Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights

As if searching for some nonexistent middle ground between the cartoon raunchiness of South Park and the innocuous banality of a cheap children's Christmas special, Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights is a sub-formulaic slap in the face to seasonal cheer. The former SNL funnyman voices an acrimonious, 33-year-old lay-about whom we're supposed to laugh along with as he makes fun of fat little kids and kicks port-a-potties (with people inside) down snowy hills. Of course, we're also expected to sympathize with his tormented soul, which is badly in need of a hackneyed, A Christmas Carol-type personality breakthrough. Too simplistic for adults, even by Sandler's dumb-is-funny low standards, Eight Crazy Nights is also too loaded with swearing and scatological humor (e.g., eating human feces) for younger viewers. The title comes from Sandler's now tiresome "Hanukah Song" (currently in it's third pop-culture-referencing incarnation), but the picture barely makes mention of the Jewish holiday. Instead it stays generically seasonal, generically musical, generically animated, and generically plotted, moving forward only because the script says so and not because of anything the characters say or do. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras on this two-disc set include both widescreen and full screen versions, two audio commentaries (one by characters Whitey, Eleanore, and co-writer/costar Allen Covert; the other by director Seth Kearsley, art director Philip A. Cruden, head of animation Stephan Franck, special effects supervisor John Bermudes, and executive producer Ken Tsumura), the two-minute short “A Day with the Meatball” about star Adam Sandler's dog, Sandler's music video for “Chanukah Song, Part 3,” an “NBA--Love it Live” TV spot, a 12-minute HBO First Look behind-the-scenes special, production featurettes on “Eleanore” (4 min.), “Whitey” (4 min.), “Creating Dukesberry” (5 min.), “Townspeople of Dukesberry” (5 min.), “Dukesberry Sings” (6 min.), “Jennifer & Benjamin” (3 min.), “Voices of Dukesberry” (5 min.), “Davey” (4 min.), and “The Deer” (2 min.), a multi-angle function animation progression for four sequences, 13 deleted/alternate scenes (including the original opening) with optional commentary by Covert, and trailers. Bottom line: a whole lot of extra stuff for a very little film.] (R. Blackwelder)