Eight Crazy Nights

When it comes to comedies, Adam Sandler movies are in a niche of their very own. They're divisive critically, they tend to resort to the lowest common denominator, yet by the end of it they manage to get plenty of people to tune in, and they do respectably at the box office. Adam Sandler is no dummy, he managed to make bank with a lot of films, demonstrated his chops as a dramatic actor and thanks to his films not being put on a pedestal by a general public, he has managed to maintain a humble attitude that persists to this day.

Everyone has their favorite Adam Sandler film, whether it be those considered nostalgic or better with its tropes, and Eight Crazy Nights is one of my personal favorites. Yes it's absolutely crass, and for it to take place in a holiday film is bound to really irk people, but that just helps make it stand out from others. Whether you like it or not, you can't say Eight Crazy Nights didn't do something, well, relatively different.

The animation is an objective positive, not just because of it in a vacuum, but because it was made out of passion, commitment, essentially given those laid off from major 2D studios another shot to do what they do best.

As for the humor, as a lot of people complain about adult cartoons being ugly and having equally ugly humor, Eight Crazy Nights proves that foul humor is possible no matter how good the art, animation, etcetera.

Eight Crazy Nights has some benefit of coming out when Adam Sandler movies were at a respectable peak, before the schtick started to get old for a lot of people, it has a crazy way of sticking with you whether it be for better or worse. If you want a break from the more cutesy holiday flicks and you're not picky, see what Eight Crazy Nights can do for you.

Funny as all heck. Decent story music was alright. Animation holds up for its age. Added to my families Christmas movie rotation.

Adam Sandler shows a great range and his characters. The story is fairly compelling. Whitey makes the story without him. The story goes nowhere.

It is a touching Christmas story. It really is about Whitey and how he impacts the people and his hometown.

The way whitey believes in his town the people in it. It's when Adam Sandler's character stands up for Whitey that you really see the true story of Christmas. Come alive in this.

The story brings the story of Hanukkah and redemption with through Christmas into a new light.

This is a wonderful film that should proudly be seated next to Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas.

Congrats to Sandler and his crew for bringing us an original (somewhat twisted) Holiday treat .... It's fresh to see a movie like this that breaks away from the (somewhat droll) regular Christmas Formula.

Sure, it may not exactly be great 'family' entertainment.... but it wont really harm any too many young fragile minds either. While there is a small amount of crude humor in this film... it doesnt cross the line and spoil any 'mythologies' of Christmas .... so young minds will not be tainted and lose their belief in Jolly Old Nick!

I've read lots of critisism about this film... and I was holding back until I saw it before I hit back at them. The fact is that there isnt much ground to criticize. It's Adam Sandler at his peak. It's a new art form for him and in the past year he has really spread his wings and taken off.

With this and Punch-Drunk Love under his belt, it's easy to say that it's been a good year for Sandler. If you want something different, original, colourful and fun to watch this Chrissy, then watch this little gem. Ignore all of the backlash and make up your own mind.

I rate this 8 out of 10.

Adam Sandler's animated tale has a thirty-three-year-old troublemaker (voiced by Sandler) wreaking havoc during the eight days of Hanukah. After getting in trouble with the law, he is given two choices: go to jail or perform community service, working as assistant referee for youth basketball league with the team's eccentric coach (also voiced by Sandler). He chooses the latter (whether he likes it or not) and goes out of his way to humiliate the coach at every chance he gets. Can the coach make this slacker change his ways?

Sandler caters to his fans with his crude, gross-out humor and excrement jokes. Some funny, and some plain stupid. Some of the songs are hilarious, including Sandler's revised Hanukah song. For those expecting a family-oriented holiday film can look elsewhere.

My evaluation: ** out of ****

It's about time there was a Hanukkah movie. And I'm glad it was this one. I love musicals, especially funny ones. Plus, the Fiddler on the Roof-esque number toward the end of this movie was a scream.

It starts out with Davey Stone causing trouble and wreaking havoc on the town and all the nice Christmas and Hanukkah decorations. He's kind of a Grinch in the beginning. We find out why later, and I'm not going to spoil it for those who haven't seen it. But you can sort of understand why he'd be bitter and mean, even if he does go a bit overboard. Stealing a snowmobile and crashing through the giant Menorah ice sculpture was overkill. But he gets the point across - he's bitter and hates the holidays.

But Davey finally gets picked up and has his day in court. The judge makes him do community service helping Whitey referee children's basketball. At first he acts like a big jerk in front of everyone, and they throw things. But then he starts to warm up to this kid, who just happens to be the son of the girl Davey was in love with when he was twelve. It's all very cosmic, in a Three Stooges sort of way.

Whitey and Elinore are some of the funniest cartoon characters I've seen in a long time. Also, Jon Lovitz's character was good, even if he's only in the movie for a few minutes at the end. And I quote: "When I was a kid, I always dreamed of two things. Learning how to make a hook shot with my left hand,

and becoming a multimillionaire. Well, I guess we all know which one of those dreams came true." Then he puts his left hand on the podium, and it's a hook. Yeah, I guess that left-handed hook shot is out of the question now, huh?

This is a movie worth seeing. I've been watching it for the past week or so, and it's not anywhere near Hanukkah. Just a funny, funny movie.