lowbrow classic

Rating: 7/10 (30 January 2006)

happy gilmore lives in a strange place, now inhabited by ben stiller and the cast of American pie... that lowbrow, idiotic type of comedy that requires very little work from the viewer to generate laughs...
however, happy gilmore is funny because of a few reasons... movies like this are steam trains; they need to be fed jokes, one liners, visual gags and zany scenes the way a burner needs coal... without them, the movie slows down and slides back down the hill...
happy gilmore is relentless in its provision of funny moments... it's a juggernaut, wielding a crazy protagonist and an absurdly unlikeable villain... somewhere, the chemistry was just working...
happy gilmore is not intellectually challenging... however, it does not pander exclusively to the bodily fluid and innuendo craving audience... it's hardly very mature, but it's not mindless either... it rather choose to play on the fairways, in the interesting world of pro golf...
taking on a subject like golf was a stroke of brilliance, because it is a fertile area for basic humour... it's very nature makes it ideal... instead of drugs or relationships, we are given the gentlemen's game...
it's the same old sport movie cliché, but it just seems so fresh... the jarring juxtaposition of the common man in a sport characterised with big money and a sense of elitism... it works brilliantly...
adam sandler is excellent at physically conveying uncontrollable, explosive anger... it's hammy in its own way, but few do it as well... he's zany, he has good timing and delivery, and he doesn't let it dip too far into sentimentality... this movie had great pacing, a decent script for a film of its type, and it blows some of his later films out of the water...
if you can put yourself in the right frame of mind, few movies of this genre could be as satisfying as happy gilmore... the formula is tired now, but this movie is a cut above...