After becoming rich from his 1990s hits, Adam Sandler earned a reputation for cranking out movies with his friends – always fun for them to make, not always fun for the audience to watch. With “Happy Gilmore 2” (Netflix), he and co-writer Tim Herlihy clearly put more care and attention than usual into the product, and I appreciate that.
“HG2’s” plot is so familiar that you’d have a dozen other sports movies to pick from, not to mention the recent TV series “Stick.” After a tragedy in his personal life, Happy (Sandler) – who broke through with a Tour Championship (the stand-in for the Masters) in the 1996 film — disappears from golf and goes into an alcoholic spiral.
A second round
Atop this plot, Sandler, Herlihy and director Kyle Newacheck don’t merely invite friends and celebrities to hang out and goof around. They craft humor that’s sometimes smart, sometimes stupid, and worth a chuckle often enough to be worth your while.
Director: Kyle Newacheck
Writers: Tim Herlihy, Adam Sandler
Stars: Adam Sandler, Julie Bowen, Christopher McDonald
For instance, Fred Couples is an afficionado of blueberry desserts at the Tour banquets. Happy’s bust at the Tour clubhouse gives him buck teeth. John Daly (as himself) lives in Happy’s garage, a surrogate uncle to the five Gilmore kids. The four now-adult boys are behavioral clones of Happy – breaking into hockey-style brawls – and the teen girl (Sandler’s daughter Sunny) hopes for a dance scholarship, but Happy has drank the family’s fortunes away.
A delightful segment finds Happy gradually working his way into shape so he can aim for the top 30 and a payday at the Tour Championship (where, since he is a past winner, he has a standing invitation). On a municipal course, three casuals (Herlihy, “that guy” Eric Andre and a slumming Margaret Qualley) brag about their mediocre-or-worse games and make fun of the bedraggled, low-hatted addition to their foursome for his “Happy Gilmore swing.”
In addition to the amiable rhythms, “HG2” benefits from a “BASEketball”-esque game called MaxiGolf, a parody (that’s unfortunately less of a parody than it should be) of golf’s and other sports’ desires to gain new generations of fans. Seven holes instead of 18. Team format. Extreme hazards and conditions. Some holes are 1,000 yards.
Thanks to missing a hip ligament that allows more torque in his swing, Billy Jenkins (Haley Joel Osment) can reach such a green in two. He’s a sensation similar to what Happy was in the 1990s with his slap-shot tee shots and hockey-stick putter.
Fighting for Regular Golf
MaxiGolf is so absurd that Happy actually represents Regular Golf in a made-for-TV showdown, as does LIV’s Brooks Koepka and three PGA Tour stars. Koepka’s invite softens the LIV-vs.-PGA angle, although it might be in the back of some viewers’ minds.
Without being overwhelming, “HG2” throws a ton of reference- and cameo-based humor at us. (The credits are endless here not because of the special effects crew but because of the cast list.) Sometimes the editors toss in a clip from “HG1,” but generally they don’t hold our hands.
I missed half the references and the film still flows well. I wouldn’t have known about the real-world joke of Will Zalatoris resembling the caddie from “HG1” if someone hadn’t told me. Knowing the reason for the gag makes it funnier; not knowing it doesn’t hurt much.
Granted, it’s overlong at 114 minutes, having been designed for home viewing. The original is 92 minutes, a big reason why it is superior. But they do cram a lot in here in order to build a reality where Gilmore, Shooter McGavin (the returning Christopher McDonald) and Tiger Woods were the stars of the Nineties.
“Happy Gilmore 2” is an enjoyable second round with some satisfying birdies and pars. If Sandler is willing to engage his mind and heart to this degree again, bring on “Billy Madison 2” and “Big Daddy 2.”