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Movies that feel like Happy Gilmore (1996)

If you loved Happy Gilmore, the closest films we have are Good Bye, Lenin! (2003), Big Daddy (1999) and Life As We Know It (2010). All three share Happy Gilmore's witty and playful feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 5 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Paramount Plus Premium and others, checked against today's data.

Failed hockey player-turned-golf whiz Happy Gilmore — whose unconventional approach and antics on the green courts the ire of rival Shooter McGavin — is determined to win a PGA tournament so he can save his granny's house with the prize money. Meanwhile, an attractive tour publicist tries to soften Happy's image.

🍅 66% Rotten Tomatoes7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Dennis Duganwittyplayfulmelancholyromantic
Stream it:Starz
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If Happy Gilmore hit the spot, these will too

Good Bye, Lenin! poster
Good Bye, Lenin!
2003 · dir. Wolfgang Becker
🍅 91%7.7comedy · drama

One thread runs through both: grief

The difference: Reviewed even better

Alex Kerner's mother was in a coma while the Berlin wall fell. When she wakes up he must try to keep her from learning what happened (as she was an avid communist supporter) to avoid shocking her which could lead to another heart attack.

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Big Daddy poster
Big Daddy
1999 · dir. Dennis Dugan
🍅 39%6.5comedy · drama

Dennis Dugan directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: None of the melancholy Happy Gilmore is built on

A lazy law school grad adopts a kid to impress his girlfriend, but everything doesn't go as planned. Now he's forced to grow up while navigating the challenges of fatherhood.

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Life As We Know It poster
Life As We Know It
2010 · dir. Greg Berlanti
🍅 29%6.5comedy · romance · drama

The same preoccupation in both: grief

The difference: Leans harder into romance than Happy Gilmore does

After a disastrous first date for caterer Holly and network sports director Messer, all they have in common is a dislike for each other and their love for their goddaughter Sophie. But when they suddenly become all Sophie has in this world, Holly and Messer must set their differences aside. Juggling careers and social calendars, they'll have to find common ground while living under the same roof.

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Life Is Beautiful poster
Life Is Beautiful
1997 · dir. Roberto Benigni
🍅 80%8.6comedy · drama

Witty and playful in the same breath

A touching story of an Italian book seller of Jewish ancestry who lives in his own little fairy tale. His creative and happy life would come to an abrupt halt when his entire family is deported to a concentration camp during World War II. While locked up he tries to convince his son that the whole thing is just a game.

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Machete poster
Machete
2010 · dir. Robert Rodriguez
🍅 70%6.6action · comedy · thriller

Both land melancholy and romance at once

After being set-up and betrayed by the man who hired him to assassinate a Texas Senator, an ex-Federale launches a brutal rampage of revenge against his former boss.

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La Dolce Vita poster
La Dolce Vita
1960 · dir. Federico Fellini
🍅 95%8comedy · drama

Comedy with a pulse of wit, in both cases

The difference: 36 years apart, and the 1960s show

Episodic journey of journalist Marcello who struggles to find his place in the world, torn between the allure of Rome's elite social scene and the stifling domesticity offered by his girlfriend, all the while searching for a way to become a serious writer.

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Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham poster
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham
2001 · dir. Karan Johar
🍅 100%7.4comedy · drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: class differences

The difference: Not nearly as melancholy as Happy Gilmore

Years after his father disowns his adopted brother for marrying a woman of lower social standing, a young man goes on a mission to reunite his family.

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Johnny Stecchino poster
Johnny Stecchino
1991 · dir. Roberto Benigni
🍅 46%7.2comedy

Both lean on play more than on comedy

Good hearted but not very wordly-wise, Dante is happy driving the school bus for a group of mentally handicapped children, while feeling he is somehow missing out on life and love. So he is very excited when after nearly being knocked down by her car he meets Maria, who seems immediately enamoured of him. He is soon invited to her sumptuous Palermo villa, little suspecting that this is part of a plot. He bears an amazing likeness to Maria's stool-pigeon gangster husband and it would be convenient for them if the mobster, in the shape of Dante, was seen to be dead and buried.

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Just Go with It poster
Just Go with It
2011 · dir. Dennis Dugan
🍅 20%6.4comedy · romance

Dennis Dugan working the same nerve twice

While romancing Palmer, a much younger schoolteacher, plastic surgeon Danny Maccabee enlists his loyal assistant Katherine to pretend to be his soon to be ex-wife, in order to cover up a careless lie. When more lies backfire, Katherine's kids become involved, and everyone heads off for a weekend in Hawaii that will change all their lives.

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Toni Erdmann poster
Toni Erdmann
2016 · dir. Maren Ade
🍅 93%7.3comedy · drama

Melancholy comedy in both cases

Convinced that his daughter has forgotten how to laugh, a father shows up unannounced while she's living abroad and bombards her with outrageous jokes.

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Safety Not Guaranteed poster
Safety Not Guaranteed
2012 · dir. Colin Trevorrow
🍅 91%6.9comedy · romance · science fiction

Both sit in the same romantic register

Three magazine employees head out on an assignment to interview a guy who placed a classified ad seeking a companion for time travel.

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Elling poster
Elling
2001 · dir. Petter Næss
🍅 85%7.5comedy · drama

Both run witty where it counts

40-year-old Elling, sensitive, would-be poet, is sent to live in a state institution when his mother, who has sheltered him his entire life, dies. There he meets Kjell Bjarne, a gentle giant and female-obsessed virgin, also in his 40s.

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The best-reviewed films that share Happy Gilmore’s defining feeling.