It was never going to be great. That was clear from the moment Netflix dropped the trailer with the now-infamous “Maxi Golf” gimmick and a cavalcade of celebrity cameos shoehorned in like a charity telethon gone off the rails. But no one—no one—could have predicted just how joyless, baffling, and brutally unfunny Happy Gilmore 2 would be. And this is coming from fans who actually like Adam Sandler, who grew up quoting the original, and who still laugh when they think about Bob Barker laying the smack down on Happy in the middle of a charity tournament.
This sequel, nearly 30 years after the beloved original, doesn’t just fall short. It whiffs. It shanks the ball off the tee and smashes its own kneecap with the club. It’s a weird, confusing, low-effort contractual obligation that uses the memory of the first film as a crutch and then lights that crutch on fire.
Let’s break it down.
What’s the Premise?
After winning the Tour Championship and riding off into the sunset, Happy Gilmore (Adam Sandler) is pulled back into the world of golf to pay for his daughter’s ballet classes. That’s it. That’s the story. Not grandma’s house this time. Not pride. Not passion. Ballet tuition.
Right out of the gate, Happy Gilmore 2 slams the viewer with its worst creative decision: it kills off Happy’s wife (played by Julie Bowen) in the first three minutes. She gets taken out by a misfired golf ball. That’s the gag. She’s dead. And the tone never recovers. Sandler and co-writer Tim Herlihy—who penned the original—use the death as a setup for Happy’s retirement and descent into depression. The problem? They don’t earn a single moment of it. They just hit the gas on shock value and never look back.
Nepotism the Movie
You want cameos? This film has everyone. And we mean everyone. Sandler’s wife, daughters, friends, former collaborators, athletes, musicians, comedians—you name it. The cast list reads like Sandler’s contact list. Most of them don’t do anything remotely funny. Some don’t do anything at all.
Bad Bunny plays Happy’s caddy for some reason. Ben Stiller reprises his role from Happy Gilmore as the twisted retirement home orderly, but the bite is gone, replaced with recycled lines and neutered delivery. Christopher McDonald returns as Shooter McGavin, but instead of being the antagonist, he’s a sidelined mentor figure who gets tossed into random scenes with no real purpose. Even the golf announcers from the first film return, though they’re the only ones who manage to maintain any of the original charm.
Then there’s Benny Safdie, a phenomenal director (see Uncut Gems) who’s cast as the villain in what might be the most miscast role in a comedy this year. He’s awkward, his timing is off, and the script gives him nothing to work with except halitosis and a weird obsession with hand sanitizer.
And did we mention Steve Buscemi pees in a mailbox?
The Maxi Golf Catastrophe
Rather than keeping the original grounded, underdog-sports story vibe, Happy Gilmore 2 introduces “Maxi Golf,” a fictional golf league that blends Double Dare, American Ninja Warrior, and Mario Kart. It’s golf turned into a neon-lit carnival sideshow with monkey bars, spinning greens, and fire hazards. The rules don’t exist. There’s no strategy. No stakes. No tension. And worst of all—no laughs.
The problem with Maxi Golf isn’t just that it’s absurd. It replaces golf entirely. The heart of the first film was watching a misfit like Happy adapt to a rigid sport. The comedy came from that contrast. Here, the filmmakers clearly don’t care about golf, story, or logic. It’s chaos for the sake of chaos.
The Joke That Wasn’t There
Here’s what’s really painful: there are no good jokes. Not one. No zingers. No running gags. Not even the dumb gags land. There are scenes where it feels like someone thought a joke was written, but they forgot to actually write it. You get long takes on nothing. Reaction shots to setups that never happened. An entire scene involving Steve Buscemi dancing ballet in the street, and it leads to nothing. There’s a “car won’t start” scene that turns into a family brawl, and Steve tiptoeing away like a ballerina. It’s not funny. It’s embarrassing.
Even the so-called “funniest” moment—a gag where a voice sensor says “fart recognized” instead of recognizing a breath—only becomes funny when retold later out of frustration. That’s how low the bar is.
Dead Wife, Dead Movie
The decision to kill off Julie Bowen’s character is baffling. It eliminates the emotional core of the film in favor of a cheap punchline. And even though she returns in visions and dream sequences, they’re never impactful. One dream scene reuses the “happy place” footage from the original, adds some bad AI to age her up, and calls it a day.
And speaking of the happy place, Happy now finds comfort while on the toilet, watching squirrel videos on his phone. No, seriously. That’s the new emotional grounding of this movie. If you’re nostalgic for the beer-pouring lingerie fantasy from the first film, prepare to be disappointed—and also confused.
The Final Putt
The climax of the film takes place in the Maxi Golf League’s ultimate showdown, where Happy and his ragtag team face off against a group of elite, chemically-enhanced golfers with surgically modified hips. No joke.
Happy’s rage powers come back into play, of course, after a terrible CGI sequence featuring Ben Stiller’s floating head. Bad Bunny helps him balance the spinning green. The villain’s plans are undone by cartoonish incompetence. And Happy wins with a trick ricochet shot inspired by Chubbs’ son, whose significant contribution to the story is losing his hand to a vending machine.
In the end, Happy walks off into the credits carrying his clubs because he forgot to charge his new electric car. That’s the final joke. A dead battery. A dead movie.
Happy Gilmore 2: Happy Gilmore 2 isn’t just bad—it’s insultingly bad. It’s a movie that assumes its audience will accept nostalgia as a substitute for storytelling, celebrity cameos as a substitute for comedy, and laziness as charm. It fails as a sports movie. It fails as a comedy. It fails as a sequel. If you're a diehard Adam Sandler fan, you might find something to enjoy in the cast list alone. But for anyone who cherishes the original Happy Gilmore, this sequel is a painful reminder that sometimes, the past is best left alone. – Asmodeus
