The very successful film career of Adam Sandler celebrates 30 years since its founding. Thirty years since he went from being a minor figure on the cast of Saturday Night Live to one of the biggest movie stars of our generation, the Jerry Lewis of the 21st century.
Sandler’s first two films in which he was always involved in writing and producing and often worked with the same team were Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, which together created the name of his production company, Happy Madison.
The production company in recent years has enjoyed a very prestigious deal with Netflix, producing and streaming all of Sandler’s content from standup performances to silly comedies to more serious drama films (directed by Noah Baumbach or the Safdie brothers). Now, the ten-year collaboration between Netflix and Sandler (since 2015) has produced the holy grail of modern comedy: a sequel to Happy Gilmore, perhaps Sandler’s most beloved cinematic character. Patience has paid off: after five days it is already clear that this is one of the biggest hits in Netflix history.
Early in his career, Sandler had a formula for developing his childish personality and love of sports into comedic characters.
In each of his films, he created a collection of characters, grown children stuck in places not suitable for them.
Billy Madison was a young man who had to return to third grade Happy Gilmore was a failed hockey player who discovered his swing was not good enough on the hockey field, but it was enormous on the golf course.
With a temperament that was the complete opposite of quiet and calm hockey games and in The Waterboy, he played a young man working on the sidelines of football fields, who turns out to have a talent that will make his team a champion. His heroes are childish but short-tempered, quick to get angry, and get into trouble.
However, something interesting happened to Sandler in these 30 years: he turned from a clown into a mensch.
His films developed heart, his characters matured, and he gathered around him a community of creators in front of and behind the camera to whom he remained loyal and, to a large extent, supported financially.
Not all of Sandler’s films are good some are artistic whims and some are comedic flops, but as he matured, Sandler proved again and again that there is soul in his work.
The film itself is charming, but the opening of Happy Gilmore 2 is horrible: after years at the top of world golf, Happy Gilmore accidentally kills his wife who was hit by a golf ball in the head.
It is like Naked Lunch by William Burroughs, but with a golf ball. Not funny. It is unclear why a wild comedy should open with such a sad and outdated script decision yes, Gilmore enters a personal crisis soaked in guilt to allow him a comeback.
But is it necessary to kill the hero’s wife to create the circumstances for his fall, from which he will try to make a comeback? This is lazy writing, which is redeemed later by many good jokes. In any case, the film recovers from this poor script decision, because it is indeed a film about comebacks, recovery, and second chances.
Like Sandler himself, Gilmore in the sequel faces the fact that now he has young imitators more successful than him, who compete with him and perform his tricks and gimmicks better than him.
Now, instead of being the wildest kid in the tournament, he has to be the responsible adult, dealing with the consequences of his actions, and with the enemies and haters he created along the way.
He now teaches his golf stick (played by Bad Bunny) and does not choke it. Most of the film, full of golf stars from past and present playing themselves, works on the funny dissonance that golf is a quiet and elegant sport, whereas Happy Gilmore approaches it with the temperament of a hockey player and the attire of hockey gear.
A messy man in a gentleman’s sport.
Anyone wanting to analyze the script model of the sports film genre including the exact placement of training montages and, twenty minutes later, the victory montage, just before the crisis that threatens everything should watch Happy Gilmore 2, whose script is sewn exactly according to genre rules.
On the one hand, it is predictable.
On the other, it is comforting and provides a familiar escapist cinematic interlude combining maturity and infantilism.
The fact that Happy Gilmore 2 is a kind of generational meeting, of the adult generation alongside their children, is also reflected in casting.
Gilmore’s daughter is played by Sandler’s real-life daughter (all his other daughters also have roles in the film).
The son of the screenwriter, Tim Herlihy, Sandler’s constant partner in all his scripts, also has a small role.
Ben Stiller, Rob Schneider, Kevin Nealon, and Jon Lovitz, Sandler’s friends, appear in guest roles almost as always, and with all due respect to Sandler’s big heart and successful maturity, Happy Gilmore 2 truly manages to make people laugh in its slapstick moments. Because in a good comedy, when someone gets hit in the face with a golf club, it should be funny, not fatal.