Happy Gilmore is a 1996 sports comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 directed by Dennis Dugan

Dennis Dugan

Dennis Dugan is an American director, comedian, and actor. He is most famous for his partnership with comedic actor Adam Sandler, with whom he directed the films Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, Grown Ups, Just Go With It, and Jack and...

 and produced by Robert Simonds

Robert Simonds

Robert Bruce Simonds, Jr. is one of Hollywood’s most prolific and profitable producers of motion picture comedies. His over 30 features have generated in excess of $3.5 billion in world wide revenue. Simonds focuses on two distinct demographic markets...

 for Universal Studios

Universal Studios

Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

. It stars Adam Sandler

Adam Sandler

Adam Richard Sandler is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician, and film producer.After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, Sandler went on to star in several Hollywood feature films that grossed over $100 million at the box office...

 as the title character, an unsuccessful ice hockey player who discovers a talent for golf. The screenplay was written by Sandler and Tim Herlihy

Tim Herlihy

Tim Herlihy is an American screen actor, film producer, screenwriter, and Broadway show author.Herlihy was born in Brooklyn, New York and is a graduate of the New York University School of Law. He frequently collaborates with Adam Sandler...

. This film was the first of several collaborations between Sandler and Dugan.
Happy Gilmore (Adam Sandler

Adam Sandler

Adam Richard Sandler is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician, and film producer.After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, Sandler went on to star in several Hollywood feature films that grossed over $100 million at the box office...

) is an aspiring ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 player who possesses a powerful and dangerous slapshot

Slapshot

A slapshot in ice hockey is the hardest shot. It has four stages which are executed in one fluid motion:# The player winds up his hockey stick by raising it behind his body, sometimes raising the blade to shoulder height or higher.# Next the player violently "slaps" the ice slightly behind the...

 that his late father taught him as a child.