‘8 Crazy Nights’

Let’s get a few things out of the way before I thoroughly bash this overly clichéd, formulaic Christmas/Hanukkah film. I love Adam Sandler. He is a great comedian; not on par with the likes of Charlie Chaplin or Woody Allen, but he’s entertaining and makes people laugh. He also deserves an Oscar nomination for his beautifully angry role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch Drunk Love.” I agree with Anderson for supporting Sandler, and I will not categorize myself with elitist cineastes and film critics, as I love “Big Daddy,” “Happy Gilmore” and several other Sandler films. They may be mindless, passive cinema, but they’re good mindless, passive cinema.

Now that my conscience is clear, here’s why Adam Sandler’s animated feature “Eight Crazy Nights” is terrible. It is a typical holiday movie, complete with a quaint, small town and an Ebenezer Scrooge-like character. Davey Stone, one of three characters voiced by Sandler, is described by the infrequent narration of Rob Schneider as “the head honcho of holiday humbug.” He was once a “super-student, super-athlete,” but his haunted Hanukkah memories have transformed him into the crazy town buffoon who lives in a dirty trailer and overindulges in scorpion bowls at the local Chinese restaurant. Davey’s cliché holiday-hating character is thrust into the inevitable transformation after being sentenced by a judge to become a volunteer referee for the town’s youth basketball league.

This is a predictable formula that works well when the predictability is carefully balanced with likeable characters and refreshing twists on recycled material. This film has neither. Of all the so-called holiday movies that have been made, this one contains the least amount of “holiday spirit.” It is a noble gesture for Sandler to attempt to make a musical comedy that one would think would relate to a younger Jewish audience, who as of right now don’t have many light-hearted films to look to, but this is a weak attempt and the most magical part of the film turns out to be a cheap corporate promotion.

The Christmas/Hanukkah theme is brushed aside in an attempt to display Sandler’s comedic talents, as he also voices the Whitey Duvall, the dwarfish volunteer referee with a kind, overlooked heart, and his twin sister Eleanor. The script is so terrible and confusing that the filmmakers rely on Sandler’s talent in a comedic triple-threat that ***The Boston Globe has compared to the work of Peter Sellers. The only comparison I can make between Sandler’s efforts in this film and those of the legendary Peter Sellers (keeping “Dr. Strangelove,” his most legendary of roles, in mind) is that both are dead. This eccentric pair serves as the basis for what are supposed to be most of the film’s laughs, but nothing seems to work except for Sandler’s new Hanukkah Song, which doesn’t appear until the end credits.

Sandler’s blend of over-the-top physical comedy mixed with hyperbolic rage and child-like sensitivity is muted here by the animation. The film is restricted to the worst parts of his movies, the dialogue and the crude schoolboy humor. Obviously, animation leaves no room for improvisation, which means the filmmakers needed to start with a solid story, and they didn’t. The script, which contains no middle act, will leave even Sandler’s core 13-year-old audience with questions. Sandler’s live presence is missed and his energy is toned- down in an attempt to squeeze the 10 to 12-year-old demographic into the audience with mindless, gross-out humor, while still mixing in the typical rabble-rousing, boozehound rebel we know and love. Although Sandler co-wrote the script, his presence is only felt in his voice and sub-par (by Sandler standards) parody songs.

“Eight Crazy Nights” is obviously just a bump in the road for Sandler’s career. The idea of making a comedy that children of all religions can enjoy is a good one, but this film lacks the proper script and comedic energy to do anything but make Sandler fans await his next role.