Happy Gilmore

Happy Gilmore is one of the best iconic examples of the comedy genre from the 1990's. I would venture to place it on my Top 10 Comedy list of my favorite comedies of all time, maybe Top 5.

Why Gilmore sticks out so much is the strikingly original storyline that Adam Sandler created. Sandler was really one of the top guys of comedy during the decade. He was a young genius. His movies were second only to Jim Carrey during that time period.

Happy Gilmore follows the extremely successful "Billy Madison" in 1996. This movie is 12 years old and yet it still makes me laugh out loud despite the immense number of times I've seen it.

The story is genius and Sandler cronie Dennis Dugan catches the best of the story in his direction of Gilmore. They collaborated well in showing the change in crowd at golf events once bad boy Gilmore comes to town. They took a raging character that is everything golf isn't and made him bring in a new crowd.

The thing I like most about this movie is there isn't a big lull like most movies today. Most modern comedies try to mean too much or make some kind of point and usually spend about 30 painful minutes establishing that point.

Gilmore doesn't have this. It does have it's moments of meaning, but there is never a period of more than five minutes that doesn't generate a laugh.

Possibly my favorite character of the movie is Ben Stiller as the orderly at the nursing home. He is hilarious. He forces the old people to make quilts as part of "arts and crafts" and then turns and sells the quilts. There is also the mention of landscaping duty. Haha. So amazing. "You could trouble me for a glass of shut the hell up."

Bob Barker was pretty good and their fight was fantastic. The comedic violence is amazing.

This movie meant so much to my generation. How many kids tried to swing like Gilmore after this movie? I know I did. This developed a youth interest in golf though a fleeting interest.

There are countless lines from this movie that we have repeated over the years. Lines that we always said and never realized where they came from. Lines that are still used in daily conversation that our brains remember based on certain circumstances.

"Gold jacket, green jacket, who gives a -?"
"My fingers hurt."

I absolutely love this movie. The comedy is so perfect and Sandler delivers the punch throughout (literally and comically). This will always be one of my favorite movies. I could watch this movie every day for the rest of my life and laugh just the same. Gilmore is one of those movies that, although you have it memorized, is still hilarious with every viewing.

So much better than today's comedy. I was disappointed to find that Sandler and Apatow are good buddies. I think Sandler is a whole lot funnier. His 90's movies lack the Apatow-life-lesson-lull of today. They also lack the vulgarity of an Apatow movie. Whoever decided extreme vulgarity was funny is beyond me.

Gilmore is hands down Sandler's best movie to date. It is loaded with unrivaled comedy and definitely has a timeless appeal. This is slapstick at it's best.

4.5 of 5 stars