Movie Monday - Happy Gilmore 2

A new series coming at you from Bean's Blog (at least until NFL season comes back) called Movie Monday. This will be a quick segment every week similar to my movie reviews where -- so long as I watched a movie the week prior -- I will do a quick review for Movie Monday.

Today's Topic: Happy Gilmore 2. Came out on Netflix on Friday and has already generated tons of buzz (I talked to 8+ people Saturday who had already watched it the night before). A follow-up to an all-time comedy that is nostalgic to so many -- how does the sequel hold up?

There's not a ton to spoil for a movie like this -- but if you haven't seen it yet and want to go in with a completely blank slate, save this blog for later, because we're definitely talking cameos and plot points.

Overview

Gilmore returns to the sport of golf since his retirement after winning his first Tour Championship, to finance his daughter's ballet classes.

Cast

• Adam Sandler -- Happy Gilmore

• Julie Bowen -- Virginia Venit

• Sunny Sandler -- Vienna Gilmore

• Christopher McDonald -- Shooter McGavin

• Bad Bunny -- Oscar

• Ben Stiller -- Hal

• John Daly -- John Daly

And about 75 more cameos from every celebrity you can possibly fathom. More celebrities than extras it seemed like.

General Thoughts

The original Happy Gilmore is one of my favorite comedy movies ever, and is an iconic and nostalgic movie to millions of people. And after nearly 30 years, Adam Sandler brought his most famous character back to the big screen (well, to Netflix).

It's a challenging movie to seriously review, because you can't take yourself or the movie itself seriously. I saw a tweet that summed it up perfect: "Being disappointed in Happy Gilmore 2 is like being disappointed in a gas station hot dog. It was never pretending to be something it wasn't." (@BlaiseInKC)

You know it's going to be stupid. You know it's going to be outrageous. You aren't going in expecting big emotional moments or deep themes. I went in expecting to laugh and feel nostalgia -- which is exactly what we got.

The parts of the movie that work best for me were the legacy characters -- Happy, Shooter, even Ben Stiller's Hal. The nostalgia factor can't be under-estimated, and you can't help but laugh watching Shooter and Happy brawl in a cemetery the first time they see each other again.

Another thing that did work for me were the flashbacks/cutbacks. I think a lot of people don't like that -- I very much do. Any reminder they gave us to the original movie was a win in my book, so seeing flashbacks to the "Jackass" guy, Happy's "Happy Place," scenes with Chubbs -- it all hit the right notes for me.

Now there were more than a few aspects that I didn't think worked well. Firstly, the cameos. I'm all for a good cameo -- Superman gave us an incredible Peacemaker one a couple weeks ago. And I loved seeing all the golf cameos, from the legends like Nicklaus and Couples to the new guys like Scottie and Spieth. But there were more than a handful of cameos of famous athletes/musicians/celebs that were not needed. (will go deeper into the cameos in the next segment after the score).

The other big issue I had was with the "Maxi Golf" piece of the puzzle. We get it, you wanted to poke fun at the PGA/LIV dynamic. I don't blame you -- I'd do the same if they hired this bean to write it. But holy fucking shit was that horrible. There was nothing funny or compelling that came from this storyline, and the entire 3rd act was centered around it which made it lose all of it's steam.

Also, key spoiler-alert if you haven't watched -- but the fact that they kill Happy's wife Virginia like less than 10 minutes in (from a Happy drive during a golf tournament that hits her no less) is equal parts funny and detrimental to the story.

Overall, while I appreciate the nostalgic nature of the movie and how much it plays the hits, it doesn't have the shear volume of laughs for me to overlook the horrendous plot. Enjoyed it once, will probably never rewatch it.

Score:

38/100

Cameo Corner

This section is for my winners and losers of the multitude of cameos in this movie. While overall I think they had way too many and it just made for a cluttered mess of a movie, there were also some standouts I enjoyed in the mix.

Winners

Boban Marjanovic -- plays the son of Andre the Giant's character, very funny addition

Scottie Scheffler -- the running gag of him being in prison was funny

Will Zalatoris -- connecting him with the OG Caddy was hilarious -- funniest golfer cameo for sure

Bad Bunny -- didn't like it when he was 1st introduced, but was actually pretty funny

Sadie Sandler -- Adam's other daughter who was in the AA scenes, not my favorite plot but liked her

Xander Schauffele -- That's what she said

Losers

Eminem -- funny enough concept for a cameo character, worst choice of "actor" for it. Not funny.

Travis Kelce -- was told I'm being STL-biased and he's not that bad, but hated seeing him in it

Guy Fieri -- zero sense -- a chef doing intros at a golf tournament. Recognizable celeb cash grab.

Kelsey Plum -- gave her like 1 line to sit in a golf shop with some other no name. Unneeded.

Reggie Bush -- didn't even know it was him until after because it's so insignificant

Benny Safdie -- love Benny Safdie, hated everything about his character (mostly the beard).

Previous Bean's Blog Review Scores

Hit Man: 90/100

Sinners: 89/100

Warfare: 85/100

Twisters: 81/100

Superman: 78/100

Snack Shack: 74/100

Carry-On: 72/100

Wicked: 70/100

Happy Gilmore 2: 38/100

Comment below your score for Happy Gilmore 2 and whether you agree with my take on this legacy sequel. And come back next Monday for a Movie Monday review of -- Fantastic Four: First Steps. Seeing it tomorrow, but will give people the week to see it themselves on the big screen before reviewing!