Dan Resin, Elaine Aiken, Henry Wilcoxon, Lois Kibbee, Brian Doyle-Murray, Ann Ryerson, Thomas A. Carlin, John F. Barmon Jr., Peter Berkrot, Hamilton Mitchell, Scott Powell
Where to watch
USA Network
Curator Review
Verdict
A loose, quotable sports comedy with a wildly uneven structure, but its best comic bits and performances have made it a durable cult favorite. If you enjoy broad 80s studio comedies that feel improvised, chaotic, and intermittently brilliant, it’s worth a watch; if you need a tightly plotted or consistently funny film, it may frustrate you.
Best for
fans of raunchy ensemble comedies
viewers who like quotable cult classics
people who enjoy 1980s star-driven studio comedies
audiences receptive to sketch-like, chaotic humor
Skip if
you want a tightly structured story
you dislike crude or juvenile jokes
you prefer modern pacing and polished comedy
you need every scene to connect cleanly to the plot
Overview
Caddyshack is less a sports movie than a demolition of country-club decorum, built out of golf as social warfare. The plot is thin, but the movie has a knack for turning class resentment, adolescent misbehavior, and pure nonsense into something strangely enduring. Its reputation rests on the fact that the funniest material feels like it’s constantly threatening to derail the film entirely.
Worth noting
What keeps it alive is the contrast between the straight-arrow ambition of the caddy storyline and the anarchic energy of the comic heavyweights around it. Some scenes are legendary, some feel half-assembled, and the movie never fully settles into one tone. That inconsistency is part of the appeal: it plays like a comedy that escaped the control room and became a legend anyway.
Bottom line
If you’re in the mood for a messy but influential studio comedy with a strong sense of personality, it still delivers. If you’re expecting a carefully engineered classic, the gaps will be obvious. But as a snapshot of early-80s comic swagger, it remains easy to see why people keep quoting it.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Will Sloan (2.5★) · 868 likes
This goes from 0 to 11 every time Rodney shows up.
Reggie (3.5★) · 714 likes
"the capitol is being invaded and you're watching Caddyshack?!" - my dad
Karsten (3.5★) · 588 likes
An absolutely off-brand and underwhelming last film to watch this decade, but a great time nonetheless.
Nathan Rabin (3.5★) · 449 likes
Rodney Dangerfield behaves very disrespectfully towards Ted Knight in this film.
Patrick Willems (3.5★) · 414 likes
I kinda think early-to-mid-80s Chevy Chase is one of the best movie stars we've ever had.