Happy Gilmore has long aspired to be a hockey player. Despite a powerful slapshot, Happy's inability to skate and his volatile behaviour exclude him from being accepted by any hockey team. Furthermore, Happy's grandma is being evicted from her home after failing to pay her taxes. After playing with some golf clubs and learning he can shoot golf balls far distances, he decides to join the PGA Tour to win money to buy back his grandma's home. Happy's bad-boy image attracts a loyal following but also attracts the attention of Shooter McGavin, the favourite to win the PGA Tour who is worried that Happy's rise to stardom will undermine his shot to win. Happy Gilmore is easily one of my favourite Adam Sandler movies. I can't believe how much fun I had with this movie and I would even go on to say it is easily one of the most hilarious comedies in the sport genre. It certainly scores a hole-in-one for side-splitting witty absurdity and outrageous slapstick. I adore the character of Happy who is played magnificently by Sandler. I love seeing Gilmore frequently become so overcome in rage both during his games and in everyday circumstances, which results in plenty of ridiculously brilliant scenes. Happy goes all out with his anger issues going from beating up members of the audience who make fun of him, to attacking well-known professional golfers and even destroying mini golf sculptures in a fit of rage. His crazy attacks began fairly quickly at his entry into the golfing community when a bystander make a small passing comment on how long it took Happy to hit the ball in the hole. This comment led to Happy casually walking up to him explaining how he wanted to get it in sooner before straight up punching him in one fell swoop in true slapstick style. He definitely has all the qualities of a hockey player with his brute force and hard-hitting slapshot but when he is denied that position year after year he finds out that he can hit a golf ball pretty far. This quickly gains the attention of Chubbs, a pro golfer who was forced to retire early when his hand was bitten off by an alligator, who sees great potential in Happy. Chubbs takes it upon himself to mentor him to win the Championship like he never could, which would reward Gilmore with the money to save his grandma's house from being sold. I like Chubbs' character because of how good of a friend he becomes to Happy, only wanting to help out with developing his experience by giving him the chance to pair up those powerful shots with skill and knowledge of the game. Chubbs is probably my second favourite character with his countless comedic moments and heartfelt sequences but most of all every scene where his prosthetic hand keeps getting broken is just really amusing. He constantly keeps breaking it thanks to Happy who only makes matters worse by continuously snapping off Chubbs' fingers when shaking his hand after he has spent so much time reattached them. Such a funny gag. Also, the antagonist of the story, Shooter McGavin, is a fantastic villain who is so snobbish and full of himself that it only makes it more enjoyable to see him fail. Although there are many parts I enjoy in this film, the biggest highlight for me was the reoccurring joke of Happy trying to find his happy place. It leads to some amusing sequences of him imagining family and friends being happy and even some random unrelated and never before seen characters are thrown in there that never get explained making it all the more farcical. The joke only gets better when Happy tries to find his happy place but it gets invaded by McGavin who takes over taking everything he loves much to Happy's anger which throws him off in the game. This is certainly one of the funniest sports movies I have seen and will be even more so to golf fans I'm sure and if you are looking for more golf-themed comedies, then you might also want to check out: Caddyshack (1980). Overall, Happy Gilmore is a comedic classic that feels very unique and all it's own. If you are a fan of Adama Sandler, why not take a look at clearly one of his best performances and films that continues to get a laugh from me, and so many others, every time without fail.
Runtime: 1h 32m
Director: Dennis Dugan
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