One of Adam Sandler's stronger films

Rating: 8/10 (3 March 2009)

This 1996 film, starring comedian Adam Sandler, was released the year after "Billy Madison", also starring Sandler. I didn't see either of those two famous films from start to finish until years after their release. I saw all of "Billy Madison" for the first time in 2003, and don't recall being too pleased. I finally watched "Happy Gilmore" in 2006, and definitely thought it was better than its predecessor. Watching "Billy Madison" again this year, I was more impressed than I was before, but still found some of it a tad embarrassing. Overall, it was a mixed blessing for me that time. After my second viewing of that film, I watched "Happy Gilmore" again, and I definitely still prefer it. In fact, it may have been just a bit better to me than it was the first time.
Happy Gilmore is a wannabe hockey player who was raised by his grandmother. He has failed in his attempts to make the professional league due to his lack of skating skills and trouble controlling his temper. His grandmother hasn't paid her taxes in years, and owes a total of $270,000 to the IRS. Because of this, she is evicted from her house (a house which Happy claims his grandfather built with his bare hands), and is forced to live in a retirement home, which is secretly run as a sweatshop! Happy must find a way to make $270,000 in time, before the house is sold, and discovers how far he can hit golf balls. Soon after ex-golf pro Chubbs Peterson sees his skill, and leads him into professional golf, only because Happy knows this is a chance to make money and save his grandmother's house. He turns out to be a huge hit on the pro golf tour, but his aggressive tendencies may be a problem here as well, and golfing champion Shooter McGavin is determined to bring him down!
Sandler played the same kind of character in this film as he did in "Billy Madison", a goofy, immature maniac. Both films are pretty silly, but this one doesn't get QUITE as puerile as its predecessor (for example, no pants wetting gags here), and while not every single gag in this film made me laugh, none of them actually embarrassed me, which some of the gags in Sandler's 1995 film seemed to do. In "Happy Gilmore", the comedian made me laugh quite a few times, sometimes hard, with his antics in the lead role, involving slapstick and insanity. Highlights for me included his tirade on the golf course and some fights he gets into, including one with game show host Bob Barker. While Sandler provides most of the humour, some of the other cast members can also be funny, such as Joe Flaherty in his bit part as the "Jeering Fan", there to make Happy Gilmore's game more difficult.
During Adam Sandler's film career, he has had some big hits as well as flops. It seems this one turned out to be one of his successful films, which I would say it deserved to be, unlike, let's say, the 2002 feature-length cartoon, "Eight Crazy Nights", which deservingly tanked. As usual with films starring the former "Saturday Night Live" comedian, this one is crude and rather juvenile, though certainly not as juvenile as some of his other films. I guess that's one of the things I like about it. Unlike some of Sandler's comedies, including "Billy Madison", and even more so the rather disgusting "Eight Crazy Nights", this one doesn't tend to overdo the puerile humour. Still, it's not for everybody, including those who hate the comedian who plays the main character here, but for fans of his who want a laugh, this film has been good for that through the years.