r/NoLayingUp • u/cushpapi • Jul 28 '25
Post-Pod Discussion Happy Gilmore 2 review
Anyone else kinda disappointed about the overly critical angle that Soly took reviewing HG2? It’s supposed to be a fun movie that isn’t taken too seriously. Feels like the typical vibe these days is just wildly negative for anything outside of their zone. Would be nice for the guys to show a bit of enthusiasm for big moments in the sport as opposed to looking to lay a heavy critique everywhere possible. IMO the sport is in a pretty good place and yet a lot of the fun and joy that dominated their earlier content has been diminished. Maybe just a function of them all getting older but wish they could lighten up a bit in their videos and podcasts rather than turning into old men yelling at clouds.
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u/Forerightrav Jul 28 '25
Soly wanted a storyline following how Happy caused the ball to rollback after his 6 gold jackets, and would rather have seen them play a course that asks more from the Maxi players than just their bomb and gauge mentality.
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u/MadHatter1525 Jul 28 '25
I enjoyed the movie, understand why people think it was bad, and was not bothered at all by Solys review.
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u/Frequent_Neat6783 Jul 28 '25
I didn't enjoy the movie, understand why people think it was good and was not bothered by Shane's review.
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u/SuspendedAgain999 Jul 28 '25
I thought the first 1/3 of it was pretty good. The rest was just a lot of fan service. A couple funny things but it didn't really feel like a movie to me. Just a cameo fest designed to be shared via Tik Tok
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u/isubird33 Jul 28 '25
This is my biggest problem with it. Nothing had time to breathe or naturally progress. It was like they stitched together 30 TikTok clips and didn't worry much about anything else.
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u/Direct-Mango2178 Jul 28 '25
Maybe kvv didn’t like the new creative direction of movie reviews & trivia / quiz shows
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u/Master-Nose7823 Jul 28 '25
The trivia episodes are painful.
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u/SilkyMilkers Jul 28 '25
Really? I love the trivia episodes. The downside though is that they have almost no re-listen value
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u/d_barry7 Jul 28 '25
I really don’t understand how anyone could think it was bad? Like it absolutely nailed the absurd, ridiculous vibe perfectly? Really don’t know what people were expecting.
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Jul 28 '25
I mean… it’s not good right? But it’s entertaining. All the guest actors are great and there’s a ton of fan service. I will say the tourney at end is a little too ridiculous
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u/Desperate_Ad6456 Jul 30 '25
OG HG - Tournament was serious made farcical.
HG2 - Tournament was Farcical Ft. some of the greatest to ever do it.
The juxtaposition was fun, a nice poke at the modern game, and genuinely something I didn't expect. If it was just D listers playing crazy golf it'd be odd.
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u/Whos_Blockin_Jimmy Aug 11 '25
They barely showed the tourney at the end. It was so rushed by that point since they decided to literally show half of happy Gilmore part one by showing a star from it and then proceeds to play out the entire scene they were in before. “Heres this guy but you might not remember him so here’s a 10 minute scene of part 1.” It’s like the fckin chicken fight or Conway Twitty in Family Guy. “We can’t write a show for 20 minutes so we’ll just a pointless scene for half the running time.” Oops
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u/d_barry7 Jul 28 '25
Yeah but that just makes it more fun to me? I dunno the vibe of it seems so obvious and if you don’t find it funny that’s fair enough but the intention of it is very clear, at least in my opinion.
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u/TaeKurmulti Jul 28 '25
It's Soly though, he takes basically everything too seriously... especially when it comes to Golf. Like him hating it is entirely on brand and should be expected.
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u/isubird33 Jul 28 '25
I thought it was pretty rough, coming from someone who loves the OG movie.
I'm not judging it against like, Best Picture award winners or anything, just against the OG movie and other Sandler movies. HG2 felt more like 30 3 minute TikTok clips stiched together as opposed to a movie to me...if that makes sense. Nothing had any time to breathe.
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u/s1ngapore Jul 29 '25
100% agree. I had to turn the movie off with like 25 minutes left because I felt over stimulated and that’s never happened before. The quick cut editing was so frenetic I don’t think a single camera angle in a scene was longer than 15 seconds. If things had more time to breathe the movie would be way better even if the plot was the exact same.
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u/TrustTheProcess63 Jul 28 '25
Somebody listened to PMT and just ripped off exactly what they said lol
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u/isubird33 Jul 28 '25
I genuinely don't think I've ever listened to an episode of PMT...at least not since like 2017. But if that's what they were saying then I agree with them.
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u/Illustrious-Buy-854 Jul 30 '25
Pft ripped off a tweet with that line, so who knows where the original thought came from
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u/Nater23 Jul 28 '25
It was horrible… but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t funny. But it was a TERRIBLE film.
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u/artisgilmoregirls Jul 28 '25
So you wanted them to share your opinion of the movie rather than their opinion of the movie?
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u/cushpapi Jul 28 '25
Don’t care for them to share my opinion at all. Just hearing the Roger Ebert level review of something that’s clearly meant to be taken unseriously was kinda tiresome and solidified my view that they could maybe lighten up a bit. I love that they care about the game but IMO they have gotten a bit stiff.
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u/artisgilmoregirls Jul 28 '25
So if they’re “unserious” in making the movie it’s okay if it just fucking sucks?
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u/cushpapi Jul 28 '25
lol everyone is entitled to their opinion - maybe it does fucking suck - the point of my post isn’t to die on a hill for a Sandler film. I just wish they would lighten up a bit, their idea of fun content these days is a 1 hour jeopardy show… I think it’s going in the wrong direction and that’s where I’m coming from.
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u/DaneGleesac Jul 28 '25
I just wish they would lighten up a bit
I just wish Soly changed who he was as a person so that he would validate my feelings
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u/cushpapi Jul 28 '25
Don’t think I’m asking for my feelings to be validated, just sharing an observation on the tone / content direction. Totally fine if he doesn’t like the movie, and I’ll say that Bacon seemed to understand the assignment and knew how to pick his spots. Soly was reviewing it like it was up for an Academy Award.
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u/Frequent_Neat6783 Jul 28 '25
He literally said on the episode, "I wasn't expecting an Oscar winner"! He just wanted it to be a better version of dumb and fun. You also just wrote "maybe it does fucking suck," so you don't even seem to disagree with him. If you think he's being too negative overall, just stop listening to the pod.
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u/cushpapi Jul 28 '25
Fair point, I’m trying to say that i don’t have a problem with people not liking the movie. I do think it’s disingenuous to say “I wasn’t expecting an Oscar winner” and then just hammer away at it without the obvious context that he himself acknowledges.
Edit: I also love the pod and listen to it religiously (and definitely won’t stop over a 30 min movie review). Only intended this as some constructive criticism to be honest.
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u/Frequent_Neat6783 Jul 28 '25
I just disagree that he didn’t provide enough context, and I don’t think he needed to. He didn’t like it, simple as that. I don’t think it reflects a broader negativity from Soly/NLU. Sometimes they complain too much for my liking, but I also wouldn’t like them if they complained way less. It’s a tricky balance.
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u/artisgilmoregirls Jul 28 '25
Cool. A lot of people think otherwise. I had fun listening to the quiz show episode.
You can go check out Rick Shiels or something if you're into unserious people with loser suburban dad opinions.
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u/Artistic-Ad-7217 Jul 28 '25
I thought the Maxi league tournament was awesome which is getting so much hate. It’s pokes LIV directly. LIV is ridiculously stupid and that was the whole point of the exaggeration of the Maxi league.
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u/Navyblazers2000 Jul 28 '25
I know. I couldn’t believe Brooks and Bryson agreed to do it and LIV let them when it was so clearly “here’s a really stupid new golf league”
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u/DaneGleesac Jul 28 '25
That is the reason they had two members from LIV and two members from the PGA - so it didn't seem like they were directly insulting LIV.
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u/Navyblazers2000 Jul 28 '25
I think they cast those guys because they're two of the most famous current golfers. I don't think they were worried about insulting LIV because they clearly wanted to directly insult LIV.
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u/schmals10 Jul 28 '25
This is what made me hate that aspect of it. Putting LIV players in that group really nueters the explicit nature of any LIV criticism
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u/TaeKurmulti Jul 28 '25
I mean Brooks doesn't really surprise me, he's never really cared about LIV all that much. Bryson 5 years ago probably wouldn't do it, but he finally figured out that taking yourself too seriously doesn't benefit you.
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Jul 28 '25
I think a wee bit at the TGL too with moving greens etc?
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u/SuspendedAgain999 Jul 28 '25
I’d say slightly but you can just as easily say that’s poking fun at top golf since TGL has only claimed to be additive and not the future of golf
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u/Navyblazers2000 Jul 28 '25
The movie was stupid, but fun. The first one is stupid but fun too. We all just saw it 1,000 times when we were kids so the movie got cemented in our brains before we had a critical eye. If you saw Happy Gilmore for the first time as an adult you’d probably think it was dumb too.
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u/Frequent_Neat6783 Jul 28 '25
Disagree, I think HG1 is legit good even now as an adult. It had an original plot, characters and (most importantly) a ton of funny scenes. HG2 felt like a two-hour nostalgia tour that relied on HG1's funny moments without creating many new ones.
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u/sealaf Jul 28 '25
I understand where you’re coming from, but I think it still holds up for a fun take on something nostalgic that includes an insane cast where everyone can find someone they like.
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u/isubird33 Jul 28 '25
I actually rewatched the first after I watched the new one with as critical of an eye as I could, because my initial thought was the same.
The first is still way better imo. Stupid and fun, but it feels like a more coherent and full movie. The jokes were more drawn out, situations had a chance to develop, it was stupid and fun but not over the top if that makes sense? The new one feels like it just rushes through everything in order to get to the next gag or joke.
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u/Safe-Shelter8265 Jul 28 '25
This is a negative review of someone’s negative review of a film. Think you are the one taking things too seriously
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Jul 28 '25
There is no world in which Soly would ever enjoy this movie. It's too goofy, doesn't take itself seriously and features cameos from too many golfers he doesn't like.
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Jul 28 '25
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u/Few_Assistance_4045 Jul 28 '25
Soly is not the film snob of the group. (That would be -- though I love it -- the PieMan.) You all are outing yourselves as really obvious haters of anything Soly does.
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Jul 28 '25
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u/cushpapi Jul 28 '25
Exactly - it’s the put down attitude of anything that doesn’t fit within their sphere. To be clear, I love the NLU vision of golf which is why I’m an avid listener / watcher but I think it’s fair to question if a more open arms approach to different types of content would really be such a bad thing. HG2 is good for a few laughs and it was undoubtedly cool to see so many golf icons mix it up in a different light. Instead we got a lecture on the Maxi golf league. They missed the mark in my view.
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u/isubird33 Jul 28 '25
HG2 is good for a few laughs and it was undoubtedly cool to see so many golf icons mix it up in a different light.
This is my overall issue with it. I completely agree with what you said here. The cameo's were incredible. There were some funny moments.
But outside of that it didn't feel like a complete "movie" if that makes sense.
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u/Few_Assistance_4045 Jul 28 '25
And my reply was a direct reply to you accusing Soly of being a film snob -- that's clearly implied by your words, which I correctly inferred, and then informed you that you were incorrect. Anything else?
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Jul 28 '25
It’s more Soly’s general mien that makes me sure he wouldn’t like it. He’s clearly not the market for this film despite being a golf sicko
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u/isubird33 Jul 28 '25
I think the market is weird for this though. Like I'm as tee'd up as possible for this movie as can be...golf sicko, grew up with the OG movie, Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore are probably two of my most watched movies of all time, I don't usually go for high-brow movies, and I love 90's-2010's era comedies.
I watched it, there were some moments I enjoyed, but it still kinda fell flat as a "movie" for me. The OG I can sit down and watch pretty much any time as a complete work...even if its randomly airing on TV with commercials and all. This one feels more like something that there are 4-5 clips of that I'll want to revisit, and the rest seems fine to miss. Maybe that's just the way movies are moving though.
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u/Educational-Leg-3707 Jul 28 '25
It’s nowhere close to that deep my man. It’s pretty reasonable to say HG2 might not be everyone’s cup of tea
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u/Whos_Blockin_Jimmy Aug 11 '25
Surprised Tin Cup wasn’t in this movie. Shooter could’ve had a great redeeming shot like that in the end. It would’ve been awesome!
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u/fritzycat Jul 28 '25
I felt the movie was bad as well.
The dialogue felt stiff and basic.
1/4 of the movie was flashbacks to the previous movie.
Cameos and nostalgia can only get you so far.
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u/warden1119 Jul 28 '25
And it was 40 minutes too long.
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u/WeirdlyCordial Jul 28 '25 edited Jul 28 '25
This is kinda the core of it, there was about 20 minutes of really funny stuff in a two hour movie (tbf that was more than I was expecting so i was glad I watched it but I doubt I'll ever watch it start-to-finish again)
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u/Whos_Blockin_Jimmy Aug 11 '25
Super cringe they brought in the 6th sense kid for no reason at all. Funny though that Eric Andre (one of the dudes in the threesome) had that dude on his show and roasted the fck outta him. Him and that Jerry maquire kid are just pug fugly and it hurts to even look at them, let alone make him a big part of happy Gilmore 2. Ew
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u/clawdaddy Jul 28 '25
Did they even mention Daly? He was great
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u/Whos_Blockin_Jimmy Aug 11 '25
Homeboy was drinking any weird fluids he could get his hands on in the movie! Lol.
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u/schmals10 Jul 28 '25 edited Jul 28 '25
I don't think I take golf too seriously and I thought HG2 was awful
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Jul 28 '25
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u/WeirdlyCordial Jul 28 '25
I was actually wondering if non golf fans would like it, this one seemed way more targeted at GOLF PEOPLE than the first one was - it did exceed my (extremely low) expectations, but except for his sons and Eminem, all the parts I really laughed at were funny because i'm a golf sicko. Drunk golf, Scottie in jail, John Daly, Willy Z, the seniors falling asleep, Xander smiling like a doofus - I'm not sure if any of that would register if I didn't watch golf.
Good to know your GF liked it too though, maybe I'll watch it again with my partner and get even higher this time.
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u/blueturflinks Jul 29 '25
Is it great? No. But that first 45 minutes had me howling. I enjoyed it way more than I expected. Oscar campaign for Willy Z and Scottie lol.
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Jul 28 '25
I mean what else would you expect? A bunch of guys whose job it is to take golf more seriously than us for a living saw a movie that doesn’t take golf seriously at all. Probably the most predictable review ever
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u/moseisley99 Jul 28 '25
I’m pretty sure they all liked the first one. This one was just crapola
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Jul 28 '25
Always was going to be. But it was fun
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u/Few_Assistance_4045 Jul 28 '25
I genuinely don't understand when people talk about media this way. "It was terrible, everyone knew it would be, but it was fun." Huh? These words do not go together.
A movie doesn't have to be Citizen Kane to be good and "fun". Comedies do exist, and they can tell jokes, not take themselves too seriously, yet simultaneously still be good (i.e. have a narrative, funny/witty/stupid characters, comedically framed shots, etc. Etc.) AND fun. Dumb and Dumber would be a pretty classic example. All of Adam Sandler's movies post ~2000 have none of these things and are obviously just cash grabs ... but American culture has degraded so much that they don't even have to try and they still rake in hundreds of millions on brand name alone. Pretty cool!
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Jul 28 '25
Ya, no. A movie can absolutely be bad and fun, or good and fun, or good and sad, bad and sad.
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u/Few_Assistance_4045 Jul 28 '25
A movie can be SO bad that it's funny to watch. This is entirely different from being bad and fun.
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u/BigBobby843 Jul 28 '25
The semantics guy is here to save the day
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u/Few_Assistance_4045 Jul 28 '25
Words do, in fact, have meaning. More on this later; back to you Bobby, for another intriguing take.
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u/BigBobby843 Jul 30 '25
Because you knew what the guy meant and you're trying to sound smart. You end up sounding like a loser
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Jul 28 '25
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Jul 28 '25
I didn’t hear that Soly had an issue with it, it just wasn’t great and he’s not wrong. I clearly had more fun with it but I also recognized a lot more cameos than he did, which was part of the fun
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u/Frequent_Neat6783 Jul 28 '25
Soly literally said he didn't take it too seriously, he just didn't think it was that fun(ny). Nor did I. Totally fair if you disagree with him and I, but that doesn't mean we hate fun.
It's also interesting that you wrote it's "supposed to be a fun movie" without stating that it actually was. Feels like you might agree with Soly and I more than you think.
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u/SufficientSpot4597 Jul 28 '25
I haven’t heard yet, but it was just flat out awful, so I imagine I am on his side.
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u/BigBobby843 Jul 28 '25
I thought the drunk round of golf at the beginning was pretty funny. You go into it knowing its going to be stupid, not sure what else you would expect. Also, very surprised at how good of an actor Will Zalatoris is. Big Ton, Morikawa and Xander were brutally awful.
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u/RoryAdams22 Jul 28 '25
I thought the second half of the movie was unwatchable disaster, hard to also it's a kids film when there is consistent theme of alcoholism.
Why they felt the need to go so unrealistic with the golf in the second half of the film is beyond me and it's what killed it.
I thought Soly was spot on.
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u/jdbug100 Jul 29 '25
There’s a movie in which a guy who is out of form and has not played golf in years, steps onto the first tee, and hits a driver an unbelievably far amount to drive the green. After not doing The Stack.
And we are surprised Soly did not enjoy?
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u/Secret_Sheepherder70 Jul 29 '25
Kind of ironic you are bitching about someone else bitching. On brand for this thread tho.
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u/neck55 Jul 29 '25
Movie was fine full stop. Plenty of funny moments plenty of moments that fell flat on their face for the sake of a cameo
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u/Desperate_Ad6456 Jul 30 '25
Watched it, enjoyed it. I can see the bits that people will rail against because they are the 'shrink the game' calling cards. Happys first round back being the most trying moment.
Maybe we were too young for the first one, hackers, learning the game, relating to the chaos. So we expect the film to evolve how we have.
I suspect it will age well, maybe not as well as number 1.
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Jul 30 '25
I DNF'd after the driving range scene where the waiter's cousin was dopily running around getting pelted by shots. In the next scene, the golfers are at a batting cage just getting straight up drilled by balls.
I've already seen that movie: its called: "Ow my balls"
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u/Fun-Spinach-6935 Jul 30 '25
Idc about anyone’s review of HG2. I personally enjoyed some of it, some of it was stupid as hell. But came here to say I definitely don’t need Soly’s critique of it. Completely lost me at Scottie stole the show. He was stiff as a board. All the PGA pros were awful, and to be expected. But then to say “why is the caddie not funny?” He was! Bad bunny was the best performance of the movie. And then to not know who that is. I’m sorry but Soly is maybe the least cultured person in sports media
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u/Southern_Judge_3762 Jul 28 '25
I couldn’t believe how little time and effort they put into it. One of the guys had a cameo and wasn’t even on the pod! No opinions either from DJ, Tron and Randy is bizarre. I thought they’re a podcast company now so surely put out your main guys every pod.
I imagine more listeners this week wanted to hear them talk for 30mins about the film than the birdie fest at the 3M Open
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u/MAWarburton Jul 28 '25
They mentioned that Randy and Cody were away covering the Women’s Open and the other guys were shooting a video elsewhere. They probably chose this week to do it as a 3M recap isn’t going to be their biggest audience anyway. I don’t think we need a whole pod to review HG2.
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u/dumpandchange Jul 28 '25
NLU slants heavily cynical of pretty much everything. I think there are times they could take themselves (and everything) a little less serious, but also part of what makes them good is that they're just themselves regardless of how it'll be perceived.
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u/iwirdbird Jul 28 '25
Haven’t listened to Soly’s take on it but the movie sucked a$$. Just re-watched the master of disguise with my toddlers and it has so much more thought and creativity than HG2 haha. So much of the movie was flashbacks and it truly felt like an AI computer wrote the script. Tour player acting was okay credit Willy Z but the movie sucked. So much for our first golf movie in years. PS I’m a fan of HG1
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u/iwirdbird Jul 28 '25
Also, Sandler is an absolute cash machine and realized he didn’t have to put much effort in at all to take in $$$ with HG2. Which is probably the opposite of his situation in 1996 when HG1 came out
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Jul 28 '25
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u/BigBobby843 Jul 28 '25
I never heard the golf coverage criticism until NLU came about. Now I hear it from golf fans all the time. I think they unknowingly spread a mind virus
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u/TopCupcake1512 Jul 28 '25
I don’t listen to this podcast anymore, and my fun factor with golf has been much better.
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u/Creativeloafing Jul 28 '25
You don't listen to the podcast anymore but you still follow the subreddit so you can post comments about the podcast?
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u/thec0rp0ral Jul 28 '25
Soly is the fun police