Happy Gilmore 2: To Watch or Not to Watch

By now, I’m sure many of you have turned on the tube to watch the latest Adam Sandler flick, a movie titled “Happy Gilmore 2.” It broke all sorts of Netflix records. If you haven’t watched it yet, there will be no spoilers in this section. Instead, we’re going to have a civil one-sided conversation about the film.

Let’s start with a simple question: is the movie worth watching?

To answer that, we have to look at the Adam Sandler formula of movies. Aside from Uncut Gems (and maybe even including UG), there is a mixture of silliness and stupidity in all Sandler films that determine their watchability. In my opinion, if the silliness outweighs the stupid, it’s a watch every time. The original Happy Gilmore passes that test with flying colors. It has developed characters, a cohesive plot, and a memorable script. The success of the original movie — combined with the fact that most of Sandler’s recent straight-to-streaming Netflix movies have failed the watchability test — had many people rolling their eyes at the announcement of a sequel. 

While there are numerous elements of stupidity in the sequel, there is just enough silliness to outweigh the bad. Happy’s relationship with his family, his path back to professional golf, and his interactions with other professionals provide plenty of good moments throughout the movie. Some of the many cameos — John Daly, Scottie Scheffler, Travis Kelce, and Xander Schauffele to name a few — make for genuinely enjoyable moments as well.

Where the HG2 detractors seem to quibble the most with the fact that the plot is built upon multiple layers of ridiculousness. And you know what, they’re right. The idea of Happy Gilmore needing to come back to professional golf late in his career could have been written in many ways that are more enjoyable and less off-putting than the one they chose. There is an element of the Netflix-ification of movies and TVs, something I wrote about a few months ago, that keeps the sequel from getting anywhere close to the level of the original. The lack of depth in the script and plot are noticeable. And yes, there are far too many cameos. 

At the end of the day, Happy Gilmore 2 is worth your time. You will laugh, you’ll be entertained by the inclusion of some of the guest stars and cameos, and you’ll have the knowledge of which professional golfers should be nowhere near a camera ever again. Most importantly, it doesn’t detract from the original. You’ll likely be disappointed that it didn’t reach its full potential, but you won’t be disappointed that you spent 90 minutes watching Happy and crew.