After receiving wide critical acclaim for his first serious role in
PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, Adam Sandler now tries to create his own animated
franchise, a la SOUTH PARK, with 8 CRAZY NIGHTS. For the record, I have
almost never been impressed by Sandler's acting and that includes
PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, in which he merely gave a good performance in an otherwise
mediocre movie. Although his work in it, like the movie itself, was
overrated, it was Sandler's best performance to date.
The foul-mouthed and down-hearted 8 CRAZY NIGHTS features Sandler voicing
several of the lead characters. Most of all, he is Davey Stone, a
33-year-old Jewish guy who has spent life down on his luck. Typical of his
disastrous childhood is the time that he single-handedly won a high school
basketball game, only to discover that his parents died in a car crash on
the way to the game.
The thin script falls back on the clichéd bathroom humor typical of bad
live-action comedies. Set at Christmas, when Davey feels left out, the
jokes include reindeer who defecate in the snow. Body hair humor is also
popular in the picture. One of Sandler's characters is a sad old guy named
Whitey Duvall who sports more white hair on his derriere than Santa Claus
does on his face. Another character has enough red underarm hair to make
two large pom-poms.
The only mildly entertaining parts of the production are the big musical
numbers. The words are stupid, but the music is lively and well sung.
By the time you leave the theater, you'll probably have only one question on
your mind about the movie, "Why?" I could never figure why this crude,
asinine film was made in the first place.
8 CRAZY NIGHTS runs 1:35. It is rated PG-13 for "frequent crude and sexual
humor, drinking and brief drug references" and would be acceptable for
teenagers.
My son Jeffrey, age 13, gave it **, saying that he liked some of the jokes
but found the music annoying. Frequently during the movie, we'd look at
each other and just roll our eyes.
Copyright © 2002 Steve Rhodes
out of 4
