Each week, I will look at a movie that is currently in theaters or available to stream and give some reasons why people should watch it. This isn’t necessarily a film critique, rather, an overview of what I think is enjoyable about the film, and why it’s worth seeing. This week I’ll be looking at the comedy classic, Happy Gilmore, starring Adam Sandler.
In honor of the PGA championship just concluding, I wanted to look at one of the two great golf comedies of all time in Happy Gilmore. One of Adam Sandler’s very first big movies had him using a hockey stick to play golf. That would sum things up sufficiently but I will continue. This movie was back when Sandler was known for Saturday Night Live and not the array of big screen comedies he is now. The movie has had real staying power over the years in pop culture as this age of social media and gifs still makes frequent use of scenes and moments from Happy Gilmore over two decades later. Christopher McDonald plays a great villain for this type of movie and Carl Weathers as Chubbs is a perfect kind of tertiary character for a comedy like this. But of course Sandler steals the show as the short tempered Happy Gilmore who just wants to save his grandmother’s house. To do that, obviously, you have to fight whoever gets in your way, and if that means fighting a legendary game show host, why not? Ultimately this movie doesn’t try to be some cinematic genius, and good, there hasn’t been a lot of good comedies like this recently and we need more of them, so, if you’re in need of a good laugh, remind yourself of how effective it can be to start behind the golf ball on the tee and get a good running start as you hit it.
Happy Gilmore is currently available to stream on Netflix.
