Happy Gilmore (1996) Review

Ah, Adam Sandler, hated by critics everywhere and loved by the American audience. Say whatever you want about him but there's no denying that this guy makes some serious cash at the box office. Which makes me wonder why. In all honesty, he's not that funny of a comedian and he's definitely not that good of an actor. His characters are mostly just variations of the same chauvinist stereotype and that stuff gets old really quickly.

BUT, it's not that he's never made a good movie. In my humble opinion his best is without a doubt Happy Gilmore, one of my childhood favorites and together with Billy Madison one of the first successes of Sandler.

The story of Happy Gilmore isn't much more than warmed up sport film cliches about a failed hockey player who becomes a rowdy golf sensation. But what the film lacks in script is made up for by the clash of the fancy golf world with the redneck mentality of Sandler. Mash that with a great performance by Christopher MacDonald as the perfectly named villain Shooter McGavin and a hilarious cameo by Ben Stiller and you get a simple, funny and entertaining movie.

Some might complain about the main character who's not always sympathetic or the alarmingly underdeveloped supporting characters but you know what? I don't care, this movie will always be fun to me!

The Ides Of March (2011) Review

A new school year has started and that means automatically less time for me to watch movies. That's a pity because now that Autumn has come all the blockbuster rubbish from the summer gets wiped away from theaters to make space for the more ambitious crowd of movies. And who could be more ambitious than our good old beloved ex-Batman George Clooney?

His new film The Ides of March is his fourth outing as a director and features a more than impressive cast: Clooney himself, Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei and a couple more better-than-average actors. I mean, honestly, I did the math, his cast was nominated for 11 Academy Awards including 3 wins, wouldn't you expect nothing short of greatness?

The story revolves around young and idealistic Stephen Meyers, played by Gosling, who works as a campaign manager for presidential candidate Governor Mike Morris, played by Clooney. But how long can Stephen preserve his ideals in the dirty world of politics?

Everybody knows how liberal of a guy Clooney is so it is no surprise what kind of message he is delivering here: Power corrupts and if you want to swim with the sharks then you have to learn to play dirty. Of course that is a valuable lesson that's being taught here, the only problem is that it is not particularly new. Have you never heard of All the King's Men? Citizen Kane? The Candidate?

Of course the movie is extremely well acted, everybody in the cast shines, even the characters with minor roles such as Marisa Tomei and Paul Giamatti get their fare share of good scenes and unsurprisingly it is also another stepping stone for soon-to-be Hollywood leading man Ryan Gosling. The dialogue is sharp, the pacing perfect and Clooney keeps growing as a serious filmmaker. The only thing that prevents the movie from being the masterpiece it should have been is its unoriginal storyline and its not very relevant message. 

Don't get me wrong, I'd recommend this film without hesitation to anyone, I just can't help but see The Ides of March as a failed opportunity on a very high level.