Product: Eight Crazy Nights [VHS] (2002)
Rating: 4.0
Jerry Lewis is Alive and Well
I make no secret the fact that I think Adam Sandler has inherited the comic mantle of Jerry Lewis, and I think Adam would consider that a compliment. Were the ghost of Lewis to drop in for a holiday screening of this film, however, I think he'd say, "It's a good film, Adam, but it could have been great." How could it have been great? With a little restraint, instead of playing for the South Park/ Family Guy crowd, this could have been a family film. We desperately need a funny holiday special, not more schmaltzy ones, and this could have been it. Adam Sandler knows it too. He very much caught the spirit of Mr. Deeds. He shone in Big Daddy. He brilliantly calls his production company Happy Madison, saying heck if you didn't like Billy Madison (I did by the way), and refusing to be typecast as Happy Gilmore.It also took guts to "play" Davy, not just voice him, as with the usual animation voiceovers. Davy is conflicted and Adam plays him that way. There are hints and tributes to "It's a Wonderful Life," but there are also echoes of a Jerry Lewis film called "The Delinquent". This is a PG-13 film merely for the reason that Adam had the bad luck of working when films and TV lack the restraint and limits that Lewis and earlier comedians worked within and which make for great art.So thanks to that rating, kids won't get to see Davy struggle with tough breaks and big questions. Nor will they see the opening scene of a Chanukah menorah and nativity scene coexisting side by side. They won't even get to hear the third version of Sandler's witty "Chanukah Song". What they'll get instead is more innocuous clones of someone saving Christmas by rescuing Santa Clause from the Martians or whoever his captors are this year.That leaves us with only A Christmas Story. Jean Shepherd, who writes his books for adults, restrained himself to make this movie family- friendly and came up with a holiday classic. Paul Reubens breathed new life into Saturday Morning by making Pee Wee's Playhouse into a kids' show. And when Davy-- I mean Adam-- decides to use his talents for kids, he'll be another Jerry Lewis.