film Home > Movie Reviews

A truly horrible animated holiday musical comedy, complete with humiliation of the handicapped, shit-eating jokes, and cynical product placement so blatant it's funny. Sandler, taking a big step back after Punch-Drunk Love, regresses to his most cartoonish impulses in a Semitic shift on the old Scrooge/Grinch motif. The comedian provides the voice for an alcoholic small-town loser placed under the guidance of a seemingly borderline retarded Mr. Magoo-ish basketball referee (Sandler again) after he destroys the community's seasonal ice display. Directed by Seth Kearsley and written by Sandler and three hacks, Eight Crazy Nights contains about a half-dozen desperate laughs (most of them in the musical numbers), but far more grossness passed off as humor, and both the revelation behind our protagonist's inner misery and the feel-good ending are major groaners. Several key sequences take place in the town's mall, where one character recites a love poem to all the real-life companies inside; later, these brand icons come to life to offer advice in a big production number. On the upside, it's only 71 minutes long.