by Jacob Kinman, Contributing Writer
I have always loved Adam Sandler, who is, to me, a comedy icon. Despite what you might think of his less successful movies, he had an amazing start. From his career on Saturday Night Live, to early films like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, to his other forays into the genre like his sketch comedy albums, the mid-90a cemented the Sand-man into legendary status. Unfortunately, the 2000s awaited a harsh reality. Comedy was changing, and it began to shift into more cerebral directions where filmmakers like Mike Judge, Alexander Payne, and Christopher Guest could shine. We saw the prime of Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, and Mike Myers’ careers. A lot of Sandler’s films in this period were very poorly reviewed, including Big Daddy, Little Nicky, and the animated musical holiday feature, Eight Crazy Nights, the latter of which has a 12% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, 5.3 on IMDb, and a 2.3 average rating on Letterboxd.
None of this stops me from absolutely adoring it.
It might have something to do with the fact that I was 11 or 12 when I first saw it, but Eight Crazy Nights always makes me laugh hysterically and awakens my inner preteen, who was discovering his love of both animation and really immature humor when this film came out. I probably rented it from Movie Gallery about 50 times between 2006 and 2009.
Starring Sandler as Davey Stone, a drunk who is troubled by the death of his parents, a series of mishaps in his hometown of Dukesberry, New Hampshire puts him on trial for theft and destruction. Instead of being charged for his crimes, Davey is assigned community service, forced to referee a youth basketball league with Whitey Duvall (Sandler), a short, elderly man who used to ref Davey’s basketball league; Whitey desperately wants to win the town’s All-Star patch at an upcoming banquet. Davey sees his former teammate and friend, Jennifer Friedman (played by Sandler’s wife, Jackie Sandler), and makes a new connection with her son Benjamin (Austin Stout), much to Jennifer’s chagrin. After his trailer burns down, he moves in with Whitey and his twin sister, Eleanore (Sandler), but shortly storms out on them after a story of a miracle basketball game leads to the story of how his parents died; Davey snaps at Whitey, who kicks him out of the house.
This movie is objectively stupid and can be offensive at times, but I still really enjoy it. There’s a gratuitous amount of nasty jokes and toilet humor, fat-shaming, and racial stereotypes, the last two being much more serious than the former, obviously. Not to mention some pretty bad Rob Schneider narration. I equate my feelings about Eight Crazy Nights to a relationship with a complicated family member. Uncle Fred or Aunt Tina might be disgusting, or have a tendency to say something politically incorrect or offensive, or maybe even insult you personally, but you still had some good times with them, and those memories carry a lot of weight. You can call it nostalgia bias or willful ignorance, but I give this movie a lot of leeway just because of my love for Sandler and the good times I’ve had with it.
The musical numbers also carry Eight Crazy Nights a long way. Well-written, and anchored by Sandler’s excellent voice and characterization, they actually do a lot of work in progressing the plot. “Davey’s Song” opens the movie and expertly exposits his bitter state of mind. “Long Ago” explores Davey and Jennifer’s relationship and gives a glimpse into Davey’s childhood. “Technical Foul,” my personal favorite, introduces Eleanore and illustrates the many quirks of the Duvall siblings, while also setting ground rules for Davey while he stays with them. “Intervention Song” is perhaps the emotional climax of the film, in which Davey breaks into the mall and has a drunken vision of being confronted by various brand mascots about processing the pain he feels about the death of his parents.
Let me say this again: I can understand why someone would not like this movie. You really do have to have a certain sense of humor for most of these jokes to land. A lot of the time, I feel like the film could have just as easily been an absurdist short story: it has exaggerated characters, outlandish plot points (like the group of deer that push Whitey’s car out of the snow and follow him around for the rest of the movie), and, ultimately, a series of insane events that leads to character resolution found with our protagonists. I feel like that’s what Sandler was going for. Like Uncle Fred or Aunt Tina, I meet Eight Crazy Nights where it is and appreciate it for the role it played in my life, while also loving the great music and multifaceted Sandler performance that really should be appreciated more.
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