I am not an Adam Sandler fan. I will admit I do find him funny in small doses, but many of his movies seem to be just an excuse to get his various comedian friends together to go to some exotic location and film a comedy that is mostly about how despite his age, whatever character Sandler is playing is really just an immature boy in an adult’s skin with various so-so slapstick efforts all while whatever actress playing his wife looks to be far out of his league–something that, to be fair, Sandler-as-Opera-Man actually lampshaded when he guest hosted SNL a few years ago. Many of these movies seem like Sandler just going through the motions and cashing a check, like he isn’t even trying all that hard except for those instances like the recent Uncut Gems where he actually is trying and showing he could be doing a whole lot more if he just put some effort into it.
So, why bother with Happy Gilmore? I had never really seen it before. I have a few reasons. One, it is one of the “must see” movies on my giant poster that I am trying to fill in, so expect me to get to the other one relatively soon. Two, it might be nice to see a Sandler comedy when he was just starting to make movies and hadn’t started just doing them in the rote manner I described above. And three…well, it’s short. So, even if I don’t care for it, at least it won’t take up too much of my time.
Happy Gilmore (Sandler) is a man with a hair-trigger temper who just wants to play hockey. Raised mostly by his sweet grandmother (Frances Bay), he continues to try out of hockey teams between mostly low-skill jobs. However, Happy is not good at skating or puck control. About all he can do is slam the puck very, very hard. He can also throw a good punch, but that’s not useful at the try-outs. One day, after his girlfriend abruptly leaves him, Happy discovers his grandma owes a few hundred thousand in back taxes, causing the IRS to confiscate her house and belongings. He has a month to raise the money to get her house back while she stays in a nursing home run by a sadistic nurse named Hal (an uncredited Ben Stiller). Happy then discovers his ability to hit the puck with all the force he has could be useful raising money as a golfer, particularly under the tutelage of one-handed former golf pro Chubbs Peterson (Carl Weathers). Happy’s skillset does allow him to hit the ball often very close to the hole, but his lack of patience makes him less adept at putting.
That said, his more hockey hooligan style of play gains him a huge following, putting him in the crosshairs of pro golfing snob Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald). Shooter wants Happy gone as he sees the man as an embarrassment to the game. The league wants Happy to stay since he draws crowds, and PR director Virginia (Julie Bowen) even takes a special liking to Happy. Can Happy win enough to get his grandma’s house back, or will Shooter successfully get him removed from the game forever?
OK, considering what type of movie this is, the answer to that question is that obviously Happy will prevail. It’s more of a how rather than an if. And he gets there in a typical Sandler style involving a lot of yelling, slapstick, and the occasional dark joke involving Chubbs’s wooden hand and/or the alligator that ate the real one. This is the earliest version of the Sandler manchild in a movie barring maybe a cameo here or there, and it’s maybe more acceptable in this form since the character is unmarried and has no children. Plus, Sandler is still rather babyfaced in the movie, so imagining him as a directionless twentysomething looking to follow a dream he isn’t remotely qualified for and can’t or won’t admit as much is somewhat different from the more recent output that shows someone with a wife and kids acting like an overgrown child.
That all said, I am still not an Adam Sandler fan, and even if the routine was new when this came out, it sure isn’t now. Even something like the fistfight with former Price is Right host Bob Barker is somewhat old hat by now when it was probably a lot more revolutionary (so to speak) then. I’m coming at this movie 25 years after it came out, and the stuff that may have enticed audiences with a new comedic film talent then is old hat now as the actor has oh-so-rarely tried to expand beyond this sort of movie. So, really, it was a bit amusing, but mostly not for me.
And if I want to fill in another blank on that poster…expect a review for Billy Madison before the end of the month.
Grade: C+
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