Amazon.com video review:
Heavy-metal golf with Adam Sandler, a 1996 dry run of the
wild-man-athlete formula that paid off so handsomely in The
Waterboy. There are some irresistibly funny sequences, although
you may hate yourself for laughing at the mean-spirited
slapstick. This isn't a classic golf comedy, like the Bill Murray
vehicle
Caddyshack, but as a
hot-tempered would- be hockey player who finds an unexpected métier as
a power golfer, Sandler has a short-fuse shtick that's effectively
deployed. He's like a punk rocker gleefully out of his element,
puncturing the country-club atmosphere by using the fairway as a
private mosh pit. The action gets repetitive beyond the midpoint, and
a subplot involving Gilmore's lovable grandma and her problems with
the IRS is dismayingly sappy. Sandler's iconoclasm is mostly window
dressing; there's no conceptual or satirical daring in his kind of
"outrageousness." The strong supporting cast includes Christopher
McDonald as Gilmore's smug rival on the links, Julie Bowen as a perky
publicist, and, in a memorable bout of fisticuffs with our hero,
game-show host Bob Barker. Director Dennis Dugan
(Problem Child)
himself plays Doug Thompson, the golf-tour supervisor. --David
Chute
Amazon.com video review:
Adam Sandler fans are sure to enjoy this no-brainer comedy,
but everyone else is strongly advised to proceed with caution. Before
scoring a more enjoyable hit with his 1998 comedy The Wedding
Singer, the former Saturday Night Live goofball played
Happy Gilmore, a hot-tempered guy whose dreams of hockey stardom elude
him. But when he discovers his gift for driving golf balls hundreds of
yards, he joins a pro tour to win the prize money needed to rescue his
beloved grandma's home from IRS repossession. The trouble is, Happy's
not so happy. He's got a temper that frequently flares on the golf
course (he even dukes it out with celebrity golfer Bob Barker), but a
retired golf pro (Carl Weathers) and a compassionate publicist (Julie
Bowen) help him to perfect his putting game and adjust his
confrontational attitude. How much you enjoy this lunacy depends on
your tolerance for Sandler's loudmouthed schtick and a shocking number
of blatant product-placement endorsements, but if you're looking for
broad comedy you've come to the right teeoff spot. --Jeff
Shannon
