Is anyone else still deeply intrigued by what they saw during Netflix’s Christmas Day games yesterday? Or are you just normal? The images sticking in my brain include, but certainly aren’t limited to: the Squid Game guards waving Terrible Towels in Pittsburgh, Andy Reid dressing up as Santa Claus, Mariah Carey singing “All I Want For Christmas Is You” from a rooftop, and the Happy Gilmore 2 trailer.
Let’s focus on that last bit. Apparently, life as a millennial circa 2024 is submitting to Hollywood as it openly manipulates my emotions with legacyquel upon legacyquel. Did I need Paul Mescal to marvel at Russell Crowe’s old battle fit like he was LeBron James looking at an old Kareem Abdul-Jabbar jersey? No, Gladiator II, I did not. How about Twisters drudging up the battered remains of Dorothy for one last storm? No. I had high hopes for Adam Sandler’s grand return to the golf course—he’ll reprise the titular role in 1996’s Happy Gilmore in a new Netflix film—but the first trailer (streaming below) isn’t much more than a nostalgia play.
Instead of plot details, we see Happy galloping around on his driver, a “Magic” needle drop, and Julie Bowen’s Virginia monotoning “We’ve only just begun.” It concludes with the could’ve-seen-it-coming-from-eighteen-holes-away moment when Happy and his old foe, Shooter McGavin, stare each other down, presumably for the first time in a long time. (Each mutters the other’s name.) We catch a glimpse of Bad Bunny and Travis Kelce’s undisclosed characters, though the former appears to be Happy’s caddy. The latter? Seemingly a worker at the clubhouse, who will appear five too many times. (Not dissimilar to Mama Kelce’s gratuitous cameos in the Hallmark’s Kansas City Chiefs movie, which, if this is the first time you’re hearing about this work of cinema, I’m sorry.)
I want Happy Gilmore 2 to succeed. Whenever it drops on Netflix (Happy Gilmore 2 still doesn’t have a release date), I want to write 5,000 words about how much I loved it. But believe me when I say that the defining cinematic moment of my childhood was Happy Gilmore‘s final scene, where Happy and his crew pop a bottle of champagne and toast to Chubbs (the late, great Carl Weathers), Abraham Lincoln, and the alligator. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Tuesday’s Gone” still gives me chills. Mess with that, Netflix, and I will take a driver to the face of my television.