Film reviews and more since 2009
Publication Date: 07-25-2025
Happy Gilmore (1996) review
Dir. Dennis Dugan
By: Steve Pulaski
Rating: ★★
Golf is dreadfully boring. Thankfully, films like Caddyshack and Happy Gilmore possess ambition to bring fun to the green. Both are fresh ideas that use their actors to motivate their screenplay. Unfortunately, Happy Gilmore manages to drive itself into the high grass area shortly when the game commences. Let’s watch…
The story of Happy Gilmore is simple; a loud, energetic, aspiring hockey player of the same name (Adam Sandler) takes up golf when he finds out he has a powerful swing. He has serious anger management issues, and because of that, somehow, he attracts the gorgeous Julie Bowen, who plays a Public Relations Director, as well as fellow golfer Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald), who wants Gilmore off the face of the golf world.
Gilmore wants $270,000 so he can buy back his grandmother’s house that was recently taken away by the IRS because of failure to meet tax payments over the last decade.
The setup compiles the obligatory sports movie and love story clichés, but the main problem is, well, Sandler’s character. The Happy Gilmore character is odd, annoying, and aggravating. This is what you call a film’s desperate attempt at comedy. Gilmore is easily fatigued, which is why his character is seriously hard to like. The character gets into fights every few minutes, resulting in lame, cartoonish blows to the face and a lot of yelling.
It’s much harder to write funny, memorable jokes, so that might be why Sandler and co-writer Tim Herlihy went the punching, kicking, and screaming route. Keep in mind that if you read many of my reviews, you’ll know I am a fan of silly slapstick. It takes a certain tone and cast charisma to pull off slapstick. I wonder if Chris Farley could’ve brought more coherent likability to the Happy Gilmore character.
Also, the product placement is shamefully explicit. I’m aware it’s golf, and like every other sport, is known to display product placement around the field, but when doing it in a film it appears that some of the big name companies are put in for the money; not the realism of the source material. Especially the utterly shameless marketing for Subway. Have mercy.
When compared to present day Adam Sandler, Happy Gilmore has a harmless innocence to it. Sandler fans will be at home with this, while others will search the screenplay high and low for the real humor.
But, the film does deliver laughs, just not consistently. There’s nothing more uncomfortable than watching a comedy, that is supposed to be funny, but isn’t. Happy Gilmore gets laughs, but a lot of them aren’t distinct in any way. I think the most memorable scene is when Bob Barker and Happy Gilmore square off on the green. It would’ve been apropos for Barker to have offered some notes on the script, particularly, “humor, come on down!”
Starring: Adam Sandler, Julie Bowen, Christopher McDonald, and Carl Weathers. Directed by: Dennis Dugan.
About Steve Pulaski
Steve Pulaski has been reviewing movies since 2009 for a barrage of different outlets. He graduated North Central College in 2018 and currently works as an on-air radio personality. He also hosts a weekly movie podcast called "Sleepless with Steve," dedicated to film and the film industry, on his YouTube channel. In addition to writing, he's a die-hard Chicago Bears fan and has two cats, appropriately named Siskel and Ebert!
