Eight Crazy Nights (2002)

Movie Info

This is my hell!

Davey Stone (voiced by Adam Sandler) is a miserable man. He hates the holidays and Hanukkah in particular. The celebration of lights reminds of his painful past and he’ll do anything to prevent that from happening. Whether is it being destructive or just out right cruel, Davey is making everyone in the town of Dukesberry miserable. When he faces jail, Davey is assigned to the watchful eye of Whitey Duvall (also voiced by Sandler) who just wants to win the town’s Patch award. As Jack is forced to work with kids, he is reunited with his former flame Jennifer Friedman (voiced by Jackie Sandler with a singing voice of Alison Krauss). Will Davey change his ways or will he head to jail?

Santa’s deer aren’t the only deer who can do tricks

Directed by Seth Kearsley and Adam Sandler, Eight Crazy Nights was an animated film based on Adam Sander’s “Chanukah Song” and was a means to tap into the rarely touched holiday of Hanukkah.  It has gained a bit of a following since its release but was blasted by critics for product placement and nominated for a couple of Razzies.

I didn’t really enjoy this film. I love Sandler’s “Chanukah Song” but felt making a whole movie with it as its semi-premise was a stretch. Most of movie’s humor falls flat and the movie alternates rather clumsily between sentimental humor and crude humor (lots of bodily function jokes). It is too sappy to be a dark movie, but too dark to be a nice movie.

Whitey…I hate you

I found most of the characters in this film annoying. From Adam Sandler’s Davey to his Whitey, I sometimes just cringed when they would start talking.  The movie is meant to show Davey’s redemption and the recognition of the hard work of Whitey, but I kind of wanted them all to just be killed in a massive explosion at the end of the film.

The animation on this film is quite good. I love classic animation and this movie used some really good classic animation. The colors and the characters really pop off the screen.  Part of the reason behind the great animation is that many of the animators had worked on fun film The Iron Giant and were recently fired before taking on this story.  I just wish I liked the movie more.

Eight Crazy Nights for me wasn’t fun or festive. It was just a bunch of jerky characters in a dull story. I know part of Sandler’s goal (as joked about in the Song) was to make some sort of Hanukkah comedy since there are so many Christmas movies. Unfortunately, this was a poor outing.