Directed by: Dennis Dugan
Starring: Adam Sandler, Christopher McDonald, Julie Bowen, Richard Kiel, Bob Barker, Carl Weathers, Allen Covert, Joe Flaherty, Frances Bay, Dennis Dugan, Verne Lundquist
Happy Gilmore (Sandler) is a failed hockey player with a vicious temper. He transitions to a golfer who can hit off the tee a mile but has a terrible short game. Gilmore spends many scenes punching, kicking, fighting, and yelling at others. He's the hero of the movie, but like a lot of early Adam Sandler roles, he's unlikable, hostile, and not funny. Yet, Happy Gilmore keeps going to the repetitive well of Gilmore assaulting anyone who disrespects him.
Shooter McGavin (McDonald) is the movie's supposed villain, the top golfer in the world who resents Gilmore's presence on the tour. The association tolerates Happy's antics because the ratings are up and Happy moves merchandise, but Shooter wants to make Happy's life a living hell. However, I found Shooter a funnier character who is at least honest about being a prick. He gets his comeuppance in the final match with Happy, and I guess we are expected to be elated by that because Happy is able to save his grandmother's house from IRS foreclosure due to unpaid back taxes. I'm in the minority, but I liked Shooter more than Happy.
Sandler would go on to make better movies and play more likable characters, but until then much of his movies' humor is based on raging out against anyone who offends him. This doesn't generate a single laugh. Watching Happy wrestle and fight Bob Barker, his Pro-Am partner, has been lauded as one of the movie's highlights. It is, but not necessarily in an amusing way. It simply becomes another Happy Gilmore fight of which by now we've grown exceedingly tired.
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