Happy Gilmore
Steve Kinsey takes a look at his favourite Adam Sandler film. A story of an Ice Hockey player who isn't actually that good at hockey but finds a new outlet for his powerful swing in the game of Golf.
Happy Gilmore is an Ice Hockey Player with two problems, he's a lousy Skater and he has an extremely short fuse. His grandmothers house gets repossessed and he needs to find nearly $300,000 in order to get it back.
While taking a bet with the repossession guys Happy uses a golf club for the first time and drives the ball over 400 yards (with hilarious results). When he realises that he could earn some serious cash with golf he begrudgingly takes it up professionally.
What ensues is a hilarious romp through the golf tour with Happy trying to earn enough money to buy the house back and also keep his temper down so he doesn't get thrown off the tour. The bad guy in the film (You know there had to be one, didn't you) is golf pro Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald). Shooter hates Happy's outlandish behavior and tries his best to get him thrown off the tour.
The love interest in the film comes in the form of Virginia Venit (Julie Bowen) who's the Public Relations Executive for the tour. Happy's coaching comes from Chubbs Peterson (Carl Weathers) who lost his hand and his golf pro career to a crocodile.
As far as picture quality goes there is nothing to complain about here, a good anamorphic print with strong and vibrant colours. As most of the film takes place on golf courses there is a lot of colorful scenes with strong greens and bright sky's.
The English 5.1 soundtrack is good but nothing mind blowing. The rear channels only seem to get really used during the golf drives and crowd noise during the games. All dialogue was clear and never overwhelmed by any background effects.
The extras are the most disappointing area of the disc. The only extras are a Theatrical Trailer, some brief production notes and bios of the main cast and the director.
Up until recently the only Sandler film I had seen was The Wedding Singer. As this was one of my favorite comedies I was quite looking forward to seeing another Sandler film. Having now watched it twice I can safely say that The Wedding Singer has moved down in my list of favorite comedies and been replaced with Happy Gilmore. Even the second time around it had me laughing out loud in many places.
I see a lot of people saying that his films are all based around the same plot (down and out guy comes good). I have since watched Big Daddy and can understand these comments. If however you want to get the definitive Sandler film then this is the one to have. There's not much on the DVD besides the film itself but with a film this funny, I can forgive it.
What are you still doing here, go out and get it.
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