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It's been almost 30 years since Happy Gilmore gave Adam Sandler one of his best-loved movie roles and became a source of sports memes decades later.
Now the rowdy golf comedy gets a belated sequel on Netflix, full of callbacks flashbacks, fan service and so many cameos from the golf world and beyond.
But how does it compare to the original?
I'm Stephen Thompson.
Today we are talking about Happy Gilmore 2 on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.
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Joining me today is journalist and host of the podcast, Black Queer Canon, Travelle Anderson.
Hey, Travelle.
Hello, hello.
Thanks for having me.
It is a pleasure.
Also with us is freelance music and culture journalist, Rihanna Cruz.
Hey, Rihanna.
Hey, Stephen.
Happy to be here.
Glad to have you both.
So Adam Sandler starred in the original Happy Gilmore as an aspiring hockey star who discovers that his killer slap shot translates into a killer golf swing.
Along the way he meets the love of his life, wins a gold jacket and humiliates his rival, Shooter McGavin, played by Christopher McDonald.
The film was a solid hit in its time, but it's become a cult favorite thanks to endless runs on basic cable and streaming.
Now Netflix is bringing us a full-length sequel in which Happy Gilmore is a father of five.
In the film's opening moments, his aforementioned sweetheart from the first film, still played by Julie Bowen, dies in a golf accident.
This leads Happy to hit the skids, drink heavily, give up golf, and lose his fortune.
When he learns that his beloved daughter needs a lot of money to go to ballet school, he rededicates himself to golf, a sport that's got its own trouble thanks to the upstart Maxi Golf League, which combines golf with extreme sports.
There's no sense in running down every single person or every single golfer who shows up in Happy Gilmore 2.
This movie is stuffed with cameos from golf, from music, from sports media, you name it.
Happy's new caddy is played by Bad Bunny, and that's just the beginning.
Naturally, Shooter McGavin figures into the plot, too.
Happy Gilmore 2 is streaming on Netflix now.
Rihanna, I'm going to start with you.
What did you think of Happy Gilmore 2?
All right.
Well, let me start with the positives, okay?
Mm-hmm.
I thought the concept of an XFL for golf was kind of fun.
I enjoyed that conceptually.
I thought some of the cameos were pretty humorous.
Your mileage may vary with certain ones, but I thought Eminem, for example, was great.
And I enjoyed the montage scenes, which I found very fun and exciting.
When he's golfing, it's fun.
But I think largely my issue with this movie is that by the time the movie starts cooking we're already like an hour 20 in.
Right.
This movie has a lot of things that I find wrong with like the modern comedy in general, but specifically legacy sequels where like it's not really goofy.
It's trying to be self-serious for the first time.
30 minutes.
Really it kind of made me sad at points because you're watching Happy Gilmore become an alcoholic and it's like oh, this is kind of a lot.
It kept showing clips of the first one throughout the whole movie which made me remember how breezy and funny so much weaving in of that original movie.
Yeah, Because the original movie is like enjoyable, you know, and breezy and funny and the way that 90s comedies are, where it's kind of very simple.
This one felt very convoluted and a little bit heavy on its reliance of nostalgia.
I'm kind of mixed on it.
Mostly bad, but I did enjoy the golfing part of it all.
I think it's the most dynamic aspect of the movie.
When your most dynamic aspect involves golf.
Dude, I know.
I'm sorry.
I'm just kidding.
No, you're right.
Not a golfer.
All right.
How about you, Trayvon?
You know, I would like my two hours back.
You know, I mean, I will say, I did have some highlights personally.
For me, they were Lavelle Crawford, who plays, you know, Chubbs' son these years later.
Hey, you gotta put a little mustard on that ball so it doesn't get stuck where the pirate hat is.
Uh uh, booty and s.
Yeah, the hole.
Get at it, kiddies.
I also liked Kim Whitley, who's one of the AA people in Happy's AA meetings.
Happy freaking Gilmore!
I can't believe you be hitting the bottle, too!
They had great one-liners that, you know, got a chuckle out of me.
But for the most part of the movie, I just kept asking myself, why?
Why are we here?
Why are we watching American Ninja Warrior meets golf?
And I know folks love Adam Sandler.
He's got that mega deal over at the Netflix, but...
I remember the original movie, right?
And it was so funny.
It was so comedic.
It was a simple storyline, like you mentioned, Rihanna.
And this one just felt like they were trying to do... too much.
Like I couldn't laugh even at the absurdity of Bad Bunny being the caddy, right?
Like it just wasn't funny to me.
And I hate that because Happy Gilmore used to be one of those movies that was always on TBS or TNT.
That would just always be on.
That's how many of us fell in love with it.
But I just was like, I wanted to laugh and I didn't laugh.
It's interesting.
My relationship with Happy Gilmore has mostly played out from a great distance.
The original run of kind of Adam Sandler comedies kind of missed me a little bit.
They came at an age when I thought I was too cool for them.
And it wasn't really until it became this meme generator and this kind of beloved, sort of cult classic among, certainly among golf fans, but definitely among, just like your basic cable watchers as well.
For me, the original didn't necessarily feel like it was setting a massively lofty standard to start with.
It's kind of artless.
It's pretty simple.
It's very short, which I think works to its favor.
Mm-hmm.
And then in kind of coming back and revisiting it and when I say revisiting it I mean it treats the original like this sacred text that has to be called back constantly in flashback after flashback, after flashback.
There is not a moment from that movie.
I feel like that is not reflected in some way in this film, whether in the form of a joke.
You know, this actor has died and so here is this actor's son that plays out multiple times.
This doesn't let you forget a second of the original.
It feels too long.
It feels sort of labored.
It's weighted with more grief now than I kind of expected from the first Happy Gilmore movie, which in some ways is inevitable in that Carl Weathers has died.
Several of the people that you love from the first movie have since passed on.
But then they kill the Julie Bowen character for essentially no reason.
Exactly.
I mean, Julie Bowen is still a working actress.
She pops up in kind of dream sequences throughout the film.
But so like you're giving this character all this grief over a decision you yourself made.
I agree that it picks up considerably in its second half.
I actually thought the Maxi Golf League stuff was pretty funny.
I thought having like an extreme sports golf league presided over by Guy Fieri was like the sort of ridiculously stupid thing that A might happen and B I might actually watch.
I'd watch it in real life to be clear.
Oh, absolutely.
I would absolutely watch it in real life.
You're definitely supposed to root against maxi league golf, but I'm not sure they didn't come up with something that looks way more fun.
Yeah, that last round, I was rapt.
I was like, this is really ingenious golf course design.
Agreed, agreed, agreed.
I think it's really hard to talk about a movie like this without talking about fan service.
I've seen reviews of this film that were like, oh, it's just fan service.
And it's sort of like, of course it's just fan service.
How could it be anything but?
Do you feel like the fan service here felt cynical?
Did it feel like a labor of love?
Did it seem like people were having fun?
I think the main question I had was, which fans are we servicing?
You know what I mean?
Because, I mean, it's number one on Netflix right now as we record this.
So apparently lots of fans felt serviced.
But we've got all of these golfers, all of these sports people.
Travis Kelsey pops up somewhere.
Yeah.
Eminem pops up somewhere.
Kid Cudi pops up somewhere.
What is happening?
Random.
Really underused, yes.
Well, absolutely.
But it just none of the cameos and the bits and pieces that felt like fan service, felt like the right thing that I, at least as a fan of the original, wanted.
You know what I mean?
It just didn't hit for me.
There were one or two things that I connected with.
But granted, I watched the first Happy Gilmore like three weeks ago.
I was like, wow, this is so funny.
So maybe I'm not the good clientele that they're looking to serve as.
I have nostalgia in the sense that I watched the first one and I was like they don't make movies like this anymore.
But I don't know anything about golf.
I have no idea who the famous people in golf are.
I don't know.
Oh, they're all in this movie except for Tiger Woods.
Well, exactly.
And the only golfer I know is Tiger Woods.
So I know that the original Happy Gilmore is caught on a lot in golf circles and people in the golf world are like this movie is amazing.
It does such a service to the sport of golf.
This is like weighted, you know.
You see, like a golf dude, and an extra second is spent on their face before you switch a shot.
And again, that goes back to like the length of the movie.
Like clearly this is supposed to mean something to somebody, but I am not that target person.
And you can feel that.
You can feel those moments that you are left out of, whatever the joke is or the surprise cameo is supposed to be.
One pro tip, if you're trying to figure out whether somebody is a cameo or not, is ask yourself can they act?
Not every golfer is a great actor.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, they're not asked to.
It's golf.
Right.
Right.
We've alluded a couple times to children of beloved characters from the first movie.
This film also contains several of Adam Sandler's real-life kids.
And he's certainly not the first person in movies to trot out his kids in the interest of, I guess, carrying on the brand, or whatever.
Why not hire your kids, okay?
Give them their credit.
Why not?
Was the presence of his children better or worse than the presence of M Night Shyamalan's daughter in Trap?
Right.
Like I see that and I'm like, oh, right.
Like you're just like riding for your children.
Like I rock with that, you know?
Yeah.
You know, it's funny, Travelle mentioned, this is two hours, I want my two hours back.
That's really what we've invested in this movie.
We didn't, unlike, say, Anchorman 2, we didn't have to go to theaters to see Happy Gilmore 2.
And I'm wondering if that changed the viewing experience or changed the calculus of whether or not you would recommend this movie.
And obviously, Treville, wanting those two hours back tells me your answer to this question.
But does the fact that this is on streaming make it feel a little bit more like you can take it or leave it if you're a happy Gilmore fan?
This isn't asking that much of you.
Yes, it does make it different, Steven.
You're not wrong, okay?
Because I didn't have to pay $25 to go see it in a movie theater, right?
Then I really would have been mad.
I do think it's like one of those movies you can, you know, put on in the background.
You don't really need to pay attention until the last 30 minutes or so.
And then you really get the core of action in the film.
But I also think that that is just like not a reason to be making movies, because people can, you know, we can just throw it up on the streaming service and they don't have to leave home.
So it doesn't need to be good.
I think that's a problem.
They're just throwing money at certain kinds of creators to do work that... And we should be clear.
It's number one on Netflix.
It's probably going to be number one on Netflix for a little bit longer, because people love that man.
And by that man, I mean Adam Sandler.
And I used to be a huge fan of Adam in his comedy.
That string of 90s movies that you mentioned, Stephen...
Love them.
Waterboy, come on, okay?
Classic.
The Wedding Singer, Jesus have mercy.
Favorite.
You know?
Yeah.
But this just feels.
I don't want to say it feels like a money grab or it feels like an easy thing, but it just didn't feel worth it.
But again, it's on streaming.
So, you know, put it on while you're dozing off going to bed.
Yeah, I think the streaming definitely allows for a passive watch.
And I really don't hate late career Adam Sandler.
I found Hubie Halloween to be quite funny, personally.
And I like Adam Sandler largely.
I think this movie just felt a little loaded.
And I do, going back to your question, Stephen, if it was in a theater, would it be leaner?
The answer is probably.
They replaced the plot beats of this movie over and over again, right?
Because they're probably like oh, the average watcher of this movie.
Your attention is probably flagging, exactly like they're watching it in two sittings.
You know, surely they don't remember the first Happy Gilmore because they watched it while they were falling asleep on the couch.
You know, like stuff like that, I don't think a good comedy of this caliber should be nearing two hours.
Especially because the first Happy Gilmore is so lean.
And I think this movie could have really trimmed some fat and been funnier.
Agreed.
But it's Happy Gilmore!
You get to see your buddy Happy Gilmore again!
Yay!
Yay!
All right.
Well, we want to know what you think about Happy Gilmore 2.
Find us on Facebook at facebookcom slash pchh.
And on Letterboxd at letterboxdcom slash nprpopculture.
We'll have a link in our episode description.
That brings us to the end of our show.
Trayvon Anderson, Rihanna Cruz, thanks so much for being here.
Thank you, Stephen.
Happy to be here.
And just a reminder that signing up for Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus is a.
This episode was produced by Liz Metzger, Janae Morris and Mike Katziff and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy.
Hello Come In provides our theme music.
Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.
I'm Stephen Thompson, and we will see you all next time.
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