He's in the wrong movie . . .

Rating: Null/10 (11 October 2014)

Sometimes during bad movies I daydream about what it would be like to transport certain movie characters to other movies and see how they would fit. 'Happy Gilmore' is a movie that I would like to see in a whole different genre. It stars Adam Sandler as a hockey player with a volatile hair-trigger temper. This is a comedy but I was wondering what it would be like to see how a director like Mike Figgis or Tim Robbins might present him in a drama. In a drama he might fit but in a comedy Happy Gilmore is a very depressing character to watch.
Happy has a talent for being able to slap the puck with great power but he has two left feet when he gets on the ice. He doesn't make the team, which doesn't make him happy (he slugs the coach). Happy's grandmother has been evicted from her home by the IRS, leaving him to seek another source of income.
One day he discovers quite by accident that he can hit a golf ball for great distances and because golf doesn't require skating, he's perfect for the game. This leads to a rather depressing fish out of water story in which Sandler's violent temper invades the solemn game of golf beating up anything and everything that makes him mad. The much celebrated brawl between Sandler and 'Price is Right' host Bob Barker didn't work for me, maybe I just didn't get the joke.
The movie isn't that hard to predict. We know that Sandler will prevail and win the tournament and the girl's heart but he is so hateful and violent that it's hard to root for him even in a movie this predictable. As I say, I tried to imagine a dramatic Happy Gilmore and how his temper would lead him down a path of self-destruction. Instead he is stuck in a crowd-pleasing comedy and it's the movie that self-destructs.