Happy Gilmore was released twenty-nine years ago, and I personally consider it one of my favorite comedies. The movie is about a rowdy, down-on-his-luck hockey player named Happy Gilmore who starts playing golf after he realizes his hidden talent of long drives. It is a really funny but also genuinely captivating movie, and it still holds up today. Twenty-nine years later, Happy Gilmore 2 was released, and I think it is a pretty good (though not quite as good as the original) follow-up to the foundation that Happy Gilmore set many years ago.
In the sequel, Happy is once again down on his luck. His five kids are left without a mother when he accidentally kills her with his signature long drive. Since his wife handled his finances, he loses all of his money and fame when he decides to not play golf again. Presently, Happy is a broke old man working at a supermarket who lives next to an equally washed-up John Daly (a real former professional golfer). With John’s encouragement, Happy decides to take up golf again, competing in a huge competition like the last movie. However, things start to go off the rails when Happy has to fight against another, more extreme golf league who are genetically modified to hit even better than he can.
This movie’s comedic timing and delivery is exactly like the original. When watching Happy Gilmore 1 and 2 together, it is kind of hard to believe that these two movies were created twenty-nine years apart because the humor remains consistent throughout both. Sure, the humor is a little juvenile and immature, but when Happy Gilmore 2 is funny, it’s really funny.
Throughout the sequel, the golf scenes are just as entertaining as the original Happy Gilmore. When you’re watching Happy slowly get back on his feet and start to play like he’s in his prime again, you cannot prevent yourself from rooting for him. Even the extreme sports golf competition in the second half of the movie had some pretty great scenes, even if the story went a little off-kilter.
Speaking of the plot, I did not really like it that much. I really do not like the trope of ruining the main character’s life right before the sequel, but I can see the appeal of a rusty, washed-up Happy Gilmore slowly getting back into the game. I also think the second half of the story where he fights against the extreme sports golfers was a pretty strange way to shift the story, and I definitely enjoyed the more grounded golf competition similar to the first movie. The movie felt like the original Happy Gilmore only Adam Sandler had a beard this time. Do not get me wrong, everything is different, but at the same time, everything is the same. Happy needs to train to get back into golf. He needs money for his family, he competes in the big golf competition, and to everybody’s surprise, he’s really good at golf. The villain of the movie tries to sabotage Happy but it backfires, and Happy wins the game.
The most evident issue of the movie is how much it relies on nostalgia. Pretty much every single character in the first movie returns in some capacity, whether it be them with a couple gray hairs, or their son, and I really don’t like how they force it in some scenes, because if the character died in the first movie, they just say it’s their son and make him act exactly how the original character did in the first movie. And they always try to make it seem like a bigger deal than it is. How? They pull up old clips of the first movie corresponding to that character, which is just a pretty dumb way to tell you “Hey, this is a character from the last movie, now clap.”
Overall, Happy Gilmore 2 is a passable sequel to its predecessor; it contains great sense of humor, entertaining characters, and excellent golf scenes, but its subpar story and heavy over-reliance on nostalgia and returning characters keep it from reaching the same level of the original Happy Gilmore. This movie is a 6.5/10 for me. It is worth a watch if you have nothing else to do but it’s not worth getting excited about unless you are a big fan of Happy Gilmore or Adam Sandler.
