Adam Sandler absolutely crushed it with his 1996 sports comedy Happy Gilmore, which decades later is still beloved as one of the best movies of the ‘90s. That makes its sequel, Happy Gilmore 2, both highly anticipated and a risky venture. Now, as it hits the 2025 movie calendar on July 25, critics are weighing in on the final product. So is it a hole-in-one or will it make you want to take off your skate and try to stab somebody?
The story sees Happy Gilmore return to the golf course after nearly 30 years to earn money to pay for his daughter Vienna’s (Sunny Sanders) ballet school. Julie Bowen, Christopher McDonald and Ben Stiller are among the actors reprising their roles for the new Netflix movie. In CinemaBlend’s review of Happy Gilmore 2, Corey Chichizola says it’s everything he was hoping for, with plenty of plot twists, cameos, constant humor and an emotionally impactful story. He gives it 4 out of 5 stars and says:
What results is a love letter to the original movie that will delight fans, featuring equal parts heart and comedy. While it hits nostalgic beats with a non-stop supply of laughs and easter eggs, there's also an emotional story at its heart.
Jeff Ewing of Collider agrees, rating the movie 7 out of 10. Adam Sandler skillfully balances the old characters with the new, providing comedy and heart in equal measure, the critic says. The multitude of cameos are fun, but it borders on distracting at times. Ewing concludes:
Happy Gilmore 2 is funny and has a refreshingly nostalgic novelty that doesn't merely rehash the past, yet doesn't lose it entirely, either. It evolves Happy (even if the setup is a tad contrived), but doesn't lose what made the character an interesting watch. We revisit old characters and meet new, fresh ones with their own quirks. It isn't perfect, but it's a worthy successor to an Adam Sandler classic with memorable scenes and lines of its own.
Kate Erbland of IndieWire is mostly on board with Happy Gilmore 2 (available to stream with a Netflix subscription), grading it a B-. It’s not a hole-in-one, she says, but it sinks some solid shots with wacky gags and surprising sadness:
[The story] puts Happy into some strange spaces, mostly as an older guy defending the traditional golf world that once shunned him. Is that… ? Can it be… ? Some maturity creeping into the Happy Gilmore sequel? You better believe it, and while that can breed some good gags … it also adds a level of maturity and actually compelling nostalgia to the entire outing. And not nostalgia as in ‘I recognize that reference from a movie I loved three decades ago, isn’t that fun,’ but in the truest sense, of reflecting back on the past with real longing.
Frank Scheck of THR doesn’t pull punches when saying that Happy Gilmore 2 is a “terrible” movie, retreading the original with the same actors, the same soundtrack and constant callbacks. The sequel is “moronic, witless and relentlessly vulgar,” according to the critic, which is to say Happy Gilmore fans will love it. He continues:
And so it goes, with nearly every minute of the film featuring a reference to the original in one form or another. It all feels extremely lazy and self-indulgent, especially Sandler’s tendency to cast nearly everyone he’s ever worked with or even met. The cameos here are so voluminous that you need a cheat sheet to keep up, although most of them barely make an impression.
Ethan Anderton of SlashFilm says Happy Gilmore 2 takes a big swing but completely whiffs it by doing something unforgivable in the opening sequence from which it can never recover. The sequel is, per the critic, “a poor excuse for nostalgic comedy, and you'd have more fun getting a colonoscopy with a rake.” Anderton gives it a 2 out of 10, writing:
Happy Gilmore 2 is an absolute slog of a comedy that takes everything that made the original movie great and regurgitates it all into something resembling a Dodgeball sequel crashed into professional golf outing. Gone is the quaint, grounded feel of the original Happy Gilmore, and instead, we get a technicolored parade of shoehorned callbacks sprinkled throughout an asinine story that is so far removed from Dennis Dugan's original comedy, you'll wonder if it takes place in one of the parallel worlds of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
With an original movie that’s considered such a classic, Happy Gilmore 2 had a pretty high bar to meet, so I’m not surprised that critics are having trouble finding common ground.
It sounds like we can expect tons of jokes, cameos and callbacks, as well as some pretty emotional story beats, and regardless of how well they all work, I don’t think any number of bad reviews would keep fans of the original from checking this one out. This sequel is now available to stream on Netflix.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.