Amazon.com reviews for
Happy Gilmore (1996)

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Happy Gilmore (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Heavy-metal golf with Adam Sandler, a 1996 dry run of the wild-man-athlete formula that paid off so handsomely in The Waterboy. There are some irresistibly funny sequences, although you may hate yourself for laughing at the mean-spirited slapstick. This isn't a classic golf comedy, like the Bill Murray vehicle Caddyshack, but as a hot-tempered would- be hockey player who finds an unexpected métier as a power golfer, Sandler has a short-fuse shtick that's effectively deployed. He's like a punk rocker gleefully out of his element, puncturing the country-club atmosphere by using the fairway as a private mosh pit. The action gets repetitive beyond the midpoint, and a subplot involving Gilmore's lovable grandma and her problems with the IRS is dismayingly sappy. Sandler's iconoclasm is mostly window dressing; there's no conceptual or satirical daring in his kind of "outrageousness." The strong supporting cast includes Christopher McDonald as Gilmore's smug rival on the links, Julie Bowen as a perky publicist, and, in a memorable bout of fisticuffs with our hero, game-show host Bob Barker. Director Dennis Dugan (Problem Child) himself plays Doug Thompson, the golf-tour supervisor. --David Chute

Happy Gilmore (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: Adam Sandler fans are sure to enjoy this no-brainer comedy, but everyone else is strongly advised to proceed with caution. Before scoring a more enjoyable hit with his 1998 comedy The Wedding Singer, the former Saturday Night Live goofball played Happy Gilmore, a hot-tempered guy whose dreams of hockey stardom elude him. But when he discovers his gift for driving golf balls hundreds of yards, he joins a pro tour to win the prize money needed to rescue his beloved grandma's home from IRS repossession. The trouble is, Happy's not so happy. He's got a temper that frequently flares on the golf course (he even dukes it out with celebrity golfer Bob Barker), but a retired golf pro (Carl Weathers) and a compassionate publicist (Julie Bowen) help him to perfect his putting game and adjust his confrontational attitude. How much you enjoy this lunacy depends on your tolerance for Sandler's loudmouthed schtick and a shocking number of blatant product-placement endorsements, but if you're looking for broad comedy you've come to the right teeoff spot. --Jeff Shannon