8 Crazy Nights

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Christmas 2017

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In celebration of the first day of Hanukkah, I thought I'd take a look back on what is pretty much the one and only Hanukkah movie out there (although I'm sure I'm probably mistaken). But just how worth it is this title? Over the years, I've heard almost nothing but bad about it, but I honestly remember liking it pretty well upon my first viewing.

Well, let's get our basic plot out of the way first. Davey (Adam Sandler) is a drunken asshole idiot who goes around the beginning of the movie singing about how much he hates everything and everyone. He causes a disturbance, and is sentenced to community service once things are worked out between the court and a little old man named Whitey (also Sandler) who comes to Davey's defense in court.

Davey is made to be the coach of the elementary school basketball team, and slowly seems to redeem himself. However, his past sort of just keeps coming back to haunt him and piss him off, so he's basically an asshole all the way through the movie. A "Scrooge" of sorts, if you will.

And therein lies the true problem with the movie - despite it's somewhat happy (and highly predictable) ending, the movie is just kinda mean-spirited and full of adult humor, which includes swearing to some extent. On top of that, there's a bit too much crude toilet humour going on here that's plain unnecessary, and thrown in for a cheap giggle. Just how bad? Well, how about when a bunch of deer start laughing and pooping all over the place just because, y'know, shit happens? Or Whitey's sister having a seizure and farting the whole time doing it? Toilet humor can be great if it's done well, but here, it's just cheap and you have to wonder why it's there.

The movie isn't without any heart whatsoever though. There are some reasonably warm moments here. But when all said and done, you predict these things to happen from the get-go, so you're not incredibly emotionally invested in things.

I will say that the movie has one thing going for it, however, and it's perhaps the most important aspect. It seems to be aimed toward the old school Sandler fans who remember his audio skits and the humor that resided in them. The whole thing could be seen as a visual version of something from an old Sandler CD, and yes, it definitely includes a third version of his famous Hanukkah song.

At the end of the day, it all depends on personal taste. Being an old fan of his old material, I don't HATE this movie, but it seems to get worse with time and, quite frankly, maturity. Still though, it's not totally without it's moments, and there are a few genuine laughs that veer away from what is otherwise a standard toilet humor film. What more can I say, it's Sandler, 2002, so just around the time he was starting to get the hate coming in from critics. I'd kinda place this one somewhere in the lower middle for Sandler quality.

2/5

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