happy gilmore is one of those movies that you assume was intended as a comedy , but you don't laugh . it's one of the most disquieting films i've seen -- not because of what it showed , really , but because it assumed that everything it showed would automatically be found funny by its audience . take , for instance , the title character , as played by adam sandler . sandler is one of the most charmless people to ever step in front of a camera . like so many other " comic " actors today , he assumes that if people laugh when someone raises their voice to a roar , people will really fall apart laughing if he raises it to a pavement-splintering bellow . more is not better . happy gilmore is a kid with a hockey fetish and what some counselors would probably call " an anger control issue " . he can't play hockey to save his life , and this enrages him . constantly . then he discovers , quite by accident , that his bad hockey playing translates into great golf playing , and soon he's taking part in a tournament that promises to help pay for his grandmother's back taxes . how interesting is any of this ? not very . it's only made worse by the fact that the one gag in the movie is happy's temper tantrums . if this were a serious movie , it would be something along the lines of cobb : about a dangerous sociopath who is only redeemed by the fact that he can channel his aggression into a socially acceptable form . here , it's a lame clothesline to hang a bunch of extremely uncomfortable scenes masquerading as comedy . here's the thing : take these psycho-behavior scenes out of this movie , like the one where happy smashes a beer bottle and goes after his golf rival , and you'd have the pieces for a completely different story -- maybe one of those paul schrader films , like taxi driver or rolling thunder , about tormented loners who take out their anger on the world around them . but instead the same ingredients are used to make a comedy , and the result is ugly and unsavory . why is any of this supposed to be funny ? after the credits rolled , that was the only thing that stayed with me . that and adam sandler's shrill and unlikeable screen persona , who on the basis of this film i won't be interested in seeing ever again . 
