Reel Rundown: Cheap laughs, but nothing to be bored about, with ‘Happy Gilmore 2’
It was on the fourth hole at Downriver Golf Course that I heard something that irked me.
No, it wasn’t some sarcastic remark about how awkwardly I swing a driver, as appropriate as that might be. Instead, it was one of my playing partner’s criticisms of the PGA golfer Scottie Scheffler, a superior talent whom some of the viewing public views as a bit … well, boring.
I figured that was unfair. No one is boring who is willing to make fun of himself. And as evidence of Scheffler’s readiness to self-deprecate, I offer the recent Netflix release “Happy Gilmore 2.”
A sequel to 1996’s “Happy Gilmore,” which tells the story of an ice hockey flameout (Adam Sandler) who becomes a golf phenomenon, “Happy Gilmore 2” takes up years later. Happy has been long retired, following an errant drive he made that proved fatal when it struck his loving wife (Julie Bowen).
But facing the need to fund the ballet dreams of his daughter (Sunny Sandler – Adam’s real-life daughter), Happy decides to try a comeback, which at first doesn’t go well. Eventually, though, he does rediscover his old form – and the emotions that fuel it – and he finds himself again competing with the tour leaders.
Few things come easy for Happy, though, which is the plight of virtually every character that Adam Sandler has played in his three-decades-plus movie career. Not only does Happy have to battle his alcoholism, which nearly sabotages everything, but he faces a new nemesis.
Instead of his former foe, the golfer Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald), Happy now has to cope with Frank Manatee (Benny Safdie), a CEO who sponsors a counterpart organization that seeks to compete with the traditional professional golf tour. Manatee’s main weapon is a team of augmented golfers led by the upstart Billy Jenkins (Haley Joel Osment).
Furthermore, Happy has been ordered to attend an alcohol-treatment program headed by the shady Hal L. (Ben Stiller). And as always, he’s prone to acting out the kind of adolescent behavior that he’s passed on to his four sons … the kind of behavior that makes this a typical Sandler movie.
This one was directed by Kyle Newacheck, who also helmed Sandler’s 2019 Netflix movie “Murder Mystery.” Co-written by Newacheck and Sandler, “Happy Gilmore 2” follows most other Happy Madison productions in its tendency to go for cheap laughs.
Many of the jokes land, though it might take familiarity with professional sports, especially golf, to fully appreciate a lot of them. Consider, for example, the real-life current and former PGA players who have roles in the movie. Prominent among then is John Daly, a two-time major tournament winner who plays a somewhat exaggerated version of himself.
Current players such as Will Zalatoris, Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy also have small roles – as do golfing legends Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino. Women’s PGA hall-of-famer Nancy Lopez and today’s dominant player Nelly Korda show up, too, as members of a board debating whether to release, yes, Shooter McGavin from a mental-health facility.
Yet the celebrities that Newacheck and Sandler highlight go far beyond golf. Also featured are the rapper Bad Bunny, NFL player Travis Kelce, sports commentators Steven A. Smith and Dan Patrick, former NBA player Boban Marjanović and WNBA all-star Kelsey Plum among many others.
The golf enterprise that Happy ends up playing against is an obvious reference to the real-life LIV Golf tour that markets itself as a more exciting alternative to the traditional 18-hole golf format – an arguable point at best.
It’s Scheffler, though, and his willingness to poke fun at his own image that stands out. At one point he gets arrested, just as he did in real life a year ago prior to the second round of the U.S. Open. He ends up watching Happy’s attempt to win the climactic tournament from behind bars.
Scheffler’s performance was good enough, in fact, to win him at least one new fan. After watching “Happy Gilmore 2,” the person who criticized him that day at Downriver no longer thinks he’s boring.
Which is fair enough. Every golfer deserves a mulligan.