Netflix film “Happy Gilmore 2”, which was released a few days ago, made me laugh and chuckle much more than its predecessor did, and that is sort of achievement in my inconsequential opinion. While I dislike “Happy Gilmore” (1996) a lot mainly for the dull and witless handling of its story and characters, I like its sequel for being willing to go further for more ridiculousness in addition to bringing some depth and wit to its titular character.

This substantial change in terms of story and character sometimes resonates with how its lead actor have gained some admiration from us during the last three decades. Sure, Adam Sandler still tends to waste his time and talent on many forgettable flicks which even do not deserve to labeled as comedy, but he has also become more interesting thanks to several acclaimed films including Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002), and he even demonstrated that he can easily dial down his usual comic persona as shown from Jeremiah Zagar’s recent Netflix film “Hustle” (2022).

The movie opens with the summary of what Sandler’s titular figure went through after his glorious victory at the end of the 1996 film. Thanks to his rather unorthodox but undeniably powerful golf swing method as well as his tempestuous personality, Happy Gilmore became legendary during the next several years, and he also had a happy family life thanks to his wife Virginia (Julie Bowen) and their five kids. Alas, Virginia accidentally got killed when he demonstrated his own special golf swing again at his latest golf tournament, and his consequent grief and guilt on her death drove him into alcoholism besides ruining both his career and family life.

At least, Happy, who is now working as a local supermarket employee, has been a bit wiser about controlling his temper issues, and he still gets a lot of love and support from his dear children, but then there comes a serious financial matter. His only daughter Vienna (Sunny Sandler, who is one of Sandler’s two real-life daughters) is now a promising ballet dancer, and her teacher, who is incidentally played by Sandler’s real-life wife Jackie Sandler, recommends that Vienna should go to Paris for joining a prestigious ballet company, but, of course, the annual tuition for that is pretty expensive to say the least.

And that is when Happy is approached by Frank Manatee (Benny Safdie, who previously collaborated with Sandler in “Uncut Gems” (2019), the sleazy CEO of a popular energy drink company. Manatee has been planning a new professional golf league called “Maxi Golf”, and he wants Happy to join the Maxi Golf League, but Happy is not so interested even though his unconventional career inspired the Maxi Golf League to some degree.

However, Happy soon begins to consider being back in the game, and that naturally leads to several hilarious moments including the scene which has the brief appearances by Eric André, Martin Herlihy and Margaret Qualley. Although the start is quite rocky for him, Happy soon comes to see that he has not lost any of his skill and talent yet, and then he willingly steps forward as one of many professional golfers to compete against the members of the Maxi Golf League.

Around that narrative point, the main source of comedy comes from how Happy must hold himself as much as possible. Thanks to a regrettable incident caused by his alcoholism, he has to attend an Alcoholic Anonymous meeting which turns out to be quite suspicious mainly because it is managed by Ben Stiller’s character from the 1996 film, and he also still finds himself haunted by his wife’s unfortunate death. While he is less edgy compared to how he was in the 1996 film, Sandler somehow strikes the right balance between humor and gravitas for his relatively more matured character, and this actually makes Happy likable even during his most preposterous moments in the film.

Meanwhile, the movie recalls the story elements and characters from the 1996 film as frequently as Christopher McQuarrie’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” (2025) did from its 1996 predecessor, and some of them are fairly funny while the others are merely redundant. As vividly remembering the blatant promotion of that famous sandwich franchise company in US in the 1996 film, I smiled a bit as noticing its logo on Happy’s golf bag (the company is still in business at present, you know), and I will not deny that I laughed and winced hard as watching Happy introducing his own way of physical training to his several fellow professional golfers at one point later in the story. In case of several minor characters associated with the certain supporting characters in the 1996 film, I do not think their scenes are particularly necessary except evoking some nostalgia from the 1996 film, and these scenes actually slow down the narrative pacing of the movie to a considerable degree.

Sandler places a bunch of various figures around himself, and their game efforts support the film to the end even though it often stumbles a bit during the expected climactic part where his character must cope with a lot of outrageous stuffs as competing against those Maxi Golf League members. As the main villain of the film, Benny Safdie gleefully chews every moment of his before he is upstaged by Christopher McDonald, who is absolutely hysterical as Happy’s loony arch-nemesis who eventually works with Happy after beholding the sheer vulgarity of the Maxi Golf League. While Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, a popular musician who is also known as “Bad Bunny”, shows some comic talent as Happy’s woefully inexperienced caddy, Sunny Sandler and Julie Bowen provide some warmth and common sense as required, and Sadie Sandler, who is Sandler’s another real-life daughter, has her own small moment as one of Happy’s fellow alcoholics.

Overall, “Happy Gilmore 2”, directed by Kyle Newacheck, is more enjoyable compared to its 1996 predecessor, and it amused me enough to consider showing it to my parents someday. Who knows? Considering how much they often have enjoyed playing golf as well as watching those golf tournaments on live TV, they may actually enjoy the movie as well as its 1996 predecessor more than me.