Happy Gilmore’s (Adam Sandler) legend precedes him. In the 1996 film, he bags a gold jacket from the Tour Championship win. Gilmore is also responsible for a trail of inadvertent deaths, including his father’s, with a hockey shot, his mentor with a trauma-inducing gift, and a woman at a retirement home when he pushes an AC unit out of the window onto her. The second film in the franchise starts with Gilmore accidentally killing his wife (Julie Bowen) with a powerful golf swing, sending him spiralling into alcoholism. Even amidst his outrageous golf career and private shenanigans, Gilmore has somehow managed to raise as many as five children. Despite Kyle Newacheck taking over the directorial reins from Dennis Dugan, the film feels almost the same as the 1996 original, with familiar situations featuring slightly altered plot points. Crocodile jokes, oddball humour arising from characters engaging in meaningless physical altercations, a sadistic and mean-spirited man named Hal L (Ben Stiller) putting his retirement home residents through an ordeal. They all come hurling back into the sequel, but the film is not richer for it.
The issue with the Happy Gilmore franchise is not necessarily that the humour is over the top. But when the film shifts its tone from the ludicrous scenarios to the ones where it asks us to empathise with Gilmore, it creates a jarring disconnect. The elements that make some of the comedy impactful work against the supposedly serious moments. While in Happy Gilmore, the titular character decides to participate in the championship to raise funds to get back his grandmother’s house, the sequel puts him at the centre of a bigger purpose: to save golf. A man named Frank Manatee (Benny Safdie) finds traditional golf boring and wants to revamp it with the golf league Maxi Golf, which takes away the essence of the sport. He challenges traditional golfers, such as Gilmore and Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald), to a shootout tournament to determine the fate of golf. If Gilmore, McGavin and their team fail, that would be the end of golf. This plot element is different from the franchise’s more personal approach.
Rory McIlroy, who plays a version of himself, hitting the golf ball from inside a zone of fire, is an outrageous scene even by Happy Gilmore standards. However, it pales in comparison to the legendary exploits of Gilmore. At one point, he hits the ball, imagining it as Hal L’s head, underscoring the franchise’s idea of Gilmore channelling his rage to hit the ball a long way. Unfortunately, such moments of inspired humour are few. It strays off the course often and suffers from a severe lack of comedic punch.