Happy Gilmore

Day 272 - 9/29/09 - Movie #272

BEFORE: Back-to-school week is over, and I've got just enough time for a couple more Adam Sandler pics before I start my month of horror films, leading up to Halloween. ("Billy Madison" was almost horrific enough to qualify)

THE PLOT: A rejected hockey player puts his skills to the golf course to save his grandmother's house.

AFTER: This was a vast improvement over "Billy Madison" - Sandler dialed down the stupid and turned up the charm. The motivation to get his grandmother's house back by playing golf tournaments made him a much more sympathetic character (instead of just pathetic). It's a great idea, poking fun at pro golfers and the pro tour, which I'm sure needed to be made fun of.

I actually laughed out loud a few times, and not just during the fight with Bob Barker - and after the last few films, I really needed to laugh.

Co-starring Julie Bowen (I sort of wondered where her career started) and Christopher McDonald (so good at playing smug, smarmy assholes) with Ben Stiller in a small role as an evil nursing-home attendant, Carl Weathers and Kevin Nealon as golf pros - oh yeah, and Richard "Jaws" Kiel, Joe Flaherty (as the "jackass!" guy) and Robert Smigel (voice of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog) as an IRS agent.

RATING: 7 out of 10 water hazards