Review: Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights

Wait for Eight Crazy Nights to be released as a rental and watch it without shame in the privacy of your own home.

Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights
Photo: Columbia Pictures

It’s been an interesting year for Adam Sandler. First, the former SNL funny man received critical acclaim for his serio-comedic performance in Punch-Drunk Love, a film largely ignored by his core fanbase. Now, in the animated/semi-musical feature Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights, Sandler has been immortalized as a cartoon character. The movie’s premise is simple enough: Davey Stone, a smart-alecky party animal, gets into trouble with the law. In keeping with the holiday spirit, the judge sentences him to community service as an assistant referee for a children’s basketball league. In the end, Stone learns some valuable lessons about loyalty, friendship, sacrifice and the true meaning of the holiday season. Simple though the plot may be, Eight Crazy Nights makes for one jagged little pill. The film’s lack of taste runs the entire gamut from crass bathroom humor to mean-spirited jokes at the expense of the young, the old and the obese. Rob Schneider makes his umpteenth appearance in a Sandler vehicle as yet another irritatingly bad ethnic stereotype—this time as a Chinese waiter. Sandler has made a career of playing tactless, ne’er-do-well morons, but never an animated one. Is his character likeable? Not really. Is the movie funny? Only slightly. Is it watchable? Just barely. The film’s one saving grace is a new version of Sandler’s comical “Chanukah Song”. My advice? Wait for Eight Crazy Nights to be released as a rental and watch it without shame in the privacy of your own home. That way, when you start throwing things at the screen—or just start throwing up—you won’t run the risk of being thrown out, like this sad attempt at holiday levity should have been way before its Thanksgiving release.

Score: 
 Cast: Adam Sandler, Jackie Titone, Austin Stout, Tyra Banks, James Barbour, Bobby Edner, Jon Lovitz, Kevin Nealson, Rob Schneider  Director: Seth Kearsley  Screenwriter: Brooks Arthur, Allen Covert, Brad Isaacs  Distributor: Columbia Pictures  Running Time: 76 min  Rating: PG-13  Year: 2002  Buy: Video, Soundtrack, Book

Roxanne Blanford

Roxanne Blanford is a writer, marketing communications professional, copywriter, and versatile storyteller.

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