Netflix And Chill: Happy Gilmore 2 (2025)

If you ask any Adam Sandler fan what their favourite Adam Sandler movie is then you will likely get a variety of answers, depending on whether or not that person likes his comedy work or his more dramatic performances. But most would at least mention Happy Gilmore as a contender, which makes this a belated sequel with no small amount of pressure on it.

The years have passed, a tragic golf-related accident has caused the death of Virginia (Julie Bowen), and Happy Gilmore is left with a bunch of children and a whole load of debt. And a drinking problem. His years of golfing success are far behind him, but getting back on the fairway could be the solution to all of his problems. If he can stop drinking and return to the form of his glory days. He's older now though, although not necessarily any wiser. 

Where Sandler used to get his friends together and film something in a sunny and picturesque environment (making it a bit of holiday time alongside the filming), he now tends to make films that have roles available to his family members. At least four of them appear here. His wife, Jackie, his daughters, Sadie and Sunny, and his mother, Judith. They don't spoil the film, generally doing great work, but it's worth noting because of how many times the Sandler surname pops up throughout the cast credits. Thankfully, the 114-minute runtime allows for a whole range of eclectic supporting players (sometimes literally), from a number of real-life golfers all joining in with the fun to returning favourites like Ben Stiller and Christopher McDonald. Benny Safdie has a blast as Frank Manatee, the douchebro looking to take golf somewhere new and exciting, Bad Bunny is a lot of fun as a waiter-turned-caddy named Oscar, John Daly plays a fictional version of John Daly, and Haley Joel Osment proves to be formidable competition on the golf course. I wouldn't have the space here to name everyone else onscreen, but some of the more memorable cameos come from Margaret Qualley, Eric André, Post Malone, Steve Buscemi, Eminem, Nick Swarsdon, Jon Lovitz, Boban Marjanovic, Ken Jennings, and Guy Fieri.

Although Tim Herlihy and Sandler are back on the writing duties, Kyle Newacheck is in the director's chair this time (with Dennis Dugan, director of the first HG movie, joining the names I just mentioned to have some fun in front of the camera). Newacheck does a decent job, delivering what is his best feature so far, but it feels like an easy gig. Once the screenplay was written, knowing how much of the film relies on goodwill and nostalgia, all Newacheck had to do was ensure that he had plenty of coverage while everyone was enjoying themselves. The jokes here are obvious and silly, but they're nicely in line with what we got the first time around. In fact, admittedly, many of them are just the same jokes, maybe slightly reworked, with flashbacks to remind people of what they laughed at the first time around.

I'm not going to waste time rating the various performances of everyone in the cast. Some do much better than others, but the film is anchored by Sandler doing his very familiar schtick. You'll already know if you want to watch it or not. Highlights are definitely Safdie and Bad Bunny though, but McDonald is very welcome whenever he appears, and I was surprised by how much I was able to laugh at lines delivered by the likes of Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler. Scheffler may well be the ace up the sleeve for the third act of the movie, which is something I never expected.

There are a number of expected montage sequences, the soundtrack has the energy required to accompany the standard "underdog comes good" plotting, and if you're surprised by anything that happens here then I would have to assume that you forgot everything that happened in the first movie. There are times when I want something new, or something thought-provoking. This wasn't one of those times. I just wanted some more silly jokes about someone rough-around-the-edges being unexpectedly good at whacking a golf ball. I just hoped that it wouldn't disappoint those, like myself, who rated Happy Gilmore as one of Sandler's very best comedies. I wasn't disappointed. This was everything I wanted it to be. It was familiar, comfortable, and, most of all, it made me laugh. I'll still rewatch the first film more, but I would happily make time for this again whenever I'm in the mood for some crazy golf.

7/10

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Nutcrackers (2024)

I'll admit it, if I'd noticed that Nutcrackers was directed by David Gordon Green then I might not have made time for it during this holiday season. He's been on the "naughty list" for a while now, all thanks to his work on a couple of big horror franchises, and I wouldn't necessarily trust him to deliver a traditional Christmas movie. Nutcrackers isn't a traditional Christmas movie, and it doesn't entirely work, but it does have the spirit of the season buried in the middle of it. I'll admit that I was hit by an emotional punch in the final scenes.

Ben Stiller plays Michael, a very busy man who has to temporarily take care of his four nephews after the sudden death of his sister and her husband. Michael is ill-equipped for the situation, trying to prep for the big business deal of his life, and just wants things resolved and the boys rehomed as soon as possible. Gretchen Rice (Linda Cardellini) is the best person to help him in that regard, but it's tough to find a foster parent willing and read to take on all four siblings. Tying in with the movie title, a home-made ballet production looms large in the third act.

Written by Leland Douglas, who has more shorts than features making up his filmography so far, this is both a Christmas film and a concept film, with that concept being "unruly kids who can also do ballet". That works . . . eventually, but both Douglas and Green spend a bit too much time making things feel grimy and downbeat on the way to the expected Christmas cheer before the end credits roll. It's low-key and very grounded, in line with many other films made by Green, but that doesn't necessarily make for the most rewarding viewing experience when things are also working to a familiar template.

Stiller is good in the main role, doing the kind of uptight and slightly awkward guy that he's been able to do in his sleep for decades, and Cardellini is a ray of sunshine whenever she appears onscreen, but the young siblings, played by real brothers (Homer Janson, Ulysses Janson, Arlo Janson, and Atlas Janson) are a mixed bag, perhaps picked for reasons other than their acting skills. They're not terrible, but they feel a bit too rough around the edges, and they're given a bit too much leeway from Green, who clearly thought their personalities would win over viewers (sadly . . . not the case). At least you also get some decent supporting turns from Toby Huss and Edi Patterson.

I did manage to enjoy this, don't get me wrong, but it felt as if I had to work hard to meet it halfway. There were a lot of little improvements that could have been made. Fixing the tone would have helped, Green doesn't seem to find the right balance between the yule and the yuck, and having a more convincing bit of character development for Stiller, considering how suddenly everything seems to click into place when everyone remembers that the end credits are about to play. I also think the film would have benefited enormously from having more established actors portraying the four brothers.

5/10

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Little Fockers (2010)

The third, and final (and I assume it is going to stay that way), instalment in what we can now refer to as the Fockers trilogy, Little Fockers is a perfect example of something perfectly competent, yet also perfectly in line with the law of diminishing returns.

All of the main cast members return. Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) and Pam (Teri Polo), his wife, now have some children of their own, and father/grandfather Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) visits to discuss the potential of making Greg the next family patriarch. This comes about after Jack has had a "mild" heart attack, the timing is as bad as it can be, making things more stressful for Greg as he tries to juggle a number of different responsibilities.

Paul Weitz takes over the directing duties, a talented director in the field of comedy who I wish would recapture the touch he had when dealing with 3/4 of his first four movies, and he seems to be happy enough to go through the motions set out by the script, written by a returning John Hamburg, and Larry Stuckey (who was an associate producer on the previous instalment). That wouldn't be so bad if the script had any life to it, but it's almost as if everyone knows they used up all of the gags in the first two movies. All that is required is to get everyone into place, to set up a couple of comic misunderstandings, and to let the actors all do their thing. And that's what happens. It's not funny. It's not entertaining. It's just dull. Really dull. It's even worse when it sets up obvious strands that don't play out to anywhere near their full comic potential (such as potential chemistry between the lead and a character played by Jessica Alba).

What saves it from being completely unwatchable is the cast. Although the leads look like they could sleepwalk through the whole film, and some might say they do, there's still some fun to be had from just watching De Niro and Stiller play off one another. Polo and Danner are sidelined even more here than they were in the previous films, Hoffman and Streisand are also underused, and the same can be said for a returning Owen Wilson, as well as newcomer Alba. The second instalment in the series added more characters in the mix, but at least it had things for them to do. This one just hopes that having enough names in the cast list will distract from the . . . redundancy of it all.

Everybody knows how easily pleased I am, it's clear from most of my reviews, as well as the fact that I repeat that statement often enough, and I know that I enjoyed both Meet The Parents and Meet The Fockers more than most people. So you should probably bear that in mind when deciding whether or not to give your time to this, a relatively innocuous mainstream comedy that somehow made me determined not to seem too generous with my rating of it. It's the epitome of Hollywood laziness from start to finish.

3/10

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Meet The Fockers (2004)

Having taken the lead characters on a full journey in the first movie, what would be the best way to craft another tale around Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) and his humourless new father-in-law (Robert De Niro)? Well, it's time to meet the other parents. Greg's parents, both of whom are about as far removed from his in-laws as it is possible to be. Of course.

That's the whole plot right there, basically. Greg and Pam (Teri Polo) travel with Jack (De Niro) and Dina (Blythe Danner) to meet Greg's parents. Bernie Focker (Dustin Hoffman) is a very open and caring male, and Rozalin Focker (Barbara Streisand) is a lively and sensuous woman who is used to batting embarrassment aside as she helps people in her role as a sex therapist. When these two worlds collide, hilarity is set to ensue.

Following an established formula for any successful sequel (take what people enjoyed the first time around, then try to add some more of it), Meet The Fockers is a lot of fun for anyone who is a fan of most of the cast members. And how can you not be a fan of most of the cast members? Stiller and De Niro work as well opposite one another as they did in the first movie, while both Hoffman and Streisand have an absolute blast with their effervescent characters. You also get some time for Owen Wilson, albeit little more than a cameo role this time around, Alanna Ubach as a housemaid who may or may not have given birth to a Focker child, and a running strand about the way Jack is trying to look after his grandson (who is also along for the journey, because it was necessary to add more disagreements and gags).

As well as those returning in front of the cameras, everyone also returns to their main roles behind the cameras. Director Jay Roach stays well within his comfort zone, working well enough with the script by Jim Herzfeld and John Hamburg to create more laughs and add a new, but familiar, set of obstacles on the path to enduring happiness. While there's not as much subterfuge this time around, people are still trying to hide their true natures, with the Fockers being begged by their son just to rein things in slightly as their newest family members become accustomed to them.

If you liked the first film then you're probably going to like this. It's not setting out to push any boundaries or reinvent comedy. It's just trying to entertain viewers, and it succeeds in that regard. While that may be more down to the exuberance of the cast than the actual script, the end result is the same. You even get a similar end credit sequence, showing Jack reviewing some of his "secret" camera footage.

Successful enough to lead to a third instalment a few years further down the line, Meet The Fockers is easygoing mainstream entertainment. If that's not your thing, you can easily ignore it forever. But those who don't mind it, and I include myself there, will find this a suitable viewing choice when looking for some simplistic fun.

7/10

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Prime Time: Along Came Polly (2004)

In the rather small list of actresses who have more than once played characters evaluated by someone nerdy enough to use statistics and/or a list of good and bad qualities, Jennifer Aniston ends up at the very top. After being put through that particular humiliation once in Friends, she is here made to go through an all too similar experience here. All because she ends up dating someone who goes through life trying to minimise risk.

Ben Stiller is Reuben Feffer, a man who lives his life in much the same way he does his job, by analyzing risks. This leads to him being blindsided while his new wife (Debra Messing) cheats on him during their honeymoon. Heartbroken and out of sorts, he then meets up with Polly (Aniston), and the two soon attempt a few dates, none of which are as safe as Reuben would like them to be.

It's worth bearing in mind that Along Came Polly is about as safe a rom-com for everyone involved as it is possible to get. One or two seconds of bawdiness aside, it plays out exactly how you think it will, and every cast member is allowed to stay well within their comfort zone. Aniston is a beautiful woman who isn't always as organised and sensible about things as she could be (ring any bells?), Stiller is a fairly repressed man who starts to enjoy the process of loosening up slightly (yep, he's done that before), and Alec Baldwin is onscreen just long enough to remind you why a small role for Alec Baldwin is almost always a good thing. Even Philip Seymour Hoffman is very much at ease, having a lot of fun in one of his all-too-rare comedic turns (standard comedy, there are a lot of wonderful performances from Hoffman that use him well in darkly comedic ways).

Written and directed by John Hamburg, who had previously worked on the scripts for both Meet The Parents and Zoolander for Stiller (and would also work on the sequels to those movies), there's nothing here that shows any attempt to even push against the rom-com boundary lines. The infrequent moments of toilet humour and slapstick have been done better in other movies, the leads don't have any decent chemistry together (as much as I like him, Stiller is a difficult male lead for females to create chemistry with), and none of the set-pieces are that funny. It's also hard to care about the characters, nothing is really earned and it's just a case of waiting for the dominoes to knock each other over on the way to the ending.

It's passable entertainment if you don't mind Stiller and Aniston in the main roles, but the most pleasure comes from those providing support, be it a slick-as-ever Baldwin turn, a wonderfully selfish Hoffman, a daredevil tycoon played by Bryan Brown, and even a scuba-diving lothario played by Hank Azaria. Never one that will top any lists of firm favourites, Along Came Polly is the kind of film you end up watching in the afternoon while staying in bed during a sick day. Hardly a glowing recommendation, I know, but different movies can fulfil different needs when the time is right.

5/10

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Meet The Parents (2000)

Before he became just as easy to dislike as many of his peers, and I am not entirely sure when that happened (I'm still a fan anyway), Ben Stiller scored a big hit with this enjoyable comedy of errors that harvested comedy gold from the fertile territory of that most potentially nerve-wracking of experiences, the meeting of people you want to be your future in-laws.

Stiller is Greg Focker, a nurse planning to propose to his partner, Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo). His plans have to change when Pam tells him that her sister has just agreed to get married, which then leads to the pair heading to Pam's home for the big family event. Pam's mother, Dina (played by Blythe Danner) is lovely enough, but her father, Jack (Robert De Niro), has a past that makes it impossible for him to trust those he doesn't know. And all he knows about Greg is that the man has designs on his daughter.

Based on a little-known 1992 comedy with the same premise, and title, Meet The Parents is a fantastic combination of a great cast working with an excellent script, helmed by an experienced comedy director who knows exactly how to make the most of every moment, be it big or small. Jay Roach is the person in the big chair, coming off the great success of the first two Austin Powers movies (and he'd also made Mystery, Alaska just before this, but I haven't seen that one yet), and he has enough experience to let things build progressively towards a finale that throws the characters into a perfect thunderstorm.

Jim Herzfeld and John Hamburg wrote the script, taking the main premise and ensuring that everything is more finely-tuned to make the most of the central cast, especially any moments featuring De Niro.

Stiller is perfect in the central role, focusing on being an unfortunate guy trying to do his best, with less of the angry outbursts that is such a firm part of his schtick in many other roles. Polo works well alongside him, with the two having enough natural rapport to make it believable enough that they might be able to maintain a serious relationship. Although not the focus of many scenes, Danner does well, but it's De Niro who gets most of the best moments, either on his own or directly opposite Stiller. His no-nonsense demeanour and lack of humour makes the comedic beats even funnier. You also get supporting turns from the likes of Jon Abrahams (a younger brother who causes trouble for our hero by hiding his weed in an unfortunate place), James Rebhorn, and Owen Wilson, great value as an ex-boyfriend who had nothing more than a very sexual and physical connection with Pam, as opposed to the stronger bond that she shares with Greg.

You also have a cat trained to use the toilet, a spycam or two dotted around to catch out liars, and a running joke about Greg not wanting to do a job more respectable than "just" being a nurse. It's all very safe and predictable, but that doesn't make it any less entertaining and funny.

8/10

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The Watch (2012)

A comedy sci-fi movie, starring Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Richard Ayoade and Jonah Hill, and directed by Akiva Schaffer, The Watch just falls short in the comedy department. Of course, there will be many people reading this review who immediately switch off once they find out that Stiller and Vaughn are involved, but I'm a fan of those guys and they have some good moments in this movie. Just not enough of them.

The plot is simple enough. There's an alien invasion happening, but nobody is aware of it. The only people who stumble on to the horrible truth are four men (those actors named above) who have recently come together in a newly-formed neighbourhood watch group. Unfortunately, they may not be the best people to deal with the situation, even if they're more up to the task than the main local law enforcement (headed up by Will Forte).

The Watch should have been a lot better than it is. I know that there are people who dislike most of the main stars, but I'm a fan of their work and looked forward to seeing them all having fun together onscreen. Unfortunately, the mix of alien invasion and comedy just doesn't work here. I laughed at a number of scenes, and I enjoyed the last few scenes, but the two main elements of the movie never feel as if they belong beside one another.

Everyone gets to have at least one chance to steal a scene, with Ayoade getting more chances than anyone else, because he's Ayoade (I'm a big fan of his work, in case you couldn't tell). Forte is very funny in his supporting role, Rosemarie DeWitt, Erin Moriarty, Billy Crudup and Jared Stern all cause some stress, in very different ways, for a few of the main characters, and R. Lee Ermey stretches his acting ability by portraying a foul-mouthed old man quick to grab his gun.

The whole movie gets by more on goodwill than anything else, but the script by Jared Stern, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg manages to set up a solid enough foundation for the main performers to have fun on, which allows for the film to be liked or loathed in equal measure, depending on your taste.

Many will view the fact that I liked it as just another example of how bad my taste can be.

6/10

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Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)

This review is going here because, well, I wanted to start off the new year with a smile on my face.

As simple as it is gut-bustingly funny, Dodgeball is a near-perfect mix of great one-liners and physical comedy, populated by a cast all playing to their strengths and directed with sharp focus on moving from one comedy beat to the next.

Vince Vaughn plays Peter La Fleur, owner of Average Joe's gym. La Fleur is a nice guy, but a terrible businessman. When he's given a very short time in which to come up with a very large sum of money it looks like Average Joe's is about to close. Which is good news for White Goodman (Ben Stiller), the narcissistic, dense, mean owner of Globo-Gym (slogan: "We're better than you, and we know it").
There may, however, be a way to raise the money and save Average Joe's. Yep, you guessed it. Dodgeball. There's a big tournament about to happen, and the prize money is just the exact amount that La Fleur needs to save the gym.

Written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, who would score another big comedy hit almost ten years later with We're The Millers, this is very much a love or hate movie, and I love it. In fact, it's one of those movies that I love so much that I just hope many of my friends also love it, otherwise I start to question their taste, and then question the basis of our friendship, and then question by questioning manner, and then just collapse into a heap of paranoia and low self-esteem.

Vaughn is a fast-talking average Joe (almost literally, in this case), Stiller is the angry idiot, Justin Long is a good-hearted klutz, Stephen Root is someone who builds and builds up his anger until he explodes, Joel David Moore is a socially awkward bundle of nerves and, well, I guess you get the picture. What I'm emphasising here with my description of each character is that this is not a film to watch if you do not like any of these actors doing their usual stuff. Christine Taylor is very good as the attractive young woman who La Fleur takes a shine to, Rip Torn is hilarious as a violent dodgeball coach, and there are great cameos from the likes of David Hasslehoff, William Shatner, Hank Azaria, Lance Armstrong (although his cameo isn't as funny now as it once was) and even Chuck Norris. Gary Cole and Jason Bateman are to commentators with distinctly different styles, and Missi Pyle is the most dangerous woman in the world with a dodgeball.

Is it a modern comedy classic? Most people would probably say that it isn't, but Dodgeball has a better laugh-per-minute ratio than almost any other comedy I can think of since the turn of the 21st century. It's the perfect blend of clever and dumb, with an extra sprinkling of . . . . . . . . even more dumb, and I certainly rank it up there with many other comedy greats. It might not be perfect, but it comes close.

And the sequence that pops up during the end credits may not be big or clever, but it's yet another moment that makes me burst out laughing, ensuring that the smile stays on my face for some time after the movie has finished.

9/10

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