HAPPY GILMORE 2 (2025)

Directed By: Kyle Newacheck

Written By: Adam Sandler And Tim Herlihy 

Cinematography: Zak Mulligan

Editor: Tom Costain, Brian Robinson and J.J. Titone 

Cast: Adam Sandler, Christopher McDonald, Benny Safdie, Ben Stiller, Sadie Sandler, Bad Bunny, Julie Bowen, Haley Joel Osmet, Lavell Crawford, Dennis Dugan

Nearly thirty years have passed since Happy Gilmore famously won the 1996 Tour Championship. For nearly twenty years after that victory his career flourished. That ended when his wife was tragically killed on a golf course. Distraught he gave up golf and turned to looking after his five kids. Over time, however, he has become an alcoholic and is working in a supermarket. Now his daughter has the opportunity to attend a prestigious dance school and the cost sees him contemplate taking up golf again.


this is why personally I don’t really watch Adam Sandler movies. when he is majorly behind the scenes in the writing and producing of his comedies anymore. I don’t mind when he’s working on the film, strictly as an actor because then you get films like UNCUT GEMS or his other two more dramatic Netflix movies where not perfect but the films were at least decent in someway.

this is a sequel to one of my favorite of his early comedies. As now he seems to be like Woody Allen, where if you were going to know his work, he would more praise his early funny films whereas now his comedies that he writes are kind of like Tyler Perry movies where it seems like he’s writing for himself or jokes that he finds funny, but he doesn’t seem to really care about the audience , which is a shame as Adam Sandler can be a likable screen presence at times at least back when he was making films that made audiences laugh

though now his films feel like they are parties or a reason for his friends to get Work and also for him to get to hang out with them. As it seems like they’re having much more fun hanging together than worrying about the actual script, character direction or making anybody laugh. as with each new film, it also seems like Sandler‘s entourage grows now not only does. He usually cast his friends, but now his family his wife and daughters are added into the mix of most of his films which he has a right to do, but I don’t think the audience was clamoring for it

This film seems to bring back every character from the first film in some sort of way even the minor ones who might’ve just been there for one scene and just in case you forgot the film seems to want to provide flashbacks for you to remember. The film also has a ridiculous number of cameos throughout the film even for no reason I don’t know if it was they wanted to be in the sequel or if he asked them it was fans or if this was all him trying to appeal to a younger audience as he has the usual commentators sports commentator celebrities but he also has influencers podcast Eminem for some reason throughout

not only is the storyline, stupid and ridiculous, but it also makes no real sense. As they play extreme golf and that must be played but worse of all it’s not funny at all so you are constantly wondering who is this for because it kind of insults, the originals audience and this film doesn’t seem like it’s going to influence the next generation to wanna watch it either. 

I really had hope that this would at least be decent, but if anything it just seems to Barry the remembrance of the original where you wish that it had been a one and done. If anything it also might just remind you of how good or decent the first one was and how fall this film has fallen from it’s legacy.

Grade: F 

PIECES OF A WOMAN (2020)



Directed By: Kornel Mundruczo
Written By: Kata Weber
Cinematography: Benjamin Loeb
Editor: David Jancso

Cast: Vanessa Kirby, Shia Lebouf, Molly Parker, Ellen Burstyn, Iliza Shlesinger, Benny Safdie, Sarah Snook, Jimmie Fails 

When a young mother’s home birth ends in unfathomable tragedy, she begins a year-long odyssey of mourning that fractures relationships with loved ones in this deeply personal story of a woman learning to live alongside her loss.


This film has a tour de force lead performance by Vanessa Kirby. We see her in all of her glory and despair. The rest of the cast is great.

The opening third of the movie is intense emotionally and amazingly acted. Then in the second act while we see how each member of the couple deals with grief and the effect it has on those around them. In the background the film has a little courtroom drama brewing.

Then in the third act, we deal with only the aftermath but acceptance, especially of secrets revealed and acts that can’t be taken back. All the whole the film never wants to release the tension. As the film stays a docudrama in every sense of the term that it becomes Cassavetes-Esque in trying to expose raw nerves.

The problem is that it feels that way it feels more set up and more like an acting exercise than what it is trying to be. 

So much so that while you are watching it you can’t help but wonder if this is artistic storytelling it is it more trying hard to get awards. As this is a story that needs to be told, it is one that is told to conjure up an emotional story and conflict. 

Just as one character has an affair and it just so happens to be the other’s, family member. We are introduced to how they met, but it just feels more convenient to the film. Rather than natural. For all the naturalness emotionally the film tries to present. The situations feel more set up and false. Especially In What they are trying to present.

Even as another character seems to have an affair, but doesn’t make a show about it. It gives us enough information that we know what is going on and hints at the reasons why. Without spelling it out for us. Whereas the other is sloppy and we witness not the act and conversations afterwards. Though in each case it more matches the style of the characters. 

As the film doesn’t offer much happiness and joy. Let our characters make their mark or presence felt. Usually through despair.

The film’s piece-de-resistance is the 25 minute unbroken shot of Kirby’s character giving birth.

In the end this film is about painful truths and emotional intensity. That by the end does offer a release.

Grade: B

UNCUT GEMS (2019)

UNCUT GEMS

Directed By: Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie
Written By: Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein
Cinematography: Darius Khondji
Editor: Ronald Bronstein & Benny Safdie 


Cast: Adam Sandler, Lakeith Stanfield, Eric Bogosian, Idina Menzel, Julia Fox, The Weeknd, Kevin Garnett, Noa Fisher, Keith Williams Richards, John Amos, Judd Hirsch 


From acclaimed filmmakers Josh and Benny Safdie comes an electrifying crime thriller about Howard Ratner, a charismatic New York City jeweler always on the lookout for the next big score. When he makes a series of high-stakes bets that could lead to the windfall of a lifetime, Howard must perform a precarious high-wire act, balancing business, family, and encroaching adversaries on all sides, in his relentless pursuit of the ultimate win.

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