Eight Crazy Nights - DVD

I’d like to start by saying that I hate it when people bag movies.  They always sound so ‘up themselves’ as if they have made a dozen Academy Award winning films and they are the absolute authority in film.  They seem to take a perverse pleasure in putting a film down.  Then of course there are those who give a movie a bad review because it is the ‘in thing’ to do, John Carter anyone?

While I have a degree in film making, I have never made a film.  I know that there are a huge number of people involved in the making of a movie and no one sets out to make a bad film.

Having said all this, I find myself in the awkward position of not liking a movie and not recommending anyone to see it.

The movie in question is Adam Sandler’s “Eight Crazy Nights”.  This is an adult-orientated animated Christmas movie but for Jewish people. Confused?

I bought this on DVD sight unseen.  It was cheap and was a collector’s edition.  I love animation and also enjoy some Adam Sandler films so how bad can it be, right?

Let me start with the story.  Adam Sandler plays the part of Davey stone a reprehensible man who skips out on his restaurant bill, is an alcoholic and is abusive to almost every person he meets.  This is one character who is very hard to root for.  After another drunken episode, and due to his long list of previous criminal offenses, Davey is to be sentenced to jail time.  That is until Whitey, a little old man comes to his rescue and offers to take him under his wing and mentor him.  Davey sued to be a pretty good basketball player in his youth and Whitey makes him a referee for his community service.  But if he messes up once more, it is off to jail for good.  The trouble is, Davey doesn’t care that someone is doing something nice for him and treats Whitey with derision.  Somehow, over the next eight nights of Hanukkah, Davey must find and earn redemption.

I have to say that I loved the animation.  This is very well drawn, especially Adam Sandler’s likeness.

However, the film is hard to enjoy.  It is animated but is not aimed at children because the story is quite adult and is rated M 15+ in Australia.  However, it is too puerile for adult audiences.  I’m not Jewish but I felt offended for Jewish people.  But then, not knowing any Jewish people, they may enjoy this form of humour, who knows.  One of the scenes has Davey kick over a port-a-loo with Whitey inside, who emerges covered in excrement.  He then goes on to hose him down, this is in the middle of winter and of course he freezes into what Davey calls a ‘Poopsicle’.  Yep, it’s that type of humour.  What took this scene over the edge was that Whitey is saved by some reindeer that lick the icy crap off him! Yuck!

While Adam Sandler provides the voice for Davey, he also erroneously provides the excruciatingly annoying voices for Whitey and his twin sister Eleanor.  Seriously, I found it so hard to stick with this movie to the end because the voices are just terrible!  If Adam had got a couple of other actors to help out, this would have been a passably watchable film.  However, the singing makes that just that little bit more impossible.  The singing is pretty bad and also incredibly annoying.

It’s not all bad though.  The character of Whitey can find the positive in anything and the story of redemption is to be applauded.  But it is not enough for me to recommend this movie to anyone else to watch.

The DVD comes with a couple of Audio commentaries, some deleted scenes and a making-of featurette.  There is also a weird little short film called ‘A Day With the Meatball’ and a music video by Adam Sandler called The Chanukah Song Part 3.  You must need to be Jewish to appreciate this too.  There is an artwork gallery showcasing the great animation plus the original trailer and some bonus movie trailers.  A comprehensive collection but once again, not enough for me to recommend buying this DVD.

I know that some people enjoy this movie (Fox-TV said “The funniest holiday movie of all time” – though I can’t help thinking they missed the word ‘NOT’ in front of that quote), but I just didn’t enjoy this.  I hope I haven’t offended anyone with my review.  Watch “The Santa Clause” for a better holiday comedy for the whole family.  I give this movie a very generous 4 out of 10.