Directed by: Kyle Newacheck
Starring: Adam Sandler, Benny Safdie, Christopher McDonald, Haley Joel Osment, Julie Bowen, Scottie Scheffler, Bad Bunny, Travis Kelce
Happy Gilmore (1996) was not a movie begging for a sequel, but Adam Sandler made one, and his Happy this time is gentler, thanks to the years and having a wife and five kids. He is still on the pro circuit, having won numerous championships while his nemesis Shooter McGavin (McDonald) is languishing away in a mental institution after the ending of the first movie. However, Shooter still has a soft spot for Virginia (Bowen), Happy's wife who is soon killed off within the first twenty minutes of the movie following an errant golf ball striking her. This sends Happy into a downward spiral in which he retires from golf, begins working at a supermarket, and takes on John Daly as a roommate.
Happy is approached by smarmy mogul Frank Manatee (Safdie), who is starting up a new golf organization which craps all over tradition and arranges Shooter's release once Happy violently turns Frank down. You would assume Shooter would go along with Frank's schemes, which include removing some vertebra removed so the golfers can drive from the tee even longer than Happy. Shooter, more of a traditionalist than we realize, rejects Frank and befriends Happy. (Not before a silly fistfight near Virginia's grave, of course, which forces a truce).
Happy gathers up some of his tour buddies to take on Frank's golfers in a match played on what resembles an amusement park mixed with an obstacle course. Happy Gilmore 2 isn't a movie to watch for any semblance of accurate golf strategy or even sanity at times. I enjoyed the evolution of Happy and Shooter, who team up to take on an even more dastardly villain, and I found myself caring much more than I expected. Like any sequel made nearly thirty years after the original, there are callbacks to actors and characters who have passed on, and even that has a certain sweetness.
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