Review of Happy Gilmore (1996) by Dawdlingpoet — 25 Nov 2021

This is one of Adam Sandlers earliest popular movies, I didn't realise at the time it was so old, I thought it was from 1999 or 2000 but it actually dates from 1996, for reference.

Its quite a good comedy I thought, I was a little worried it might be a bit bland and even somewhat boring, I mean come on, golf? that can hardly be too exciting, even with him in it, I wasn't sure, so I didn't bother to buy this on DVD and instead waited until the movie came on TV. It was worth watching I felt as I thought it was quite entertaining. I can't say that its a perfect movie, as I did feel that it had downsides. If you think about it, it is fairly easy to guess to outcome of the movie, for one. Its pretty predictable and it has the usual elements present in most Adam Sandler movies, the wackiness and the daftness. The format of the movie, storywise, isn't altogether new, though I thought that it was a pretty good movie, entertainment wise, if you go along for the ride and don't analyse it too much.

One thing I noticed that was a bit annoying in a way was a clear case of product placement for a certain US sandwich/baguette based fast food chain store, which could be seen on Happy's t-shirt and in other places. I guess back then, they needed a bit of that to help pay for these films, though with some of the people appearing in it, you'd have thought they must have a fairly good budget to pay for them all.

I quite enjoyed this movie. I wouldn't say that its really anything new as far as sports based comedies are concerned, or as far as Adam Sandler movies are concerned but there again, it was one of his first hit movies (as far as im aware anyway), so what do you expect? it was still pretty entertaining. Some of the dialogue was hilarious and while the end was a bit cheesy, I did walk away feeling that I was glad I had seen it. You are made to back Happy, knowing the reasons why he wants to win the championship (for the prize money, to give his grandmother her house back) and hope only the best for him, which is why its not so bad that it is a bit predictable and in a way, it almost isn't when a twist is present towards the end...