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8 Crazy
Nights
Step aside
Scrooge; Davey Stone has arrived with a bah humbug that will
leave you squirting Technicolor out your nostrils.
Adam Sandler
falls back on the usual characterization that made him popular
during his run on SNL. Playing the voice of several
characters in this film, Sandler stars as Davey Stone, a former
good kid turned bad by reasons left for the movie to explain,
now the local troublemaker.
Davey
commits a crime that should sentence him to jail, but Whitey
Duvall (Sandler) convinces the judge to keep with the holiday
spirits and allow one more chance to the hateful Davey. Of
course, Whitey finds out that this isn't going to be as easy
as he thought.
Is this
a classic holiday flick? It's certainly filled with song,
dance, spirit, and reindeer with poop in their teeth. Yes,
poop.
You will
see Adam Sandler like you've never seen him before -- animated.
The story is of redemption, and finding the good in people
in general, a familiar theme in Sandler's movies. Except for
the songs, it's nothing particularly special. Look forward
to those numbers, followed closely by the snappy fun poking
and snide remarks at cultures, people, and holiday spirit.
Sandler
doesn't pull any punches here with his humor, even for an
animated film. The sight of an old short midget with a hairy
butt frozen in turd isn't something to send the kids to go
see. If you never thought you'd see someone peeing his pants
visualized in a toon, here you have it.
Strangely
enough, Sandler is even better looking in animated form, and
supposedly a basketball player that would run circles around
the 1992 U.S. Dream Team, but who wouldn't give themselves
an animated make-over if they could? This is Sandler's own
dream wish for Channukkah.
What's
a movie without product placement? Marketing money gets taken
care of in one fell swoop during the mall song. Whitey performs
it in a good sequence, but in the second round you start to
wonder why Davey isn't locked away in a mental institute for
having a support group made up of a band of mall trademarks.
Of course
there's a love interest? Though a three breasted woman is
exactly what you'd expect from Sandler, even more desirable
is that normal girl working at the doughnut shop. In this
case, Jennifer Brodsky (Jackie Titone) used to be the love
of Davey's life. Unfortunately she now hates him completely,
but you never know. She has a son, Ben, that in one hilarious
scene plays b-ball with Davey for a most intriguing bet only
Sandler would think of.
The more
freakish characters come in the form of Eleanore and Whitey
Duvall. Brother and sister, they have lived with each other
for 60 odd years. Both have a birth defect of one normal size
foot and the other a couple of sizes smaller.
Whitey
is the town Samaritan who coaches the local basketball team,
and wishes for nothing more than to win the 35th annual town
patch and be recognized as a good citizen. Eleanore needs
to shave her forehead to prevent a uni-brow, and is a paranoid
lady to say the least.
Both are
kooky little people, contributing a great deal to the jokes
in the movie. If the movie does well, the term "Technical
Foul" may be spun at social gatherings and casual talks
as ridiculously as "Wassaaaaaap" was two years ago.
All in
all, it's a Sandler movie, with the musical element lending
it more quality than it might have deserved otherwise.
What's
It Worth? $6
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