Oh Adam Sandler. He has truly seen better days. It’s incredible how this guy has gone from biggest goof on the big screen to the biggest waste of space on the big screen. For the last decade or so, Adam Sandler’s films seem to have only gotten worse. There may be one or two exceptions, but there’s definitely been many box office bombs like That’s My Boy, Grown Ups, and Jack and Jill, which is in the top 5 of many “worst movies ever made” lists around the internet. By the way, yes, I did just mention Grown Ups, where Sandler teams up with his old comedy buddies like David Spade, Rob Schneider, Chris Rock, and Kevin James, substituting for the late Chris Farley, to make some of the most unfunny films comedy stars could make. Not even those guys mashed together could make a comedy film funny. It’s really sad to see that the star of old classics such as Happy Gilmore and Big Daddy has really become one of the biggest recent failures in Hollywood. It’s as if Sandler has lost touch with audiences and comedy in general. But enough about all of those pathetic live action films, what does all of this have to do with animation? Well, back in 2002, Sandler had a full-length animated feature film to barf up. This is arguably the point in time where Sandler’s films truly started to suck. Eight Crazy Nights, I guess, was supposed to be a nice animated holiday comedy film for those who are Jewish, since there weren’t many Hanukkah films out there. However, there are many reasons as to why this animated eye sore is so terrible, and to keep to the title in a clever way, I’ll give eight crazy reasons why this film is awful.
The first and most important reason this film is so bad is because of the animation itself. Not that it looks particularly ugly, but because animating this story was completely pointless. Everything done in this film could have just as easily been done in live action, but I guess Sandler decided he wanted to show off his old man impression in some way, and he wouldn’t be able to do that in live action even if he were to use doubles of himself to also portray an old man… even though he would later go on to use doubles of himself on the big screen for that Jack and Jill abomination. The odd part is that the animation is surprisingly nice and colorful, but the beautiful animation is wasted on such a terrible holiday film with crude elementary humor and mean spirited dialogue. I don’t know what Sandler was thinking by animating this story. Maybe he thought it would add charm to this holiday film. Maybe he thought he would be doing the Jewish community a great service by bringing in an animated Hanukkah film among the hundreds of animated Christmas films, I don’t know. The bottom line is, animating this from the beginning was pointless.
The second reason why this film is awful is because of the humor. It is just as juvenile and tasteless in this film as it is in The Nut Job. There is so much toilet humor, belching, flatulence jokes, and other stupid jokes that might make an 8 year old laugh, but adults will just feel miserable. One of the things the movie does to shamefully try and get a laugh out of you is cut to some scenes where some deer poop, eat the poop, and smile with the poop in their teeth. But that’s not all the gut-busters this film has. While in court after landing in legal trouble, Sandler’s character, Davey, when asked about his old basketball days, replies with, “ I’d hit a three-pointer, except I’d have to drop my pants and pop a thumb up my boo-boo.” Get it? If you aren’t rolling on the floor laughing, don’t worry, nobody is.
The third thing that makes this film so painful to sit through is the cast of characters. The main protagonist, Davey, is so uninteresting and unlikable, it’s almost impossible to watch this film without hating him. Even trying to give him the backstory of his parents dying when he was young doesn’t make you feel sorry for him, nor does it make him more tolerable. Even when he comes to realize his mistakes and tries to change himself for the better, it’s hard to care. The film even tries to help the character out with the narrator saying “just when you were starting to like Davey,” but even that hits a dead end. The worst of the characters though, has got to be the old man, Whitey. I’m sure Sandler thought the name “Whitey” alone would get a laugh, but I’m sure he also thought the character’s voice would get a laugh as well. That’s right, Sandler puts his high-pitched old man voice to work in this film. It is every bit as awful to listen to as you would imagine.
The fourth reason why this film is awful is that, for an animated holiday film, it’s just really mean spirited. Sure, there are other holiday films out there, like Bad Santa, that are considered mean spirited, but when you see an animated holiday film, the last thing you are thinking of is just how cruel it is. I honestly can’t think of any other animated holiday film that is as crude and mean spirited as this one. There’s a scene where Davey kicks Whitey, a 70 year old man, into a port-o-potty and shoves it down the hill, leaving the old man to climb out covered in feces. Davey then fires a hose at Whitey, which just freezes him solid, still covered in feces. Isn’t that just what you think of when you think of an animated holiday film? It’s another example of why the beautiful animation is wasted on this film, because of how ugly the rest of it is.
The musicals are the fifth reason this film is so bad. The lyrics are pathetic and the singers themselves are mediocre at best. However, the worst songs are with the old man named Whitey by far. Like I said, Adam Sandler provided his high pitched, extremely cringe-worthy old man voice to this movie, and it’s even worse when he uses it to sing in a musical number. It’s so hard to sit through the parts in the film where this guy sings. There should have been an apology issued from Adam Sandler to all of those who left the theater with migraines and burning ear drums.
As if bad musical numbers wasn’t enough, there are also product placements shamelessly thrown into this movie, giving us our sixth reason why this film is such a waste. Whitey actually goes into rhyme about all of the different stores there are in the mall for people to visit like Footlocker, Panda Express, Dunkin Donuts, and Radioshack. As if that wasn’t ridiculous enough, there’s actually a scene where all of the logos for the products and stores come to life in a musical number to teach a drunken, hallucinating Davey an important life lesson. It’s incredible how an animated holiday film can quickly become nothing more than a long commercial for tons of products.
One of the things this movie does over and over is insult and pick apart stereotypes. While Christianity and Judaism certainly get some cheap shots, one of the worst stereotypical performances has got to be Rob Schneider as a Chinese waiter. It’s not even a character that is there for one part of the film where Davey goes to a Chinese restaurant, this character pops up again and again. My guess is the filmmakers thought audiences wouldn’t be able to get enough of Rob Schneider’s stereotypical Chinese character, so they just dropped him in wherever they wanted for a cheap laugh. Isn’t this just what you usually see or hear when you watch an animated holiday film? There you have it, the seventh reason this film is just a pain to sit through.
The eighth and final reason this movie is atrocious is the story. This is about a typical lad who, for some reason, is feeling down during the holidays and something happens to make him see everything in a whole different light. Too bad Adam Sandler decided to throw in his tired plot points as well. Adam Sandler’s films are known for being about the typical young guy acting like a goon and eventually being put through some sort of life test. He comes out of it at the end of the film with a more adult perspective of life, of course with a bunch of juvenile humor along the way. This film is no different, it’s just Adam Sandler, in cartoon form, acting like an aggravated man-child around Hannukah time and being forced through a test that will help him see the error of his ways and leave him with a better outlook on life at the end of the film, with juvenile humor inserted. In the film, the main character named Davey has been upset for 20 years because his parents died in a car accident around Hannukah when he was a boy. Naturally, Davey misbehaves and gets in trouble with the law during the holidays. When the audience sees the flashback of this night and learns of the tragic deaths of Davey’s parents, the story is told by the cringe inducing voice of Whitey, which actually ruins the tone of the moment. These particular moments are supposed to make you sad and make you feel for the character and understand what they are feeling, but when you have a dope like Adam Sandler delivering such a backstory with an awful squealing voice that was meant to make a toddler laugh, it really ruins everything. It fails to capture the emotion that it was intended to capture in the first place.
Well, that does it for my list of reasons why this animated film is horrible. Of course, there are a good number of others as to why Eight Crazy Nights is terrible, but I think my list covers the absolute worst of it. As far as redeeming qualities go, I really can’t think of any. There’s almost nothing in this film that makes it watchable or tolerable in the slightest. I guess the parts where Davey is actually kind towards his friend’s young son is okay, when he helps the boy in a basketball game against some bullies, but that’s really about it. Other than that little sliver of kindness, the rest of this film is just a dreadful animated holiday film.
Kyles animation blog 
Adam Sandler was funny for a time in the 90’s. But the plots of his films are a recycled mess of the same jokes and dialogues, with different wording. I grew tired of him after his first few films. But yiou are right, this film has absolutely no place in life, unless it is being burned.
I completely agree with your blog, sometimes the writers just randomly starts becoming very disorganized with their plots. Especially in this case. Other than that i agree that this film was a complete waste and unnecessary..