Happy Gilmore - Ein Champ zum Verlieben

Frustrated ice hockey player Happy Gilmore will never make it into the sport despite his intense hitting strength and aggressive game. When he is seen by ex-golf pro Chubbs Peterson, on a driving range, Happy is offered the chance to enter a golf contest. When his Grandma's house is repossessed, Happy enters in order to make money quickly. However soon it becomes about more than money as pro Shooter McGavin tries to show him up.

Those watching an Adam Sandler comedy usually are prepared for the type of humour that they are about to experience. I know I didn't sit down expecting clever, witty word play or an intricate, playful script that toys with my emotions. No, I knew that I was ready for the man-child's clowning and lots of dumb, silly jokes. So I actually quite enjoyed my time spent watching this film as I knew what I was getting into. The plot is simply dumb but of course that's the point! The fun is supposed to be in watching Happy getting where he's going rather than wondering if he'll come out on top or not.

The jokes are pretty run of the mill for Sandler. They all have a certain quality that will raise a vague smile often enough to enjoy, but doesn't really ever make you laugh out loud more than a handful of times. Of course for lots of times, Sandler's overacting (or overreacting!) makes things funnier and he does an OK job with the material. The actual role is the same one he always plays and is not hard for him. Guest is better with witty support but Sandler pretty much runs the film without ruining it.

While it didn't totally grab my full attention and have me rolling, it was amusing and light enough not to have to concentrate on – which is what I was looking for on a cold Saturday afternoon. Not really worth checking out if you can't stand Sandler, but neutrals on the subject (such as me) will find it passable enough comedy. Die hard fans will, of course, love it to death but fear not, for a vengeful God awaits them!

My favorite Adam Sandler movie.

I just think it aligns perfectly with his comic persona. He seems to fit this character perfectly. It's the kind of adolescent silliness that I gravitate toward. I can't tell you how happy I was that my 9 year-old seemed to approve ("That was a very good movie"). And she's way more mature than her old man is.

It's not just the character of Happy Gilmore that's memorable here, but also Shooter McGavin, and Christopher McDonald deserves credit for making the entitled jackass a solid villain. Same for Carl Weathers, and you would think he'd be slumming it here, but he sure doesn't show it.

Best of all? Out-of-Nowhere Bob Barker; secure enough in his celebrity to openly parody it with a free-for-all fistfight.

Tell me "The Price is Wrong, b***h!" isn't one of Sandler's best lines.

Recipe for a prime Adam Sandler comedy: dream up a ridiculous, one-note concept, plaster it with silly side gags, stretch the whole thing to fill ninety minutes and... somehow succeed in spite of yourself. There's no way this rudimentary formula should work so well, but here's Exhibit B, and I'm still laughing.

Sandler in the mid-90s was a roiling ocean of slapstick brilliance, totally superficial and meaningless but all the more endearing for it. Here, of course, he's the brainless hockey player turned golf pro, capable of driving the green on a par five but allergic to any semblance of a short game. It's a role catered to his strengths - quick temper tantrums, wacky fight scenes, childish infatuations - and he still plays them well. All the fleeting extraneous bits land, too, from Carl Weathers's absurdly long false hand to Lee Trevino's frequent, often wordless, cameos to Christopher McDonald's delicious overacting as the stuck-up front runner, Shooter McGavin.

It doesn't look great (actually, the budget must've been pretty tight) but that's hardly the point. This one remains a simple dose of energetic fun, twenty-odd years later.

Adam Sandler has a very funny movie here that works like no other since Caddyshack. Sandler plays a lazy guy who has to save his grandmother's house from being removed. So, he starts to play golf in a way that only Sandler can. He is also instructed by Carl Weathers (who memorably played Apollo Creed in Rokcy), and wathcing his scenes I had to leave the theater from laughing so much (he had a wooden hand and it always gets knocked off). Sandler knows how to keep people rolling in the ailes, and this proves it. A++

"Happy Gilmore" is the Adam Sandler movie to see. If everyone had to see one Sandler movie before their lives were complete, I would seriously hope this is the movie they see. It's nice to see golf and hockey in a movie again. I don't think there is another movie out there that makes me laugh as much as "Happy Gilmore" does. You have Happy, the ultimate hero, fighting to win a life of security for his grandma. There's Shooter McGavin, the villain you love to hate, who attempts to foil Happy's quest. And then there's Mr. Larson, Happy's 8' tall monster of a former employer, threatening Shooter at every turn. Hey Bob Barker is in this movie! It doesn't get much funnier than Mr. Price Is Right insulting our hero. Well maybe Ben Stiller's part in this movie is funnier, as he corruptly directs a retirement home. It doesn't matter what's the funniest. This whole movie is one hilarious moment after another.