150 Word Review: 'Happy Gilmore 2' (2025)
You can do it (but do you have to?)
I’d read somewhere that Happy Gilmore 2 was the "long-awaited" sequel to Adam Sandler’s 1996 hit. And while it’s certainly a sequel to that frat-boy comedy classic, I question whether anyone’s been waiting for it, let alone for a long time.
But I could be wrong. Maybe the world was clamoring, lo these past 30 years, for the continuing adventures of hockey player-turned-enfant terrible golfeur Happy Gilmor?
Happy Gilmore 2 reunites Sandler with nearly everyone from the original, living or dead. The acknowledgement that time passes, and so do people, even those we care about, adds an unexpected melancholy zip to the frat boy chaos. Same plot, same laughs. Sometimes, old jokes are funny.
Sandler’s comedies remind me of the popular Rat Pack flicks of the ‘60s, like Ocean's 11 and Robin and the 7 Hoods. They were made by friends just scewing around—sloppy filmmaking, but everyone is having fun.
Silly and stupid but my expectations were met, and it seems like silly and stupid is what they were going for.
Judging on the merits of what it was TRYING to be—at least in my estimation—I’d have to call it successful.