HAPPY GILMORE
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1996 Michael John Legeros
(Universal)
Directed by Dennis Dugan
Written by Tim Herlihy & Adam Sandler
Cast Adam Sandler, Christopher McDonald, Julie Bowen,
Frances Bay, Carl Weathers, Dennis Dugan
MPAA Rating "PG-13"
Running Time 92 minutes
Reviewed at Mission Valley Cinemas, Raleigh, NC (13FEB96)
==
Has it really been 16 years since CADDYSHACK? In the better days of comedy-- yes, even the eighties-- the course was played a mix of seasoned pros and young upstarts, like Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, and Rodney Dangerfield. Directors such as Harold Ramis (CADDYSHACK), Ivan Reitman (STRIPES), and John Landis (THE BLUES BROTHERS) were making very funny movies about very silly people, and *everybody* was having a good laugh. Now, too many years later, in what might be called the Chris Farley/Jim Carrey decade, the funniest person on the block is Adam Sandler. Has it really come to this?
Mr. Sandler, a player on TV's "Saturday Night Live," is actually pretty good here. He stars as a hockey player wannabe whose supersonic slap shot lands him on the pro-golfing circuit. His putts are a putz, but he can cross the green in a single stroke and his juvenile antics are bringing the highest ratings to the game in years. There's also a grandmother involved-- and her tax money-- but HAPPY GILMORE is less a mission from God than just an excuse for Sandler to hit things. Such as pucks, balls, and fellow golfers.
Director Dennis Dugan (PROBLEM CHILD) does a great job of sustaining momentum. Though his timing is often off, the seemingly one-dimensional story doesn't grow tiresome until the last twenty minutes. Several familiar faces also give a boost, including Christopher McDonald, Carl Weathers, and Richard "Jaws" Kiel. And don't miss Bob Barker in a priceless bit that starts as a round of golf and ends up as a fist fight with Mr. Sandler. Come on down!
As co-written by Tim Herlihy (BILLY MADISON), HAPPY GILMORE has a rather mean-spirited streak that most of my fellow audience members didn't seem to mind. They laughed at any occasion for Sandler to punch, slug, hit, or curse somebody. Only when I turned around in my seat, did I realize the source of such support: rows and rows of young males, all wearing baseball caps. There must have been a hundred of them.
Grade: C+
--
Mike Legeros - Raleigh, NC
legeros@nando.net (h) - legeros@unx.sas.com (w)
MOVIE HELL is on the Web!
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews