by Alireza Hatamvand
Worth: $6.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Adam Sandler, Julie Bowen, Christopher McDonald, Benny Safdie, Ben Stiller, Haley Joel Osment, Dennis Dugan, Sunny Sandler, Sadie Sandler, Philip Schneider, Steve Buscemi
Intro:
… artificial and cartoonish.
Fore!
In Happy Gilmore, written by Adam Sandler and Tim Herlihy, directed by Dennis Dugan, Sandler played a man with a great love for hockey, but who has little talent for it and accidentally succeeds in the sport of golf.
The story of Happy Gilmore 2 – again co-written by Sandler and Herlihy, directed by Kyle Newacheck (Murder Mystery), with Dugan returning as just a co-star this time – takes place 30 years later. Happy has become one of the leading figures in golf, married to Virginia (Julie Bowen), they have five children, and live in prosperity and fame. But everything changes when Virginia dies after being struck by a golf ball…
Suffering from PTSD, Happy quits golf and loses all of his wealth—since Virginia had handled their finances—and settles for working in a local store.
Then, he finds out that his daughter has been accepted into a Parisian ballet school, but the tuition fees are so high that he is persuaded to return to golf. This coincides with the bizarre idea of a man named Frank Manatee (Benny Safdie, co-director of Uncut Gems IRL), who has decided to radically change the sport of golf by creating a ‘Maxi League’, intending to erase traditional golf forever. He approaches Happy to be the face of his new league, but our hero refuses because his late wife loved traditional golf so much.
As tensions rise between traditional golfers and the Maxi League, it is decided that both sides will introduce five-member teams to compete, and the winner will decide the future rules of golf.
Happy, battling his alcoholism and his chronic anger issues, joins the five-person team, which also includes his famous opponent from the first film, Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald).
It’s not a bad thing for comedy sequels to reference the first film. Most viewers watch sequels to relive those good memories. But Happy Gilmore 2 leans far too heavily on the first film, begging for laughs by virtually recycling them. Most of the jokes are simply people repeating what they did in the previous film, or one of the original characters now having a child who behaves exactly like them. This formula is repeated so much in Happy Gilmore 2 that it becomes tiresome quickly; especially at 20+ minutes longer length than the original film.
Genuine laughs are few and far between, and there’s little originality in the humour. The film is filled with various celebrities, either playing themselves or insignificant, passing characters. The idea of the Maxi League seems interesting at first but is executed in an extremely bland way. The villains are weak. Happy’s PTSD, his alcoholism, and his diminished golf skills are all artificial and cartoonish. Even Adam Sandler’s performance is mediocre at best, not giving him any room to shine.
Although the sequel constantly clings to the past, the truth is that it is irresponsible toward its own legacy. You’d be better served just re-watching the original.
