FilmBlather.com

8 Crazy Nights is an unfortunate return to form for Adam Sandler, so wonderful in the upbeat Punch-Drunk Love that I was quixotically hoping he would continue to take on strange, unexpected challenges. Instead, he decided not to even show his face on the screen, instead providing the majority of the voices for this pretty embarrassing, uninspired animated romp. After Punch-Drunk, I hesitate to authoritatively proclaim that Sandler isn't funny, but I can tell you with certainty that he isn't funny here.

Notably, this is a Chanukkah movie, which isn't a terribly frequent occurence. That our solitary Chanukkah film is ugly, and mean-spirited, and altogether intolerable says more about Hollywood, I hope, than about the hallowed Jewish holiday. Davey Stone (Sandler) is a 33 year-old deadbeat who spends his time annoying people and causing trouble in the peaceful little town of Dunesburry. He used to be the star of the local youth basketball team until a key game coincided with the accidental death of both of his parents, at which point his life started going downhill and never stopped.

Now Davey has been arrested for what everyone thinks is the last time, until a shrimpy old guy named Whitey (Sandler again) saves him from a hefty prison term by offering to take him on as a referee-in-training for that very same youth basketball league. Whitey is a simple (though apparently quite hairy) guy; all he wants is to win the "Dunesburry All-Star Patch," which recognizes citizens for service to the community. Unfortunately, he is dismissed by everyone in the town as a freak and a weirdo which, in all honesty, isn't very far from the truth.

The movie, predictably, tells how Davey changes his hateful ways an becomes a good person under the mentorship of Whitey and his wig-wearing, deeply disturbed sister (Sandler) with whom he lives. To say that we didn't need it is certainly an understatement. 8 Crazy Nights is typical of other Sandler films in that it has a snide, hipper-than-thou cynicism towards its own material while still expecting us to take it seriously. It is not, I am happy to report, quite the atrocity that was Mr. Deeds, but it is uncomfortably close.

Sandler often finds himself enamored with gags that are painfully unfunny, and insists on shoving them down our throats. In Deeds it was his frostbitten foot; here, it is the character of Whitey and his hairy ass. Once and for all: a character, particularly an animated one, will not be humorous or entertaining just because he is short, hairy and speaks in a high-pitched voice. He has to do or say things that are funny, and this does not include trying to keep up with the players on the basketball court.

He fares slightly better with Whitey's sister, who at least has some interesting lines regarding a wig that was stolen long ago. Not much else works. A key subplot concerns Davey bonding with a young boy over a game of basketball, but it doesn't make any sense: wasn't Davey a crotchety asshole just two seconds before becoming Babysitter of the Year? The movie has less concern for those matters than even most children's films.

Speaking of children's films, this isn't one of those. Do not take the kids. Pardon the cynicism, but 8 Crazy Nights strikes me as a calculated strategy to draw ever younger audiences to Sandler's brand of humor, a prospect that is disturbing to say the least. Don't misunderstand: it is not his crassness and vulgarity that offend me, but the idea that children may hold him as the standard by which they judge comedy in particular and filmmaking in general.

Sandler and co. do hit a bizarre sort of stride in the final musical number, which is strange, funny, and almost certainly not written by the titular comedian. If after Punch-Drunk Love, this is all he has to offer us, I hope he crawls into a hole and only comes out to work with proven auteurs like Paul Thomas Anderson.