Happy Gilmore (4K UHD Review)

Reviewed by: Stephen Bjork
Review Date: Oct 03, 2025
Format: 4K Ultra HD

Director

Dennis Dugan

Release Date(s)

1996 (August 19, 2025)

Studio(s)

Brillstein-Grey Entertainment/Robert Simonds Productions/Universal Pictures (Kino Lorber Studio Classics)

Film/Program Grade: B-
Video Grade: A-
Audio Grade: A-
Extras Grade: B-

kinolorber.com

Review

Comedy, as Steve Martin once helpfully noted, is not pretty. Boorish, antisocial behavior has been a staple of the genre probably going all the way back to prehistoric caveman cutups. It’s certainly visible going all the way back to ancient Greece, with the comedies of Aristophanes pushing the boundaries of outrageousness, and that kind of antisocial comic behavior has been handed down from generation to generation. Martin’s “Wild and Crazy Guy” persona from his standup days led to the Festrunk Brothers on Saturday Night Live, and at least one cast member from that show paid the boorishness forward onto the big screen in the ultimate antisocial comedy Animal House (under the aegis of the ultimate in antisocial magazines, National Lampoon).

What I’m saying is, love Adam Sandler or hate him, he’s got a millennia of tradition behind him.

Sandler was of course also an SNL vet when he made the leap to the big screen, where he had played a variety of different characters, but one of the biggest elements of his schtick has always been antisocial behavior, often in the form of his patented rage attacks. Sad sacks like Brian, the host of “The Denise Show,” had an undercurrent of repressed anger that would eventually boil over in explosive fashion. While Sandler made use of that bit in his breakthrough film Billy Madison, where he played an emotionally stunted adult, it ended up becoming the primary theme of his next film Happy Gilmore, where he played... an emotionally stunted adult with a hockey stick. Making the character a hockey player was an inspired choice, because it provided Sandler with ample opportunity to demonstrate the violence inherent in the system.

Except, of course, for the fact that Gilmore (Sandler) isn’t really a hockey player; he’s a wannabe hockey player with a helluva slapshot who just can’t skate to save his life. When his grandmother Anna (Francis Bay) is being evicted from her home by the IRS, a chance encounter with the movers results in him discovering that he can drive a golf ball farther than anyone else in the world. That leads to him being taken under the stunted wing of former golf pro “Chubbs” Peterson (Carl Weathers) and trying to get on the PGA tour, where he faces off against the current leader “Shooter” McGavin (Christopher McDonald) while romancing PR official Virginia Venit (Julie Bowen). Gilmore is hoping that he can earn enough money to stave off permanent foreclosure on his grandmother’s house, all while she’s in a nursing home suffering under the tyrannical thumb of the sadistic orderly Hal (Ben Stiller). Will Gilmore be able to keep his temper in check long enough to save her from her fate?

Of course he will, and that’s hardly a spoiler alert with this kind of film. This isn’t The Bad News Bears or Rocky, and the days of cinematic sporting heroes losing at the end were long over by 1996. Sandler wrote the script along with fellow SNL vet Tim Herlihy, and they knew how to play to his strengths while not taxing the audience’s patience or attention spans. Gilmore’s freakouts are carefully paced throughout the film, including encounters with the irritating heckler Donald Floyd (Joe Flaherty) and none other than Bob Barker (as himself), who has no trouble getting the price right on Gilmore. Even Shooter has his own nemesis in the form of Gilmore’s former boss Mr. Larson (Richard Kiel), but the cowardly Shooter doesn’t have Gilmore’s endless fountain of internalized rage in order to be able to compete with Jaws.

Director Richie Brockelman—excuse me, Dennis Dugan—displays all the subtle comedic craftsmanship that he did with Problem Child, which is to say, none at all. Yet for an Adam Sandler movie, that’s a feature, not a bug. (It took Paul Thomas Anderson to grasp that Sandler’s tightly wound persona could be handled with a more delicate touch.) There’s only one way to approach Adam Sandler and Bob Barker beating the living daylights out of each other, which is to grab the bull by the horns and go with it, and that’s exactly what Dugan did. The only real false note is the subplot with Granny Anna and Hal, but that’s mostly because elder abuse at nursing homes is a serious real-world issue that Sandler and Dugan lacked the chops to handle responsibly. (It doesn’t help that Hal’s final comeuppance ended up being edited out of the final cut, which leaves an uncomfortable hanging chad.) But that’s a minor issue, and for the most part, Happy Gilmore works well enough for what it is: a burlesque that revels in unrestrained antisocial behavior. Comedy doesn’t have to be pretty in order to be funny.

Cinematographer Arthur Albert shot Happy Gilmore on 35mm film using Clairemont and Moviecam Compact cameras with spherical lenses, framed at 1.85:1 for its theatrical release. This version uses a 4K master supplied by Universal, which was based on a 6K 16-bit scan of the original camera negative, with cleanup and grading presumably performed in 4K instead (both Dolby Vision and HDR10 are included). Love Sandler or hate him, he looks damned good in 4K. While the optically printed opening title sequence and various other opticals and/or effects shots look a little rough, the rest of the film looks great. Fine details like the textures of the costumes and the ubiquitous grass are sharp and well-defined, while the colors all pop in appropriate fashion (Happy Gilmore isn’t a subtle film, and it doesn’t look subtle, either). Compared to the aging 1080p master on Universal’s old Blu-ray, it’s a revelation. Kino Lorber’s encoding isn’t necessarily the best, but it doesn’t do much serious harm here, either. Adam Sandler fans and Happy Gilmore fans (was that redundant?) should be thrilled.

Audio is offered in English 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio, with optional English subtitles. As a mid-Nineties Universal production, Happy Gilmore was released theatrically in 5.1 DTS, with 2.0 as a backup for theatres not yet equipped for digital. By all means check out the 2.0 track, but the film was intended to be heard in this 5.1 mix, and it does indeed sound better that way. There’s not a ton of surround activity outside of normal ambient effects (this isn’t Hard Target), but the dynamics are good and there’s some depth to the bass where appropriate. Mark Mothersbaugh provided the score, and it sounds great here.

The Kino Lorber 4K Ultra HD release of Happy Gilmore is a two-disc set that includes a Blu-ray with a 1080p copy of the film. There’s also a slipcover that duplicates the theatrical poster artwork on the insert. The following extras are included:

DISC ONE: UHD

Commentary by Bryan Connolly and Wilson Smith

DISC TWO: BD

Commentary by Bryan Connolly and Wilson Smith
Deleted Scenes:
- At Grandma’s House (SD – 1:07)
- Waterbury Open (SD – 1:13)
- Happy on Tour (SD – 5:59)
- Nursing Home (SD – 3:48)
- Happy Land Mini-Golf (SD – 1:26)
- League Championships (SD – 5:03)
Outtakes (SD – 5:07)
Trailer (HD – 2:23)
Billy Madison Trailer (HD – 2:00)
Brain Donors Trailer (SD – 1:29)
Black Sheep Trailer (Upscaled SD – 2:20)
CB4 Trailer (SD – 2:31)
Wayne’s World 2 Trailer (HD – 2:17)
Half Baked Trailer (SD – 1:54)

The new commentary features author and filmmaker Byran Connolly with Wilson Smith of the Billy Gilmore Podcast. They’re enthusiastic fans of Happy Gilmore and they do know their stuff, analyzing what they love about the film while sharing plenty of details about the production. They also talk about Sandler’s career as well as the career of Dennis Dugan (who, it must be said, was the recipient of one of the greatest zings ever on Joe Dante’s group commentary for The Howling, although that joke has since been excised from most physical media releases of the film). They also place Happy Gilmore in context with the rest of Sandler’s career. It’s a fun, energetic track that’s worth a listen.

Aside from the trailers, the rest of the extras are archival ones that date back to Universal’s 2004 DVD re-release of the film. The Deleted Scenes are interesting because for the most part they’re not full scenes, but rather small trims from existing scenes. As a result, they provide an interesting glimpse into the editorial process, showing how scenes are trimmed down and refined for the final cut. They’re grouped here by plot thread, but there’s also a “Play All” option. Nursing Home is the one that includes Hal getting his just desserts, and while the final cut suffers from leaving that situation unresolved, it just wasn’t that amusing and probably deserved to be cut. Finally, there’s also a collection of Outtakes. Fortunately, it’s not the usual forgettable gag reel, but rather a full set of outtakes, some of which are actually pretty funny. (Dugan even gets a good off-camera shot in at Bowen.)

No, comedy is definitely not pretty, but Happy Gilmore is mighty pretty in 4K, and this is a real upgrade for anyone who has spent years watching Universal’s tired old Blu-ray. It’s not necessarily the kind of film that screams out for the 4K treatment, but thanks to Universal and Kino Lorber, here it is, large as life and twice as natural. Recommended for fans.

-Stephen Bjork

(You can follow Stephen on social media at these links: Twitter, Facebook, BlueSky, and Letterboxd).