Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Yes eating garbage would be a more pleasant experience than this ridiculous turd of a movie. Sandler plays the role of an incredibly juvenile and self loathing man, that is just a rehash of his angry boy who refuses to grow up character from his other movies. He also doubles (horribly) as an elderly loser who is constantly the butt of the joke amongst the towns folk. Yet again he triples as the loser's homebody sister. The jokes are mean spirited throughout, and you are expected to go from laughing at the old loser to feeling sympathetic towards his goal of a patch of recognition from the town on a moment's notice. Sandler, his writing and directing team, as welll as the animators, all put in phoned-in performances. This is easily the worst effort and result of Sandler's career. Yes, even worse than the boat movie he did before his time on SNL.Whitey, the old loser sums up this movie, and Sandler the best...., "You're a freaking degenerate!"Yup, he sure is! The meanness of this attempt at comedy isn't remotely funny, and the haphazard turns are high melodrama. Avoid, and even tho the movie is animated it is not for children, due to the jokes all being rooted in either feces (literally), or humour coming at the expense of people's dignity.

As a non-Adam Sandler fan who has liked some of his stuff(Punch Drunk Love, Reign Over Me, Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison and Anger Management, even Hotel Transylvania), Eight Crazy Nights is not as bad as Jack and Jill, Going Overboard, Little Nicky, You Don't Mess with the Zohan or I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. But it is one of his weaker films. The animation is decent, with some nice shadings and well-crafted backgrounds, the Chanukah Song is catchy and some credit is due that the film tried to incorporate adult themes that are relevant and didn't sugar-coat the festivities too much. The rest of the songs however are forgettable at best with some rather crude lyrics at times, Sandler's singing was nice at times but at others rather nasally. The story is well-intentioned and any story that plays like a Christmas Carol variant is always welcome, but it focuses so much on the themes present that any charm or heart was completely lost in translation. There is no warmth either, in fact Eight Crazy Nights as a film in general came across as too mean-spirited. The characters don't engage either, most grate on your nerves while others are completely bland. Same with the voice acting, with Sandler the whole just screams of a vanity project and much of the time especially with Whitey he is incredibly annoying. Rob Schneider and Jon Lovitz can be decent when the material is good but the humour doesn't let them do much and there is a lack of energy. Where Eight Crazy Nights is hurt most though is the dialogue and the humour, which alone makes it fail as a family film, if you count it as one, if anything actually it is animated geared for an adult audience. Children if they did see it are likely to not understand the innuendo, gags and dialogue while adults are likely to find it too immature to be funny. So vulgar and in such bad-taste the humour was that some of the jokes veered on or were offensive. That the story was very mean-spirited and there was no real sign of festive cheer made things even worse. To conclude, not as terrible as heard and there are definitely worse animations and films out there but aside from its good intentions, the animation and one good song Eight Crazy Nights from personal, subjective tastes was annoying, puerile, charmless and in a nutshell badly misconceived. If people like it though that's not a problem with me, as Sandler's films and humour has garnered some appeal that will divide audiences. It's just sad that there is a real inability on this site for people to be understanding of each other's opinion and instead make themselves sound arrogant(Sandler fans, detractors of well-received but admittedly divisive films like 2001, Drive and Tree of Life, and defenders of panned family films are the biggest offenders here which is why I'm mentioning it now). 3/10 Bethany Cox

Adam Sandler's Hanukkah movie was touching movie with many laughs and a Holiday message. It's unfair this movie got mostly negative reviews and it didn't make that much money at the box office.Sandler's voice work was a great contribution to the film. Whitey was a pretty funny and happy character. As so as Eleanore, the voice was a typical voice made by Sandler for his Jewish grandmother stereotype that he used to do in his stand-up shows.I liked the musical format of the movie. But the songs composed by Sandler just weren't that good. The only well-written song was "Technical Foul".

It's so stupid, it's funny. While this movie is not traditional Christmas or a Hanukah movie, it's still a holiday movie. The movie is full of crude humor, potty jokes, and tasteless puns. I can't even comprehend the scope of the suck-age that this movie amounts to, and I commend who ever, sir, for actually sitting through it. It's hard to watch, but it's kind of funny if you don't take it so serious. Once a happy boy and now the town delinquent, Davey Stone (voiced by Sandler) is given one last chance to redeem himself with the community after raising havoc during the holiday season. Davey is no less than the animation self-character of Adam Sandler's man yelling child. 33-year-old alcoholic troublemaker with a long criminal record who evade arrest and destroy public properties was about to be sentenced to jail when Whitney Duvall (also Sandler) a 70-year-old volunteer basketball referee comes forward at his trial offering Davey to community service as a referee-in-training for Whitey's Youth Basketball League. Under the terms of the community service, if Davey commits a felony before his sentence is completed, he will be sentenced to ten years in prison. While at the Youth Basketball court he meet single mom Jennifer Friedman, Davey's childhood girlfriend, and her son, Benjamin (Austin Stout). She is just there to play the love interest, and somebody to help Davey get back into the system of life. As time progresses, Davey and Whitey's relationship becomes more contentious, as Whitey's various attempts to encourage Davey are met with humiliation and assault. Whitey opens his home to Davey after his trailer burn down, where he meets Whitey's bald, diabetic fraternal twin sister Eleanor (Adam Sandler). Sandler does a great job in voicing Eleanor as most people couldn't tell that it was him. While there Davey begins to turn his life around. Davey's progress in reforming is halted when one morning Whitey recalls the events of Hanukkah twenty years ago about his parents. Davey withdrew from society and developed alcoholism, embarking on a life of juvenile delinquency and adult criminal behavior. The rest of the movie is him trying to make amends to both Whitey and the community, while trying to get over his past. I genuinely felt that Adam Sandler and his Saturday Night Live friends made a dumb comedy on purpose. There's nothing wrong with dumb comedies if done right. The problem is that it's a well animated film with a lot of quality that would turn off the viewers. First off, Davey is a main character that crude humor against others meant make the movie seem too mean-spirit. If there weren't any flashbacks, and other character mentioning how good he was at one time, it would seem Davey was just a bad apple. It's a mixed bag that follows the Happy Madison formula, but doesn't deliver as a holiday film. I think people didn't really expect it to be so crude. With Davey being really bipolar, it's the ultimate form of walking on eggshells. The other thing that hurts the movie is the amount of scatological, steady stream of fart, belches and butt-cracks, animal droppings, human feces and urine stains. It was way too much. What's special about the movie is how totally it believes in itself as a musical. The endurable songs co-written by Sandler take on rock opera and traditional Jewish folk music with boyish exuberance. The movie starts with Davey's Song ('I hate me' -It's kind of rare for a character filled with self-loathing to be aware of it, that works to establish the character. Long Ago is a song that of him missing the old time. The song 'technical foul' is the best of the movie songs establishing the relationship between Davey and the Duvalls. "Let It Out' Davey is so-so song, and need for Davey's chance of heart, but all the product placement ruins it. The numerous mascots of popular businesses come to life and attempt to force Davey to confront his past are not needed. It felt the movie went on to trying to buy business, than improve the story. The sub-plot of Whitney trying to win the All-Star Banquet, an annual town celebration in which one member of the community is recognized for positive contributions. Despite having vied for the award for over thirty five years, Whitey get pass over, and Davey is trying to stop that from happening this year with the song 'Bum Biddy'. There are other songs in different version of DVD. One DVD has the new installment of "The Chanukah Song" and a deleted song, called "At The Mall", sung by Whitey as he strolls through the mall in an alternate opening, which is included in the DVD release of the movie. Whitey is a great character, but some people might find his voice a bit annoying. Other supporting character are stereotypes or one-dimension; no less than Rob Schneider being Mr. Chang. The pacing in the film is annoying. The film has good design, effective animation, but Sandler wants to slam his sentiment and wallow in it too, and he compromises with the worst of both worlds. Given that this is the first feature-length film dedicated to Hanukkah, it's a little disappointing that history gets the brush-off and the Festival of Lights is relegated to serving as a backdrop for the movie's madcap mayhem. One of the raunchiest holiday movies ever made that has a legit story of human spirit. People are too high brow nowadays so check it out once.