Movie Review - Netflix's Happy Gilmore 2

Happy Gilmore returns!

Happy Gilmore 2 is a 2025 sports comedy film directed by Kyle Newacheck, written by Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler, produced by Happy Madison Productions, and distributed by Netflix. The film stars Adam Sandler and Christopher McDonald. This is the second film in the Happy Gilmore franchise. It was preceded by Happy Gilmore.

"I guess I need to update my happy place to something a little more age-appropriate." - Happy Gilmore

Plot

After a tragic accident sends Happy Gilmore's life spiraling, he finds his way back to the golf course in order to send his daughter to ballet school.

The Sweet

Just a warning: I am going to spoil this movie. There are some things that I need to talk about that are spoilers.

Let me be clear: I am not the world's biggest Adam Sandler fan. I actually think he can be a good comedian outside of films, but I never find his shtick in movies that funny. That said, Happy Gilmore is a good movie. Not my favorite comedy ever, but it is entertaining and iconic in its own right. It is not, however, a movie that I wanted a sequel to.

I watched the trailer for this film and pretty much lost any amount of interest I would've had. I thought it looked terrible. Once it came out, it got a mixed reception, and I thought that if I watched it, I would fall on the negative side of the conversation. And I was correct.

This movie does definitely have a few things going for it. The most surprising element was, by far, Bad Bunny's character. I have never listened to any Bad Bunny's music. The only thing I really know him for is being announced to play the titular character in the canceled El Muerto movie, which was going to take place in the Sony Spider-Man villain universe (of Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter fame). He was really funny in this movie. He brings an unexpected naive charm while also executing his comedic moments really well. I really, really liked his character and honestly would not have minded him being in more of the film.

I'll get to this later, but the movie has way too many cameos. However, the golf cameos worked really well. You've got current stars like Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler having much larger roles than I expected, but you've also got Jon Daly and some other fun faces popping up here and there. It makes sense that if Happy Gilmore became this famous golfer he would know the rest of these famous golfers, so I really enjoyed seeing all of them here.

I also did enjoy what they did with Shooter McGavin here. I'm not a huge fan of how they handled his initial conflict with Happy, but I can forgive that because Christopher McDonald is just eating up every scene he's in. It's fun that they changed his dynamic and his role for this film, because it allows you to really do something different with one of Happy Gilmore's most iconic characters.

To be honest, I just don't have a ton of positive things to say about the film just because a lot of the things I enjoyed are really simple. Did I laugh a few times? Sure. Is Adam Sandler watchable as this character? Yeah. I liked it more than I expected to, so I give the movie slight props for that.

The Sour

I expected to hate this movie, so, yes, I liked it more than I expected to. That does not mean I liked it.

The reason that I am not a huge fan of Adam Sandler's comedy is just because his shtick is always the same. He always plays these really immature adults, and I just don't find that to be a particularly dynamic brand of comedy. It feels like all the jokes are just him talking in a funny voice or saying something that no grown man would ever say. There are, of course, times where it's funny, but it's never clever or consistently funny enough for me to fully enjoy it. And that is especially true here.

The movie commits the cardinal sin of comedy sequels: simply repeating all of the jokes over and over again. When I complained about that to my roommates (who liked the movie), one of their responses was "You have to do that in a movie like this,", which is exactly the problem. So many comedy sequels think they need to repeat the same jokes, but they really are better when they don't. Look at The Naked Gun. A legacy sequel to an iconic comedy film that does not reuse a single joke from the original. And it was hilarious. The jokes are never as good a second time. And it is just the laziest way to write a comedy sequel.

I don't like getting that much into plot and character elements in a comedy movie like this, because that isn't what they're focusing on, but Happy Gilmore 2 has one of the stupidest plots I've ever seen in a movie. Do you want to see drunk, depressed Happy Gilmore because he kills his wife with a golf hit? Yeah, me neither. It's not a fun or even funny route. Like, obviously they play it as a joke, but it's an incredibly dark route that just casts a shadow over the entire movie.

And, oh my God, the ridiculous amount of cameos in this movie was just stupid. Like, yeah, seeing people from the golf world was funny. It made sense. But having Margaret Qualley or Eric Andre or Travis Kelce or Guy Fieri in here makes no sense. Like, why the hell are they in this movie? It's one thing to have random actors just appear, but like genuinely why is Travis Kelce in this movie? There's no reason except for the fact that they just wanted everyone to say "Hey, look, it's Travis Kelce!" It's not funny. It just feels like a bad gimmick.

Happy Gilmore has one of the best comedy movie villains of all time. Shooter McGavin is an iconic, iconic antagonist, played to absolute perfection by Christopher McDonald. So what does Happy Gilmore 2 have in terms of villains? Benny Safdie plays this TikTok influencer (because that's all the rage in comedy movies nowadays) who wants to turn golf into a more exciting sport. He does not have a single laugh-out-loud moment. His plan is just stupid. You hate him, but not in the way that you hated Shooter. Shooter was a hatable villain because he was written so well. This guy is just a pompous a-hole who you don't like because he's not a good villain. He's not interesting, funny, or entertaining. A truly, truly terrible villain.

This movie also abandons any logic or continuity whatsoever. Now, I'm not saying that Happy Gilmore 2 needs to be a logical movie. I just lauded The Naked Gun, which is a completely illogical film. Hell, Happy Gilmore is an illogical movie. But both of those movies work because they establish their own rules for the world that they've built out, and they don't break those rules. Happy Gilmore 2 never has any rules whatsoever, so the film just has so many nonsensical moments that ruin any semblance of plot they are going for. The finale involves this epic, fantastical golf course...that has zero continuity or logic whatsoever. The course is filled with obstacles that don't make any sense, but that's not the problem: the problem is that the obstacles only create a conflict when the screenplay needs them to. Like, I get Happy Gilmore 2 is a ridiculous comedy, but if the writers had thought about this stuff for more than a second, they might've identified that this movie does not work.

Finally, the movie has a few gags and recurring jokes that are just dragged on way too long. The amount of times that Happy does his classic run-up swing in slow-motion is just annoying. One of the consistent jokes of the film is that Happy hides alcohol in everything, and it just gets old after a while. Watching Jon Daly squirt hand sanitizer into his mouth only gets a laugh the first few times you do it. Like, did Adam Sandler forget how to write comedy? Sure, I'm not his biggest fan, but he is a good comedian, and this is just not good comedy.

Final Thoughts and Score

Was Happy Gilmore 2 slightly better than I expected? Sure. Was it good? Absolutely not.

I am going Sour here. Age range is 9+.

SWEET N' SOUR SCALE

Sweet (Great) Savory (Good) Sour (Bad) Moldy (Terrible)

"Happy Gilmore 2"

Fun Factor: 5/10

Acting: 7/10

Story: 3/10

Characters: 4/10

Quality: 3.5/10

Directed by Kyle Newacheck

Rated PG-13 for language, minor violence and action, thematic elements

Released on July 25, 2025

1 hour and 58 minutes

Adam Sandler as Happy Gilmore

Christopher McDonald as Shooter McGavin

Benny Safdie as Frank Manatee

Bad Bunny as Oscar Mejías

Sunny Sandler as Vienna Gilmore

Julie Bowen as Virginia Gilmore

John Daly as Himself

Ben Stiller as Hal L.

Sadie Sandler as Charlotte

Maxwell Jacob Friedman as Gordie Gilmore

Ethan Cutkosky as Wayne Gilmore

Philip Fine Schneider as Bobby Gilmore

Conor Sherry as Terry Gilmore

Jackie Sandler as Monica

Dennis Dugan as Doug Thompson

Kevin Nealon as Gary Potter

Hayley Joel Osment as Billy Jenkins

Lavell Crawford as Slim Peterson

Bryson DeChambeau as Himself

Brooks Koepka as Himself

Rory McIlroy as Himself

Scottie Scheffler as Himself

Will Zalatoris as Himself

Eminem as Donald Floyd Jr.

Marcelloa Hernandez as Esteban

Travis Kelce as The Restaurant Boss

Oliver Hudson as Harley

Fernando Marrero as Screech

Reggie Bush as 8-Ball

Becky Lynch as Flex

Boban Marjanović as Drago Larson

Judy Sandler as Mrs. Larson

Nick Swardson as Ben Daggett

Steve Buscemi as Pat

Eric Andre as Steiner

Martin Herilhy as Fitzy

Margret Qualley as Sally