Is Netflix's ‘Happy Gilmore 2' A Cash-In Or Worth Watching?
Netflix has now released Happy Gilmore 2, the 29-years-later sequel to the Adam Sandler comedy classic. Critic and fans are chiming in about the movie and the current scores are…actually kind of surprising.
So far, this does not seem like some sort of ill-conceived cash-in, but rather a worthy sequel. In the case of critics, at least Happy Gilmore 2 has a 65% Rotten Tomatoes score which is a tick above the original's 63% score. Audience scores have the film at a 74%, which is lower than the 85% of the original, albeit that's about 1,000 reviews in compared to 250,000 over the last thirty years.
The film got a surprise endorsement from none other than Taylor Swift, who broadcast to her hundreds of millions of fans that they should watch the movie:
"Happy Gilmore 2 had me cackling and cheering the whole movie. An absolute must watch," Swift, 35, wrote on Instagram, along with posting the movie's poster. "13/10, go watch it on @netflix as soon as humanly possible.'
Random? Not really. Her boyfriend Travis Kelce appears in the movie, and who doesn't love a supportive girlfriend? Still, quite a plug, as you can't pay for that kind of press.
Happy Gilmore 2
As for actual critics, here's some of the praise that's come in:
Rolling Stone – 'The rule for sequels is: give them the same, only different. Happy Gilmore 2 adheres to this concept beautifully, along with doling out enough blatant fan service to choke a one-eyed alligator.'
Consequence– 'Between Happy's family life and a whole new series of challenges for him to tackle, there's enough freshness to the plot to keep it from feeling like a total rehash of what came before, while still delivering wild golf stunts and a huge range of cameos.'
I think my favorite bit of praise is from Digital Mafia Takes who says 'Happy Gilmore 2 is Adam Sandler's Top Gun: Maverick.'
There's a bit of a weird situation where Netflix currently has the rights to the original Happy Gilmore, but you can only stream it on the service for the next week before it's leaving on August 1. As a Netflix original, meanwhile, Happy Gilmore 2 will stay on Netflix indefinitely, and it's no doubt about to debut at #1 on the Top 10 list. But if you want to watch both, you'll have to do it within this week unless you want to head over to Hulu or Peacock where the film will still be viewable.
So, it's a success, and I have to imagine viewership is going to be amazing. Happy Gilmore 3? Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
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