Happy Gilmore

Happy Gilmore is a 1996 American sports comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan and produced by Robert Simonds. It stars Adam Sandler as the title character, an unsuccessful ice hockey player who discovers a newfound talent for golf. The screenplay was written by Sandler and his writing partner Tim Herlihy, in their second feature collaboration after the previous year's Billy Madison. The film also marks the first of multiple collaborations between Sandler and Dugan. Happy Gilmore was released in theaters on February 16, 1996, by Universal Pictures. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film was a commercial success, earning $39 million on a $12 million budget, and it won an MTV Movie Award for Best Fight for Sandler and Bob Barker. Plot Happy Gilmore is a short-tempered, unsuccessful ice hockey player whose only skills are fighting and a powerful slapshot he learned from his late father. His inability to skate limits his professional prospects. After yet another failed tryout, Happy learns that his grandmother owes the IRS $270,000 in back taxes; she has 90 days to pay off the debt or face foreclosure on her house. Happy sends his grandmother to a retirement home, where residents are secretly mistreated, until he can pay the debt. Two movers repossessing Happy's grandmother's furniture challenge him to a long-drive contest using his grandfather's old golf clubs. With an unorthodox, slapshot-style swing, Happy hits a ball some 400 yards, winning $40 from the movers. He then decides to start hustling golfers at a driving range and meets Derick "Chubbs" Peterson, a former professional golf tour star who lost a hand in an alligator attack. Chubbs urges Happy to enter a local tournament where the winner will earn an automatic spot on the tour; Happy, desperate to get back his grandmother's house, agrees when Chubbs informs him of the significant prize money involved.