Happy Gilmore 2 is a nostalgic return to one of Adam Sandler’s more tolerable comedies that doesn’t offer much beyond the same old punchlines and go-to celebrity cameos.

Nearly 30 years after the original golfing romp launched the Sandman’s Hollywood stardom into the stratosphere, the comedy legend has amassed a repertoire of easy gags and famous friends that have made his latest efforts feel lazier than ever.

Following a surprising tragedy in the opening prologue, alcoholic Happy is even more washed up than usual after abandoning his golf career to raise five kids.

When his only daughter, Vienna (played by Sunny Sandler), expresses her wish to become a dancer, he’s left scrambling to raise funds to pay for her to attend a prestigious ballet school.

Left with no option but to return to the sport which made him a household name, he finds himself teaming up with his unhinged former rival Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald) when the first attempt to relive his glory years ends in chaos.

This excruciating set-up takes far longer than it has any right to, introducing and re-introducing several characters from the original only to drop them by the wayside once the actual plot picks up steam. After what felt like hours, I paused the film to get a cup of tea only to discover there was inexplicably still an hour and 15 minutes of gratuitous cameos, golf gags and gyrating.

Ben Stiller gets some particularly painful moments as the abusive orderly from the first film, now re-invented as the cultish head of an Alcoholics Anonymous group who gets his ‘alkie’ underlings (his word) to wash his car and paint his fence.

He’s not the only returning character to be re-introduced under a completely different context in a haphazard attempt to make the script make sense. You get the feeling that the story was largely cobbled together from a series of childish playground skits that probably seemed funny to Sandler and co-writer Tim Herlihy at the time, but largely fall apart when strung together as a cohesive narrative with celebs and sports stars thrown in wherever they sort of work.

It’s less ‘set-up, punchline’ and more goofing around and playfighting built around an endless string of cameos and guest appearances that suck screen time away from the actual characters. Portrayed competently by Sandler’s actual daughter, Vienna, for example, is practically a non-entity for a film ostensibly about a deadbeat dad finding his spark and bonding with his kids.

Any sweetness that could have endeared audiences to the characters and therefore make the comedy hit harder is quickly chipped away by cheap laughs from violent stunts and obnoxious behaviour. Crude humour certainly has its place, though here the same punchlines are used over and over ad nauseum.

Along with the usual Sandler suspects, there’s plenty of cameos from familiar podcasters and musicians to generate easy goodwill from the bros tuning in. With the likes of Travis Kelce, Bad Bunny, Hot Ones host Sean Evans and famous foodie Guy Fieri all joining the “fun”, Happy Gilmore 2 seems more concerned from getting cheers of recognition and spit-takes from the relentless obscenities than genuine laughs.

There is a semblance of some satirical ideas here. While the original film took shots at the elitist world of classic golf, the second half of Netflix’s jaw-droppingly extended sequel (almost a full two-hours for what should have been a lean 90-minute comedy) ups the ante with Frank’s upgraded Maxi Golf tournament, which aims to turn the leisurely pastime into another extreme sport.

Faced with surgically modified rivals, wild terrain and a handful of deadly obstacles (a flaming bunker admittedly earned a reluctant chuckle), the third act gauntlet cribs from Beast Games and e-sports, though doesn’t have much to say about how the sporting world has supposedly been overshadowed by tech bros and sensationalised reality TV.

Benny Safdie is also particularly wasted in this territory as a smug entrepreneur who aims to reinvent golf for a new generation, much like the rest of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-them supporting cast.

What could have been a welcome return to form for Sandler, whose knockout performance in Uncut Gems is feeling more fleeting by the day, re-treading familiar ground has unfortunately led to yet another mediocre sequel it’s hard to imagine anyone was asking for.

More cameos than comedy, the number of effective punchlines can be counted on one hand while the list of famous guest stars would take longer than an actual game of golf to reel off. Unless the first Happy Gilmore is literally your favourite film, avoid this pointless sequel at all costs.

Happy Gilmore 2 is available to stream on Netflix.