Happy Gilmore 2

The first Act is a depressing collection of cameos, including his entire immediate family, wife and two daughters. One of them goes all Sophia Coppola and has a major recurring role. You know that is not a good sign. The second Act is the Happy Gilmore we all came to see and it's great. The comeback montage / Rocky style tribute to Carl Weathers, his first time back on the real golf course, all the call backs and the new schtick, and now the cameos are fun. But then.......the WTAF third Act. "Regular" golf v Maxi golf was just stupid. Not Happy Gilmore silly, just stupid. And it ruined the whole thing.

40 minutes in, and this was looking very good. Similar beats to the original, with great cameos and multiple laughs. Sandler eases back into Happy like it's 1996, and familiar faces are everywhere.

But suddenly, things take a wild turn, and we are stuck in a bonkers sequel with no semblance of reality or cohesion. It is so bonkers that much of the last hour is indescribable.

Essentially Happy needs to raise money again to send his daughter to ballet school. He has to return to golf, which is being hijacked by a gingivitis addled fruit loop with grand plans to turn golf into MTV x XFL.

I didn't expect much, but was pleasantly surprised early on, particularly with Happy's hilarious buffoon sons. Unfortunately, we are left with another Zoolander 2 style debacle. 5/10.

I was actually quite looking forward to this and to be fair, it starts off pretty well. Loads of nostalgic references, a few funny slapstick moments that definitely felt familiar, and in a good way at first.

But yeah... it didn't really bring anything new to the table. Most of it relies on old jokes, random cameos, and throwing in a bunch of YouTubers. Not terrible, just kind of predictable. You can tell they weren't really trying to reinvent anything just giving fans more of what they remember.

That said, the nostalgia is still there. It was fun overall. I laughed a few times, had a decent time watching it, but it was never going to live up to the original. Still, worth a watch if you're a fan of the first one just keep your expectations in check.

I said, "so stupid," several times while watching Happy Gilmore 2. But I was laughing while I said that. So I can't even be mad at it. Comedy is subjective and some people will see this stupidity and cringe or roll their eyes. But it made me laugh repeatedly. And that's all I really care about with comedies.

Aside from the humor, so much about this movie shouldn't work. It's what people criticize as the problem with sequels and reboots these days. There is a huge focus on nostalgia and recreating moments from the original. There are tons of cameos and callbacks.

I can't explain why, but these usual problems somehow feel like they belong. Maybe it's the era this harkens back to. It doesn't feel forced even though it absolutely is.

I can't say this is a good movie, but in an age of comedy movie extinction, I had a good time with it.

(1 viewing, 7/27/2025)

I just watched Happy Gilmore 2 on Netflix

I love the first movie (it's my favourite Sandler movie), and I have been cautiously optimistic for this one.

And it was a massive let down. After a serious WTF moment in the first three minutes and the following ten minutes, where we see all Happy achieved in the first movie undone, there are not a lot of laughs. In fact I don't think I laughed once. I smiled a couple of times, but that was it.

Julie Bowen, Christopher McDonald and Ben Stiller all return (with varying amounts of screen time) as do a host of people from the first movie, Sandler regulars and some pro golfer's

Adam Sandler's daughter, Sunny Sandler, plays Happy's daughter Vienna, his wife plays her dance teacher, his other daughter Sadie Sandler plays someone Happy meets at an A. A meeting, Haley Joel Osment and Margaret Qualley are also here

It relies a lot on nostalgia, with plenty of flashbacks and callbacks. The new Happy place made me smile, I wasn't bored and it was nice to spend time with some of the characters again and I enjoyed what they did with Shootst, but overall this was a let down. I wanted to like it, so much more.