Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
39 Adventures of Power
66 Afterschool
73 Amreeka
49 Antichrist
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
71 Big Fan
65 Black Dynamite
76 Bliss
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
76 Broken Embraces
70 Bronson
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
60 Collapse
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
53 Dare
50 Defamation
67 Departures
70 Earth Days
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
88 Fantastic Mr. Fox
31 Fix
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
xx From Mexico with Love
28 Gentlemen Broncos
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Horse Boy, The
74 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
26 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
43 Little Traitor, The
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
46 Love Hurts
84 Maid, The
45 Mammoth
75 Messenger, The
55 Missing Person, The
59 More Than a Game
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
48 New York, I Love You
66 No Impact Man
26 Oh My God
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
79 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73 Red Cliff
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
65 Skin
41 Splinterheads
42 Staten Island
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
58 Storm
82 Sun, The
49 Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73 That Evening Sun
61 Trucker
49 Turning Green
83 U2 3D
45 Uncertainty
67 Visual Acoustics
32 War on Kids
67 Way We Get By, The
65 Wedding Song, The
xx White on Rice
59 William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74 Woman in Berlin, A
43 Women in Trouble
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Happy Gilmore

EMAILPRINTUniversal Pictures

Happy Gilmore reviews
31
9.0 User Score:

Generally unfavorable reviews

Based on 14 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 30 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Comedy

Written by: Tim Herlihy
Adam Sandler

Directed by: Dennis Dugan

Release Date:
Theatrical: February 16, 1996
DVD: February 24, 1998

Running Time: 92 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: PG-13 for language and some comic sexuality

Starring Adam Sandler, Christopher McDonald, Julie Bowen, Frances Bay, Carl Weathers, Allen Covert, Robert Smigel, and Bob Barker

When a would-be hockey player (Sandler) hits a golf ball 400 yards, he realizes that his true calling is in pro golf, so he trades in his skates for a 3-wood and a tee, and joins the PGA tour.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

63

USA Today Mike Clark

Slap Happy. [16 February 1996, p.D4]

60

Empire Darren Bignell

The real surprise is that it's a lot of fun, with Sandler becoming more personable as the film progresses, and a couple of truly side-splitting scenes.

Read Full Review >
50

Washington Post Richard Harrington

A genial and surprisingly self-contained performance by Adam Sandler.

Read Full Review >
50

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Adam Sandler is funny as the volatile hero, and the screenplay is just abrasive enough to keep the story surprising.

Read Full Review >
50

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Several strokes short of a respectable finish.

Read Full Review >
50

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

It may smell awful from a distance, especially if you have low tolerance for lowbrow humor, but up close this yarn about an unlikely golf star is fairly painless.

Read Full Review >
40

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

The result is a movie that's hard to laugh at when its hero would surely be either in jail or perhaps even a mental institution were he to behave the way he does on screen in real life.

Read Full Review >
38

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Tells the story of a violent sociopath. Since it's about golf, that makes it a comedy.

Read Full Review >
33

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Adam Sandler stars in a one-joke Caddyshack for the blitzed and jaded.

Read Full Review >
30

TV Guide Staff (Not credited)

Sorry excuse for a comedy.

Read Full Review >
30

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Doesn't deliver.

Read Full Review >
25

San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego

A way-below-par golfing comedy.

Read Full Review >
11

Austin Chronicle Joey O'Bryan

A lame, unoriginal comedy.

Read Full Review >
10

Variety Brian Lowry

Added together, there are about three minutes of funny material in Happy Gilmore, and pretty much all of them are in the trailer, leaving a sometimes painfully unfunny 90 minutes with which to contend.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 30 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jesse H gave it a10:
The critics must've been on some pretty heavy shit, because this movie is fantastic. I laugh like hell every time I watch it.

Morgan F gave it a6:
Um, hello? It's Adam Sandler, people. What do you expect?

Jack P gave it a10:
A hilarious Adam Sandler comedy. It is probably the best. The main laughs come from two costars. One is Kevin Nealon as a crazy but insightive golf player. The other one is Ben Stiller as the evil worker at a retirement home that Happy's grandmother temporarily lives at. But even without them, this movie would still be hilarious, they just add a lot of extra laughs.

Brad B gave it a10:
I dunno what the critics were on, but this was an excellent movie! Seriously, the critics need to stop being such hardasses and learn to laugh.

Tony C gave it a10:
A 31? Are you serious? This is one of Adam Sandler's best movies of all-time, a heartwarming comedy about an ex-hockey player who finds his way into golf, a new love life, a mentor who is willing to help him, and goes to these golf tournaments to schmooze with snooty upper class types so he could help his grandma pay off taxes for the house. An all-around great, and hilarious movie. To critics who don't get this, I say, "So long, sucka!" KABOOM!!!

Andrew N gave it a5:
Comical but ultimately shallow and brainless entertainment. To be honest its an affront to the sport of golf. Its just like a sweet. Tasty on the outside but lacks lack substance underneath. Still this is Sandlers best movie. Not that that says much. Hardly worth watching.

Nathaniel gave it a10:
My favorite movie of all time. Critics just love to hate and do not know comedy. Period. I'd love to see one of these critics write a script that could even hold a candle to a movie like Happy Gilmore. If a crtic tried to write a comedy they'd just get washed up in their own personal griefs. Lighten up, seriously. Get back to getting off on a "riveting" film. Man, I hate critics.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use