There is a feast of cameos including Eminem, Bad Bunny, Steve Buscemi, Rory Mcllroy and a host more. See if you can spot them in between the laughs.
Now here’s a movie sequel that nobody saw coming.
Happy Gilmore, the crass, vulgar and exceptionally slapstick funny golfing flick has been streaming, video rental-ed and broadcast for almost three decades.
It was Adam Sandler’s big break in 1996, and it’s become a comedy classic that’s not aged across generations since.
Last week, Happy Gilmore 2 appeared on Netflix’s menu. It was like sitting across the room, in a bar, from an extremely attractive person. Do you or don’t you buy them a drink? Do you approach them, or is the risk of rebuff just too great?
That’s how sequels can seem, because when you finally do buy that person a drink, the nice from far but far from nice legend can shatter your fantasy. Thankfully, watching Happy Gilmore 2 is worth making a date with.
Three decades on Happy has four kids, his wife passed away after a golf ball accidentally struck her between the eyes, by his club.
He’s on the sauce, lost everything and his ballerina teenage daughter still stays with him in his pondokkie home. The mansion’s gone, and his three sons are out of the house, rumbunctious and on the verge of hilbilly.
Happy works in a grocery store, scraping enough cash to get by and saving to send his daughter Vienna to an artsy ballet school in France. She’s ultimately the catalyst that drives Happy to course.
Shooter makes a comeback
On the other side of Happy’s universe, Shooter McGavin, aka Christopher McDonald, returns as the crazy golfer’s nemesis.
Shooter’s finally released from the mental institution where he was committed because of what happened to him in the first instalment.
On his release, he becomes Happy’s ally in a battle against Maxi Golf, a new version of the game invented by an energy drink entrepreneur.
It’s a threat to the game, and the action is constructed against a playoff between the two forms of the sport.
WATCH: The trailer for Happy Gilmore 2
The balance of the storyline follows Happy’s trip to sobriety, his determined ascendancy through trial and tribulation to regain glory.
It’s a tried and tested formula, but what makes it exciting and watchable is Sandler and the layered story is, with subplots, not too many, and the hardcore humour that is simply irresistible.
It’s lekker cringe sometimes, other moments, simply hilarious.
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McDonald is not the only star to get back onto the screen with Sandler in this sequel.
Julie Bowen returns as Virgina, Happy’s wife.
Ben Stiller’s the macho Hal, again.
Then there is a feast of cameos including Eminem, Bad Bunny, Steve Buscemi, Rory Mcllroy and a host more. See if you can spot them in between the laughs.
Cameo walk-ons deluxe
Unfortunately, Carl Weathers, who played mentor Chubbs Peterson in the original movie, passed away. His character was replaced by his son Slim Peterson, also with a prosthetic hand and also with a propensity to fall off. The flick is also directed by Dennis Dugan, reprising his role.
There are many, but not too many, flashback moments to the original film.
So, if you did not see Happy Gilmore episode one, it’s impossible to get lost in the story.
In fact, it just makes anyone want to watch the debut instalment all over again, or for the first time. It’s not lazy or self-indulgent, as some critics have slated the movie.
Instead, you must see it for what it is: It’s a romp, a stretch of fun and great entertainment.
Happy Gilmore 2 is a two-hour-long escape from reality in which it is impossible to get bored.
The right medicine for a world that’s standing on its head already. Happy gives it the middle finger on behalf of us all.
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