'Happy Gilmore 2' A Review

Happy Gilmore 2 is a sports comedy a sequel to 1996's Happy Gilmore. After tragedy strikes Happy(Adam Sandler) gives up golf and limps along working at a grocery store trying to take care of his four sons and daughter. After his daughter gets in to a prestigious dance program Happy reluctantly returns to golf to make money for tuition.

Sandler returns to the role with surprising ease, bringing all the manic slapstick gags from the original but also an odd but effecting pathos, indicative of his whole career but particularly the last ten years where it seems he's been better able to balance his creative ambition and penchant for scatological. The tone is surprisingly dark but never not funny with emotional beats that hit alongside truly incredible Three Stooges level physical comedy. It's quite a feat. The supporting cast is absolutely stuffed and at a certain point it becomes a case of diminishing returns but it takes quite awhile to get to that point and a lot of the characters that pop up along the way are a real hoot. The big stand out though is the return of Christopher McDonald as Shooter McGavin, dude absolutely explodes onto the screen, relishing the broadness of the comedy and heights he can go to, it's really a treat to see.

The production has an authentic feel, relatively workman-like and understated, evoking the first film but updating it. The big inspiration, where the designers get to have some fun is in the Maxi Golf finale. The soundtrack works, costumes are effective with a couple characters being really fun and inspired. All-in-all it's kind of a clinic from director Kyle Newacheck and the Sandler team in how to do a legacy sequel, a genre that unfortunately doesn't seem to be going anywhere but that all Hollywood hasn't quite figured out yet. The theory is to do the same thing but different and they certainly achieve that here. It's a bit darker, it's more grown up, but the beats and the arc feel familiar and the humor is the same if not the jokes. And there's a certain amount of ecstatic joy about seeing Sandler return to the role, older, more grizzled, but still able to deliver.

For anyone that grew up with Happy Gilmore this is for you.

Currently streaming on Netflix(should have been released theatrically, Netflix continues there ill-advised strategy not to figure out some middle ground with exhibition, with this movie they're leaving hundreds of millions in box office on the table, no matter how you slice it bad for business, bad for creatives)

See It.