Product: Eight Crazy Nights [VHS] (2002)
Rating: 3.0
Occasionally funny; a little touching
Summary:The beginning of the story, which is related near the end of the movie, is that of a bright and energetic young man who loses his parents in a tragic accident then undergoes a drastic personality change, turning from the town hero into the town zero. This now grown man, Davey Stone (voice - Adam Sandler), is constantly getting into trouble and doesn't really seem to care.As the town's Christmas celebrations get underway, Davey creates a ruckus running from the police and lands himself in court, where he is about to receive a strict punishment, only for the local town do-gooder, Whitey (voice - Adam Sandler), to step in and volunteer to reform Davey by making him help referee the youth basketball games (where he used to be the star). The judge agrees and Davey is now forced to spend his time refereeing. Whitey also does his best to befriend Davey, but only really gets the chance when Davey makes a fool out of some guys at the local gym who retaliate by burning down his trailer.Davey is then invited to and decides to move in with Whitey and his spinster sister, Eleanore (voice - Adam Sandler). Slowly, Eleanore and Whitey work their way into Davey's life, only to burn their inroads when Whitey innocently relates the story of what happened to Davey's parents. As Davey's inability to deal with this part of his past is the cause of his misbehavior, Whitey's recounting of the story turns him back into the anti-social jerk and leads him to rudely criticize Whitey.Doing his best to brush off the criticism, Whitey then heads for home to get ready for the town's annual Christmas banquet. Whitey, as the town do-gooder, has been trying for years to win the town's prestigious ribbon given for outstanding service to the basketball league. Whitey and Eleanore dress in their finest, fully believing that this year will be Whitey's triumph. When he doesn't win, Davey's haunting criticisms come back and Whitey finally realizes that the townspeople really don't seem to care about him and all of the things he does for them. Crushed, he leaves with Eleanor to find solace in the mall. But Davey, having experienced a change of heart (also in the mall; Adam Sandler must have some strange mall fixation), bursts into the town celebration and gives them a powerful lecture on how they have overlooked Whitey, who has only been nice to everyone his entire life. The townspeople finally come to their senses and realize their mistake. They race to the mall and bestow upon Whitey the ribbons he truly deserves (he gets them from all the years he should have won them, which are all of them), resulting in a rather touching climax where Whitey's years of service are finally recognized.My Comments:I almost hate to admit it, but I was actually touched by this movie. It did such a good job of making Whitey a lovable but pathetic character who only experiences frustrating defeats that you can only feel sorry for him. In my more humanitarian moments (like right now as I write this), I am inclined to see Whitey as a representation of the average man (though heavily laden with pitiable characteristics) and this movie as being about how those people who do so much for society are often overlooked. This is especially true considering the person who wins the ribbon during the celebration is a billionaire who shelled out a pittance (for him) to buy a new scoreboard, as compared to Whitey's immeasurable time contributions (basically a variation of the Widow's mite story from the New Testament).But the movie isn't without its problems. The biggest one is really something my wife pointed out early on: Who is the movie targeting? I mean, it seems most movies have an intended audience and/or a specific genre (action, drama, young girls, etc.), but this one doesn't really seem to have either. Because it's a cartoon you might think young kids. But this is really a cross between the Simpsons and South Park in crudeness, which means you can rule out children under 10. Teenagers may find it too cheesy to bear, and adults likely won't find it initially engaging, meaning you've lost all of your potential audiences. However, if you can make it through the first 30 minutes or so until you really get to know Whitey and fall in love with his character, the movie may suck you in, but you really do have to give it a lot of leeway.As far as the story goes, it's not perfect and I don't think it has any pretenses to be perfect. Where is Davey's extended family? What happens between him and his former girlfriend? Why is Davey such a jerk? Even without answering these questions, the story works, but it does take a while to get your attention.Overall, I didn't have very high expectations going into this movie and I really wasn't sure what to expect as it seemed to be some sort of hybrid Hanukah/Christmas movie. I didn't end up loving the movie, but it was better than I thought it was going to be and I was actually touched by the story, though I was touched more by Whitey than by Davey. It definitely isn't a movie for young kids, but some adolescents may enjoy and young adults may as well. It's probably a bit too crass for older adults to appreciate it, but you might be surprised.