You might have to strain to remember, but there was once a time before Adam Sandler was one of comedy’s premier movie stars. Before he was ever a wedding singer or a waterboy, a grown-up or a big daddy, he was Happy Gilmore, the slapshot-happy golfer that launched him into bankable movie stardom.

It only feels right that this Sandler creation would be the one to do so — it’s not only arguably his most enduring character, but also the one that carved the specific archetype that he’d embody over and over in the years since: a lovable, palpably decent common man, whose soft heart is always just barely concealing a cartoonish rage waiting to boil over.

Directed by Kyle Newacheck, “Happy Gilmore 2” is keenly aware of not just the success of but the nostalgia for that early Sandler buffoon, so much so that rather than make sly inside jokes to the original film, it repeatedly opts to simply cut to flashback clips from the movie itself.

This approach is partly practical, tossing us reference points to the sequel’s many callbacks. But one can’t also help but feel that it’s simply because we need the reminder of why we should be having a good time. Billions of box office dollars later and a comedic style we’ve now seen in dozens of his films, Sandler isn’t exactly that fresh-faced star anymore. Neither is Happy. The sequel sees Happy Gilmore as a retired golf champion who, following sudden tragedy, has become a hopeless drunk. To secure a better future for his family, he reluctantly decides to get back on the green to reclaim his old glory.

This early downward spiral sets up the underdog comedic energy from the original, and there is that familiar, warm absurdism and silliness that peeks through. Ben Stiller is back, and so is Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald is a rare highlight). But the early and largely easy fun begins to curdle into inanity that simply drags (there is, oddly enough, way too much actual golf in this movie), before devolving into an overextended fever dream of celebrity cameos.

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