Happy Gilmore 2 review: a crowd-pleasing cameo-filled caper

For Adam Sandler fans, Happy Gilmore remains one of his all time greats. Perhaps aware of its legacy, Sandler has left the Green Jacket-wearing champion of golf comedies (along with Caddyshack, of course) well alone for close to three decades. Until now, that is. Happy Gilmore 2 reunites us with the brash golfer at rock bottom. A boozer and a loser, he’s raising his five kids alone after one of his stray golf balls killed his wife. He hasn’t picked up a club since. But now his only daughter needs money for college – which means Happy has to break out his 9-iron again.

At least Sandler and co-writer Tim Herlihy offer up something different to the veteran sportsman back on the greens narrative. In Happy Gilmore 2, Benny Safdie (who directed Sandler in Uncut Gems) stars as Frank Manatee, a doofus proposing a breakaway golf league – Maxi – which will jazz up the sport. Obviously a nod to the Saudi-backed LIV Golf league that surfaced a few years back, Manatee is proposing quick-fire seven-hole rounds and shot clocks – much to the horror of golf’s finest. Suddenly, Happy Gilmore finds himself playing for the integrity of the sport.

Directed by Kyle Newacheck, there isn’t a lot more to Happy Gilmore 2 than this, along with a few timely jokes about age (the 58-year-old Happy no longer finds his “happy place” daydreaming about a lingerie-wearing lady double-fisting giant beers, but of a life where he’s wearing medium-sized shorts and has a low cholesterol rating). Otherwise, this is a typically unsophisticated, heart-in-the-right-place comedy from Sandler, complete with Happy’s four sons mooning and making dick jokes.

Golf lovers will, at least, be happy with the wealth of cameos – from former commentator Verne Lundquist to pro players like Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler. Probably more amusing are the numerous callbacks to the original movie – notably a bucket-hat-wearing Eminem, who pops up as the son of the asshole spectator who kept yelling “jackass” to put Happy off his shot. The rapper does a fine job, even getting to wrestle with alligators and use his iconic “I just don’t give a fuck” line.

There are nice nods to the late Carl Weathers (who featured in the 1996 original), an appearance by Sandler’s old buddy Steve Buscemi (as a nearby neighbour) and the return of Christopher McDonald, who played Happy’s rival – the now-imprisoned Shooter McGavin. Ben Stiller also features, expanding on his cameo as the orderly Hal from the first movie. Now Hal is a pony-tailed, ’tache-sporting leader of an ‘AA’-style recovery group that Gilmore joins when he’s trying to kick the bottle.

The names just keep coming, including Margaret Qualley (as a casual golfer) and Haley Joel Osment (as a pro, who has undertaken some radical surgery to improve his swing). But really this is all about Sandler, back in the saddle in a classic role. With one montage set to The Cult’s 1985 banger ‘She Sells Sanctuary’, it all feels very nostalgic for eras gone by. Golf, beers, Sandler and Eminem? No doubt, your dad’s gonna love it.