Happy Gilmore 2: Dumb Fun Redux, Drives For Show, Putts for Doh!
By Karen Gordon
Rating: B
Of course, Happy Gilmore 2 is ridiculous. If you’re reading this, you not only know that, but that’s what you’re counting on.
Adam Sandler comedies are a singular beast in the comedy world: silly, dumb, frat boy humour, seasoned with a little Larry Curly Moe, and smatterings of borscht belt humour. It doesn’t all land, and maybe it’s not supposed to.
They’re also big on heart. His persona is generally that of a misfit, who embraces other misfits, building a de facto family where no one is expected to be anything other than their quirky selves.
Bad Bunny and Adam Sandler are caddy-and-pro in Happy Gilmore 2
Full disclosure. I watched him on SNL, and I think he’s a terrific serious actor, good enough to one day win an Oscar, if that is a useful metric for you. But I didn’t warm back then to his more ridiculous comedies. Maybe I’m getting old, but that’s changing.
What that means is that I can answer the question: Can you watch this if you didn’t see the original Happy Gilmore and (potentially) enjoy it.
Or can you coerce your family members into watching it if they throw up the excuse that they didn’t see the original? The answer to both is yes.
Happy Gilmore 2, the sequel to Happy Gilmore, is Sandler’s latest in his unbelievably lucrative partnership with Netflix. It’s stupid, star-studded, Easter Egg-filled fun, that updates the life of the champion golfer whom we met in the 1996 original, and will likely make a movie star out of Bad Bunny (who plays Happy’s caddie).
In the original, Happy wanted to be a pro hockey player, (thus his on-the-links wardrobe of Boston Bruins Jerseys) but lacked basic skating skills and had a hair trigger temper that scuttled his career hopes.
However, he had one asset: to borrow a phrase from the late great Canadiens play-by-play guy Danny Gallivan, “a cannonading drive” that, when transposed to golf, enabled him to propel the ball 400 yards and ultimately made him a champion many times over. His unconventional style, personality, etc,, etc., made him a star.
In the intervening years, Happy found love with the PGA pubillcity head Virginia Venit (Julie Bowen) with whom he had five children, four boys and a girl. And is a proud family man.
Unfortunately, as the film starts, Happy is demonstrating that famous golf drive which flies at great speed and distance, but on the other end hits his wife in the head and kills her.
The grief and guilt sends him into a tailspin. He begins to drink heavily and loses almost everything. His money, his status, his home, but not his family. However, financial problems mean that he in finding a new place to live, he split his family up, the boys live in one place, he and his daughter in a second. His reputation is ruined in the sports arena and so he takes a job in a local supermarket.
Two things happen. He’s approached by Frank Manatee (Benny Safdie) a confident, slick-talking, Millennial, in shorts, visor and a chin curtain beard (I looked it up!). Manatee was drawn into golf because of Happy, but he finds the sport too slow. So he’s recreated the game, making it faster and more exciting, aiming to just squash old school golf, and build an empire of his own. He wants Happy to come to his tournament, and use his fame to help build the new sport.
For Happy, it could be a chance for redemption.
The second thing is that his daughter Vienna (Sunny Sandler) has been accepted into a ballet school in Paris, where the four year program costs 75K a year. And, in his current straits, there’s no chance he could pay for it.
But, mirroring the events in Happy Gilmore, where the need for mega money to help his grandmother pushed him onto the golf course, he recognizes that this is his only chance is to get back into the game.
So Happy, who hasn’t golfed in a decade, goes back to the sport in, y’know, 12 steps or so. He joins an AA-like self-help group to help him stay off the booze. Tries to control the hair trigger temper, rebuilds his confidence and chooses a side in the golf wars, all in the service of sending his beloved daughter to be a ballerina.
Sandler and writing partner Tim Herlihy (the team behind the original Happy Gilmore), has put together a storyline that mirrors and references the original, but also feels like it’s part of the heart in this film, a nod to fans that kind of feels like he’s saying we’re all part of his de facto family.
The film is a master class in stunt casting, Christopher McDonald returns as Shooter McGavin, still in prison and still hating on his former rival. Ben Stiller stars as Hal L, the corrupt rehab counsellor, Steve Buscemi has a small role as a cranky neighbour. Golfer John Daly plays a boozehound in Happy’s circle Lavel Crawford is Slim, the son of Happy’s mentor, Chubbs. Like his father, Slim also lost his hand to an alligator. Margaret Qualley, Martin Herlihy, Eric André, Post Malone, Eminem, Guy Fieri, Kevin Nealon are among a legion of familiar faces with a range of smaller roles.
As well, there’s a who’s who of the golf world, including the legendary Jack Nicklaus.
Bad Bunny, a.k.a. Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, has a major role as Oscar Melias, a former waiter, abused and fired by his head waiter boss (Travis Kelce). This upsets Happy, who hires as Oscar as his caddy for the major tournament. It’s a learn on the job kind of thing. And Mr. Bunny is terrific. A dream sequence where Oscar imagines getting revenge on his former boss by painting his chest with honey and unleashing a bear is just one of many silly scenes destined to be memed.
It’s also a family affair. Sandler’s daughter Sunny plays his daughter, Sandler’s wife Jackie, plays the daughter’s ballet teacher, and his other daughter Sadie Sandler is Charlotte, Happy’s AA sponsor.
They can all act. And that family affair extends to the onscreen family. Even though Virginia is killed off in the first minutes, her ghost appears regularly to encourage her beloved along from the beyond.
It’s utterly brainless fun with a big, big heart.
Happy Gilmore 2, written by Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler, directed by Kyle Newacheck, starring Adam Sander, Christopher McDonald, Benny Safdie, Ben Stiller, Bad Bunny. On Netflix.