Happy Gilmore 2 | Review by: Benjamin Garrett

Despite their mostly awful decade-long track record together, Adam Sandler and Netflix had a lot riding on this legacy sequel. Happy Gilmore is a beloved staple of 90’s comedy, so the hype, and fans’ expectations for this long awaited follow-up were understandably high. The good news is, Happy Gilmore 2 is not a total piece of sh*t (like the ones Shooter McGavin allegedly eats for breakfast). The bad news is, it fails to live up to the original in just about every way imaginable.

This is a nostalgia bomb that banks on viewers’ love of the original. Between countless flashbacks, callbacks, cameos and needle drops, there’s no shortage of “hey, remember this” going on in this sequel. Did I belly laugh when Rob Schneider inevitably showed up for 5 seconds to say “You can do it!”? You bet I did. Was I hit with a rush of serotonin hearing Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Tuesday’s Gone” again? I sure was. The nostalgia bait is everywhere, and it’s mostly effective, but it can’t mask the sheer level of stupidity that’s become synonymous with modern Happy Madison productions.

To be fair, the first act is surprisingly restrained, and while not all of the jokes land, it feels in line with the goofiness of the original. The events that transpired in the 20+ years between films feels like a natural and logical continuation of Happy’s story. As it goes on, though, it gradually gets a lot dumber - and I do mean A LOT. Listen, I don’t expect or want the humour in this kind of movie to be high-brow, but there’s so much that feels like it was written by an actual child. It’s a shame, because with the kind of script restraint that was present during that first 30-40 minutes, this could’ve been a legacy sequel that lived up to the legacy it was continuing.

Happy Gilmore 2 is a few dozen strokes over par, but fans of the original may find this legacy sequel tees up just enough nostalgia to get by. It isn’t lazy or passionless, and although it’s frequently dumb with a capital D, it’s far from the worst effort Happy Madison has given us.

2/5

Review by: Stefano Bove

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