Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions has had an ongoing deal with Netflix since 2014 that’s seen highlights like 2018’s 100% Fresh, and lowlights like 2015’s The Ridiculous Six go straight to streaming.

For a company with a business model built on ‘minutes watched’ and ‘passive subscribers’, Happy Gilmore 2 is a movie Netflix has undoubtedly been dreaming of for over a decade now.

100-odd ‘minutes watched’ for millions of Gen Xers and millennials worldwide is some pretty solid business.

Happy Gilmore 2 is yet another deployment of the Top Gun: Maverick and F1 formula: an ageing A-lister who, against all odds, turns back the clock and reminds us he’s still got it.

Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and now Adam Sandler — yes, you read that right.

Unlike Maverick or F1, this is neither great or even good, but it’s funny and fun, and that’s all it needs to be.

The acting is bad — most of the cast barely seem to know their lines — and the plotting is strange, but you can tell everyone onscreen is having a great time and that gives the film a warmth and charm.

There is also a tonally jarring alcoholism subplot that primarily serves the story, but brings with it a pretty good running joke.

Part of what’s so fascinating about Happy Gilmore 2 is the radical variance within the cast. I can’t quantify or back this up, but I will confidently say this movie has the most cameos ever.

You have distinguished actors like Benny Safdie, Margaret Qualley and Haley Joel Osment playing substantial roles alongside Sandler regulars such as Kevin Nealon, Jon Lovitz and Rob Schneider, as well as Sandler’s own daughters and non‑actors like Travis Kelce, Guy Fieri and Bad Bunny.

Then you have Ben Stiller, Christopher McDonald and Julie Bowen all reprising their iconic roles from the original. Carl Weathers and Frances Bay are both acknowledged and sorely missed.

The common denominator is the Sandler touch. Everyone’s playing silly and having fun, and no one stands out as horrible.

Does it have the spark and charm of the original? Not a chance. But does that make it bad or not worth watching? Not at all. It’s a fun time that delivers almost exactly what’s promised.

It would be easy to trash this movie but I’m going to resist, except to say that it was very off-putting to have almost every callback to the original punctuated with a flashback to the exact joke they were referencing.

This often results in the same joke being told twice in succession. A truly bizarre decision.

Also, the film opens with some digital de-aging that is nightmare fuel.

Verdict: Fails to capture the ‘Magic’ of the original, but will bring joy to fans of the Sandman (of which this reviewer is unapologetically one). 3 stars.