Watch Happy Gilmore 2 on Netflix
Written by: Tim Herlihy & Adam Sandler
Directed by: Kyle Newacheck
Starring: Adam Sandler, Julie Bowen, Christopher McDonald, Benny Safdie, Bad Bunny, Ben Stiller, Haley Joel Osment
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer
Plot
Happy Gilmore returns to the sport of golf after more than a decade away to finance his daughter's ballet classes and stop a new high energy golf league.
Verdict
With nearly all of the main and supporting cast returning from the original, it doesn't feel like a cheap sequel. It has a couple of genuine funny moments, and it's much better than I expected. While it can't best the original, it does feel like a worthy sequel. It's mostly the same plot as the first movie with Happy not only needing to raise money but having to save the very sport of golf. All of the cameos, as well as the runtime, do make this feel indulgent, and there are even more cutaway reaction shots that get to the point of excessive. Then there are the frequent flashbacks to the original movie. This uses the original as a crutch instead of a springboard.
It depends.
Review
A quick introduction shows us how Happy (Adam Sandler) did well for himself, won golf
tournaments, had children, but then tragedy stuck and he lost his wife,
sending him in a spiral of self medication through alcohol. I didn't expect the movie to broach such a serious topic. This quickly shows us how Happy achieved it all before losing it. Now he's working at grocery and hasn't golfed in ten years. He's the guy that used to be famous. When his daughter's talent lands her a spot at a prestigious dance school, he needs money fast for tuition and has to return to golf.
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| Adam Sandler plays Happy Gilmore |
Happy's first outing is a series of comical misfortunes, but he's dedicated to making sure his daughter goes to dance school. Along the way Happy has to best other professional golfers, and this features cameos from several pros as fictionalized versions of themselves: Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy, and Scottie Scheffler.
This is better than I thought it would be. It has a few good laughs with misdirections that surprise and generate humor. I appreciate this got nearly all of the actors from the original movie back, even actors with small parts return. It prevents this from feeling like a cheap attempt to cash in on the first movie, but this does frequently reference and call back to the original. That in addition to many famous cameos does seem like pandering. With Netflix, you can't help but wonder if it's just to generate additional viewing time as people search for or revisit guest stars.
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| Adam Sandler, Philip Fine Schneider, Conor Sherry, Sunny Sandler play Happy Gilmore, Bobby, Terry, Vienna |
Frank Manatee (Benny Safdie) wants to reinvent golf with a new league something that's amusement park mini-golf meets American Ninja Warrior. He pits pro golfers against athletes in his league to prove which sport is best. Happy was the antithesis of a golfer, but he must now defend the traditions of the sport. He's fighting not just for tuition money but the future of golf against this upstart league by their rules.
There's more to Manatee's schemes but the final act is Happy and the other pros facing off against Manatee's stable of golfers to prove which version of golf is best. It comes down to Happy as the last pro in the match having to sink a put that's winner take all.
This is one of the better recent Sandler movies, though that's not saying much. This is the sequel that wasn't needed. I wouldn't be surprised if the push behind this is Netflix's calculations on the audience for the original; the math between Sandler fans and which of his movies has the biggest audience. So much of this movie seems geared solely to garner watch time and attract viewers through specific cameos. It's not a bad sequel but it does feel shallow.
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