Eight Crazy Nights (Seth Kearsley, 2002) Review

It's Christmas week so what better thing to do than....look at a Hanukkah film. Hey, it's the season fro a lot of things and its only fair. What ISN'T fair is that this is one of the only Hanukkah films out there...and I feel bad about this as it's a bad film to represent the holiday with. I'll look at a Christmas film later in the week but, for now, let's share the season with those who don't celebrate Christmas...I'm sorry for this.

It's Hanukkah season and Davey Stone (Adam Sandler) is alone, bitter and drinking. After being arrested for skipping on paying for his drinks, he is brought into court where his old basketball coach Whitey (also Adam Sandler) manages to keep Davey out of jail negotiating that Davey act as assistant referee. As the two spend more time together, more is revealed about Davey's past and his hatred for the holidays and Davey must learn to let the past go.

Adam Sandler really frustrates me. Yes, he's terrible now as he delivers crap after crap with the likes of Jack and Jill and Grown Ups 2 however believe it or not, he has done some decent work in the past. Click, Reign Over Me and Punch Drunk Love prove he can deliver some solid performances yet he goes out of his way to deliver awful, awful films....and Eight Crazy Nights is one of those awful films. This is a very crude film with no taste or concept of quality jokes. No jokes land and it's just unpleasant The characters are also dire. Davey has absolutely no redeeming traits even if a tragic backstory is forced in. Whitey is as annoying as sin and Sandler's voice acting borders on an Egoraptor video (I mean, I love Egoraptor but come on, the voices are uncanny). We also have to deal with yet another racist Rob Schnider performance.

There are two aspects that are actually note worthy though. Firstly, and most obviously, is the animation. Eight Crazy Nights boasts some really nice animation. It's smooth, is coloured really well and the characters look great (well, as great as an animated Adam Sandler can look). It's kind of insulting in a way that this great animation is wasted of this terrible film. The other aspect would be the music. The idea of Whitey singing is horrifying but I won't argue that I found the songs annoyingly catchy and have stuck with me. For better or for worse, they're memorable and I suppose that's what makes a...'good' soundtrack? Kind of a strange dilemma.

Eight Crazy Nights is a train wreck of a film. The voice acting is annoying as hell, the characters are either unlikable or annoying, the jokes don't land...and are also annoying and all in all...this film is annoying. That's the key word. Adam Sandler CAN do good but he chooses not to and this film is the holiday season addition to his hoard of awful films. It you are the least bit interested then just watch the musical numbers to see the great animation out of context and probably get a few songs in your head.

Verdict:
2/10
Only the animation and possibly the music are the decent things. Everything else is dire.