Adam Sandler Delivers A Surprisingly Funny, Feel-Good Sequel

I didn’t expect much going into Adam Sandler’s newest movie. I suppose I haven’t expected a lot out of Sandler in a very long time, though his early films were some of my favorite comedies when I was young. Billy Maddison, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer. I still get a little teary-eyed when Robbie sings to Julia on the airplane in that last one.

Maybe those low expectations made all the difference, or maybe I just allowed myself to enjoy the nostalgia. Whatever the case, I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I enjoyed Happy Gilmore 2, a sequel three decades in the making and one that I assumed would be little more than a Netflix cash grab. It’s not as good as the original, and it relies heavily on that film for most of its jokes and plot points, but as far as sequels go this was actually really fun and lighthearted and, dare I say, wholesome. It’s a sports movie and a movie about family and friendship and redemption. It’s exactly what I needed to watch at the moment, even though 2025 is making “upbeat optimism” a theme.

We’ve seen that earnestness play out in both James Gunn’s Superman and Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps this year. Really, all three MCU films in 2025 touch on the power of goodness and redemption. Captain America: Brave New World’s climactic showdown ends with a treacly speech about doing the right thing. Thunderbolts showed us the true power of the group hug to overcome . . . mental illness?

For me, none of these superhero films really nailed what they set out to achieve, or at least never quite lined up the story and tone. Superman’s optimism was marred by a weird undercurrent of cynicism baked into the film. Clark Kent’s real parents (spoilers) were actually diabolical space villains, directing their offspring to conquer Earth and spread his seed. Fantastic Four hammered home the fact that the quartet was “family” over and over again without ever really feeling like one.

And so it is in Happy Gilmore 2, a goofy and largely by-the-books underdog movie, that we find an actually successful attempt at genuine optimism, with a story that earns its feel-good outcome. Maybe the comeback kid sports-movie formula just works better than the superhero formula when it comes to settling on a tone, or maybe I’m just bored to tears with superhero movies these days.

Spoilers ahead.

Three decades have passed in both the real world and the fictional world of Happy Gilmore 2. Our hero made it big after his first golf tournament victory. He married Virginia (Julie Bowen) and they rapidly knocked out five kids, finally getting the daughter they hoped for on the fifth try. (Happy landed a Trojan condoms sponsorship thanks to all this procreation). But just when everything seemed to be going his way, tragedy. A golfing accident kills Virginia, who was really standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, and Happy gives up the game for good.

He also gives up paying the bills, earning money and staying sober. Now a single father of five, he hits the bottle hard, wracked with guilt and overcome with grief. He loses his grandma’s house, moves the kids to a bad neighborhood and gets a job at a grocery store. When the story picks up, his four boys have all moved out and have various jobs they’re mostly terrible at, the apples not having fallen very far from the proverbial tree. Only his daughter, Vienna (Sunny Sandler) remains at home – and golfer, John Daly, who lives in the garage. When Happy learns that Vienna has a real shot at becoming a professional ballet dancer, he discovers that it will come with a price-tag in the tune of several hundred thousand dollars.

The only way to come up with that kind of money is to return to the world of pro golf. Of course, he’s not only incredibly rusty, he’s also a shameless drunk. Happy’s first outing at a golf course ends in disaster when he falls asleep at the wheel of his golf cart and crashes it into another cart driven by Margaret Qualley, very nearly killing her. To avoid jail time, he’s given a court order to attend a radical sobriety program which, he discovers, is run by none other than the angry orderly, Hal L (Ben Stiller) from the first film.

(It is a little ironic that Stiller’s character has a name plucked right off the Severed floor of Lumen Industries, but this was his character’s name in the first film also, though he was not credited for the role).

While things aren’t all sunshine and roses in the program, the break from booze does improve Happy’s golf game. His return to the sport is, at first, a triumphant one.

Into this mix comes Benny Safdie’s character, Frank Manatee. Safdie directed Sandler in Uncut Gems, so he’s a natural pick for this sequel’s villain. The halitosis-suffering rich boy has started his own version of golf, which he calls Maxi Golf (an obvious parody of “innovative” new golf formats like LIV and TGL). He wants Happy to join, but Happy refuses, so Manatee uses his connections to get Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald) released from the mental institution he’s been committed to for the past 29 years.

But Shooter finds Maxi Golf so repugnant that even a chance at beating Happy when the two leagues compete isn’t enticing enough to get him onboard. One thing leads to another. Things go wrong (as they must) and our hero faces a crisis of confidence as his past comes roaring back to haunt him. Old rivals become friends. Various bit parts from the first film resurface here, though not all of those actors are still with us (RIP Carl Weathers et alia). There are so many cameos, from Eminem to Steve Buscemi to golfers like Rory McIlroy and other athletes like Travis Kelce. It’s quite the celebrity parade, but for the most part it works.

By far the MVP of the entire film, however, is someone I had never heard of before: Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican rapper / singer / actor / producer who absolutely steals every scene he’s in. Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, plays Oscar. Fired from his bussing job at the golf club, Happy takes him on as his new caddie. Oscar knows nothing about golf, but quickly rises to the occasion, unleashing a surprising skill-set and loads of charm in the process. Oscar not only tips the scales in Happy’s favor in the final showdown, he tips the scales for the movie as a whole, tap-tapping it over the finish line (and yes, I know I’m mixing sports metaphors here).

I also really enjoyed the focus on Happy’s family and his struggle with sobriety. All of that really struck home with me, though I’m admittedly a sucker for this kind of story (please watch Shrinking on Apple TV). I enjoy being able to root for heroes even when they’re flawed, especially when I can relate to their shortcomings.

There’s a scene where Happy sees his kids cheering for him on the sidelines and in Happy’s mind they transform from the adults they are now, to the little kids they used to be. I admit, without shame, that this really struck a chord. I may have shed a tear or two. I was a teenager when I first watched Happy Gilmore. Now I’m a middle-aged man with teenagers of my own. My youngest is the age I was when the first movie came out.

Happy’s “happy place” used to be Victoria in lingerie holding two pitchers of beer. But now Victoria is gone and he doesn’t drink. He needs to replace that happy place with a new one: Watching silly videos on his phone while on the toilet; a pretty nurse with good cholesterol results; medium-sized pants that fit. This is what it’s like as you get older. New joys and new priorities. Being proud of your kids as they grow up, but missing the children they once were. Missing your own youth, also, your old loves, long lost passions and ambitions that have fizzled out. A sadder version of this movie would have Johnny Cash singing over it, “What have I become, my sweetest friend? Everyone I know goes away in the end.”

But this is not a sad movie. It’s a happy movie. It’s right there in the title. And most of the people Happy knew are here still, and more besides. Happy struggles with his drinking problem, his grief, the disappointments life stacks on our shoulders, but he overcomes it all.

This is a sports movie, a comeback movie. A movie about a plucky, irreverent underdog who wins everyone over in the end and learns to forgive himself for good measure. It’s incredibly stupid at times, almost certainly relies too much on callbacks to the original, and is about as lowbrow as they come. But I don’t care. It’s still great. A worthy sequel that honors the original. Happy Gilmore 2 is cheesy and silly and fun and hopeful. Better yet, it made me feel something, which is more than I can say for a lot of what Hollywood churns out these days.

Here’s my video review:

What did you think of Happy Gilmore 2?