You must see Happy Gilmore if you love sports comedies

Rating: Null/10 (28 October 2011)

If you are someone who is looking to watch an Oscar winning movie, or movies like Pulp Fiction, The Matrix, or Inception, then this is not the movie for you. However, if you want to have 92 minutes of non-stop laughter, with hilarious line after hilarious line, you must stop what you are doing and watch "Happy Gilmore." There are endless scenes and lines of the movie that will make you literally "Laugh out Loud." For anyone who hasn't seen this movie yet-considering it came out in 1996, I don't know what you are waiting for. In "Happy Gilmore," director Dennis Dugan takes the conventional sports movie and throws a completely different twist on it. Personally, I think that if Happy Gilmore could've wrote the movie he would've made himself the most successful hockey player instead of a great golfer. The comedy "Happy Gilmore" takes arguably one of the funniest and loudest actors in history, Adam Sandler, and throws him into the calm, peaceful and serene game of golf. Who knows what could possibly happen from this? From the moment the movie opens with a captivating seen about Happy's past, one would never realize where the movie ends up going. The spin the director puts on the movie makes "Happy Gilmore" become one of the greatest sports comedies of all time.
The audience is able to see in one of the first few scenes of the movie what type of character Happy Gilmore is and where the entire movie is going to end up. Right away the witty humor of Happy Gilmore is shown during hockey tryouts when he has this life long dream of becoming a professional hockey player when he can barely skate. Players and coaches mock him, but one thing that emerges from this, is his determination and will to succeed. This is one of the greatest character traits that Happy has and this is shown later on in the film. The movie is almost ridiculous in which you take a guy whose dream is to play hockey and put him in a situation where he needs to learn to play golf in order to succeed. The funny and ironic part about the whole situation is that golf and hockey are almost opposites. Although you get a glimpse of a hockey arena in the first scene the remainder of the movie takes place primarily on the golf course. Approximately 90 percent of the movie is seen on the golf course, and it is here that the great personality of Happy Gilmore is portrayed. One could make the argument that Happy Gilmore is actually crazy. Happy has such anger, rage and aggression toward everything and everyone involved with the game of golf. His ridiculous abilities to drive the ball further than any player has done before, paired up with his ridiculous stance for driving and putting, leads other to laugh and mock him. Most people would be able to ignore these distractions, but not Happy, he would go scream, punch and kick anyone that rubbed him the wrong way. He would constantly scream at his clubs and the small white golf ball various things such as, "Are you too good for your home?" This is extremely atypical behavior to see from anyone on the golf course but this is what contributes to the eccentricity of the movie.
Happy plays the role of an underdog but not a typical underdog like in the movie "The Replacements" or "Remember the Titans." His role as an underdog is quite odd and eccentric and because of that so many people root for him to win. Happy Gilmore is a stand out character in the world of sports movies because of how different he is than other sports underdogs. Due to the fact that he is not your typical underdog, he has this great ability to emotionally bring the audience into the movie, to both sympathize with, and cheer on throughout the movie. In the sport of golf he would typically be a person golf fans hate, but because of the eccentricity of the movie, Happy is the perfect underdog candidate. The director juxtaposes Happy Gilmore with the antagonist of the movie Shooter McGavin who is the exact opposite of him.
The movie would be nowhere near the same if it wasn't for Christopher McDonald playing the role of Shooter McGavin with sheer brilliance. Shooter McGavin comes off as one of the cockiest, most arrogant players on the PGA tour and McDonald does a perfect job portraying this. Through Christopher McDonalds acting, the viewer is able to get a clear understanding of how obnoxious and rude Shooter McGavin is. Shooter McGavin could be compared to that of Tiger Woods (in his prime) and is the standout favorite to win the PGA Championship. Although his golf abilities are on par with those of Tiger Woods, his attitude and demeanor is nothing like that of Tiger Woods, which is respectful and classy. People in the movie and those watching at home, develop such a strong hatred for Shooter McGavin and find just seeing him an extremely bitter sight. Christopher McDonalds ability to play the role of Shooter McGavin greatly enhances the movie as a whole, as well as his conflicting battle with Adam Sandler.