Whenever Netflix (or any of the other biggest and best streaming services on the market) wheels out an old franchise for a reboot, remake or sequel, it can be tempting to just roll your eyes and get on with your day. The simple reality is that many of these franchises would be better off left well alone.
That’s certainly how I viewed Happy Gilmore 2 when it was first unveiled – was there really any need for this? The original Happy Gilmore is well-liked but not exactly universally viewed as a classic, and it has a pretty definitive ending. Still, Adam Sandler has worked on a heap of projects with Netflix, so the movie got made. Now, jaw-droppingly, its first trailer makes the movie actually look… decent?
It picks up years after Happy’s triumphant success from the first film, finding him down on his luck and once again in need of a major financial boost to avoid losing his family home. He’s lost the winning touch in golfing terms, and needs to do something to get his mojo back – which seems to be doable, based on how the trailer unfolds.
He’ll pick up a club again, and climb his way back up the rankings to eventually rub shoulders with some actual real-life current golfing royalty, including Rory McIlroy among others. There are cameos aplenty, including some genuinely huge names, but the tone looks just as puerile and silly as the original did.
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Of course, calling a film puerile is rarely a compliment – but when you’re following up Happy Gilmore, anything else would be a bit disingenuous, so fans of the first movie should be happy with that. This all comes with an obvious asterisk, though. It’s easy to make great trailers nowadays, and the final film will need a lot more to make it an actual success.
That said, we shouldn’t underestimate the power of a good crowd-pleaser for Netflix’s numbers, and this one could well be something of a smash when it arrives on 25 July. If you want an incredibly low-effort movie night, it might be one to add to your watchlist at this point.
