Nearly 30 years after the original dropped, Happy Gilmore 2 debuts on Netflix on Friday and the reviews are already pouring in for the sequel starring Adam Sandler, who reprises his 1996 role.
Happy Gilmore was a classic, plain and simple, so the second installment has a lot to live up to. It isn’t easy pulling off a successful sequel, especially after so many years, but based on early reviews for Happy Gilmore 2, it appears Happy Madison Productions has at least come close.
As of this writing there has been just one critic review on Rotten Tomatoes for Happy Gilmore 2, so it doesn’t have a “Tomatometer” score yet. As for the audience score, it’s at 70% and Happy Gilmore 2 is getting 3.7 out of five stars.
The critic review comes from Liz Shannon Miller of Consequence, who gave the film a “B” rating.
“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,” she wrote.
One Rotten Tomatoes review from user Cody J. gave the movie just a half of a star, calling it a “lackluster attempt to recapture the magic of the original.”
“The writing was uninspired, the acting ranged from average to below par, and much of the film came off as shallow fan service rather than meaningful storytelling,” the review said.
A two-star review from Jack B. enjoyed the celebrity cameos but wasn’t thrilled with the flashbacks and their impact on the pace of the film and said that the “film was so bad that it was actually funny at times. There were a few good cheap laughs in there.”
Another reviewer was pleasantly surprised with the story in their five-star review.
“This was actually a better story line than I thought was going to be. 7/10. Definitely has some decent laughs. GREAT cameos,” the reviewer wrote.
A different five-star review also praised the cameos in the film and was thrilled that the sequel “keeps true to the classic.”
“The trailer made me nervous for a bad movie, but when I watched it, it was so funny and loved the call backs to the original defiantly worth a watch,” a different five-star review explained. “The best Adam Sandler movie since uncut gems!”
Happy Gilmore 2 is now live on Netflix, so you can make up your own mind on it. The movie in not available in theaters, though.
Related: How Does ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ Compare to the Classic Original?
‘Happy Gilmore 2’ Rotten Tomatoes Score, Reviews Are In first appeared on Men’s Journal on Jul 25, 2025