HAPPY GILMORE (1996) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: Dennis Dugan Writers: Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler Starring: Adam Sandler, Christopher MacDonald, Julie Bowen, Frances Bay, Carl Weathers, Ben Stiller, Bob Barker, Kevin Nealon
While Chris Farley films pretty much rely on Farley's weight problem and his ability to scream and overact, Adam Sandler seems to more versatile. Well, in comparison. I didn't see his "Billy Madison," and have no desire to, but he makes far more comically interesting flicks than Farley, or any of his SNL generation cohorts. In comparion, obviously.
"Happy Gilmore" is actually the name of the protagonist, played by Adam Sandler with great energy and overacting, although far less than Farley's. He's a likable over-reactor who wants to play hockey for a living, but has a problem: he sucks. He can't skate, he can't shoot, but he has such a short temper that he could probably take out anyone in an actual NHL game. Anyway, so that's as much as I know about the sport of hockey.
But one day, when his grandmother, who raised him after his father was killed by a hockey puck, is evicted from her house, and forced to live in a nursing home (headed by a sadistic Ben Stiller, who uses the old people to do slave labor), Happy tries to get her money so she can pay the mortgage on her house, and get it back. And one day he finds out he can hit a golf ball farther than anyone else (and hit various people - a joke that I admittingly laughed at every time).
With his ex-golf player mentor (Carl Weathers, who needed the paycheck) who's missing a hand due to the fact that an alligator chewed it off (another redundant gag target), Happy goes to a bunch of golf tournaments in his hockey shirt, and is soon winning everyone, much to the disenchantment of the only big golfer (Christopher MacDonald, currently enjoying a role on that Kirstie Alley sitcom, "Veronica's Closet") who hasn't won the big tournament yet, where he receives a yellow jacket.
There's a half-assed love interest that goes on with some chick who handles the tournaments or something (Julie Bowen), and then there's the whole fascination with Happy, who is known to yell obscenities at the golf ball, and beat up mocking people. And then there's the bit about his grandmother. This is all, luckily, handled with the utmost amount of non-seriousness, and even the skating scene where Adam and his chick skate to the theme from that Brooke Shields masterpiece, "Endless Love," is handled hysterically.
But this film is only funny when watched every now and then. This is not a flick you see over and over and over and over again in a short amount of time. Sure Adam's a funny guy. And Christopher MacDonald makes a hilarious villain (who stumbles on his obscenities sometimes, making him a good old incompetent nemesis). And the Ben Stiller sub-plot is pretty funny. But the film never really becomes the absolutely hysterical film it should be. The jokes are usually ones you've seen before, most of the time earlier in the film. But luckily the parts that would be handled melodramatically aren't.
"Happy Gilmore" IS a funny film, and remains more enjoyable than most of those cheap SNL spin-offs/member vehicles. But it's still not the greatest flick, and never shows that Adam Sandler will get the respect that ex-SNL people like Bill Murray and Dan Ackroyd at one time got It's just a minor little film that you forget until the next Adam Sandler flick comes along.
MY RATING (out of 4): **1/2
Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/
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