Eight Crazy Nights (also known as Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights) is a 2002 American adult animated musical comedy film starring, co-written and produced by Adam Sandler. Directed by Seth Kearsley (in his feature length directorial debut), the supporting cast includes Sandler's future wife Jackie Titone, Austin Stout, Rob Schneider, Kevin Nealon, Norm Crosby and Jon Lovitz. Set around Hanukkah, the film centers on Davey Stone, a troubled Jewish alcoholic who is sentenced to community service with the aid of an aging referee in an attempt at rehabilitation.
The title is taken from a line in Sandler's "The Chanukah Song" that compares the gift-giving traditions of Christmas and Hanukkah: "Instead of one day of presents, we get eight crazy nights!" A new version of the song plays over the film's closing credits.
Eight Crazy Nights was released in the United States on November 27, 2002 by Sony Pictures Releasing to a critical and commercial failure. The film was panned by critics, and grossed $23.8 million against its $34 million budget.
Contents
Plot
Jewish alcoholic Davey Stone's criminal record has earned him animosity in his hometown of Dukesberry, New Hampshire. On the first night of Hanukkah, Davey is taken to court for his recent criminal activity, which includes dining and dashing, indecent exposure, and destruction of public property. Whitey Duvall, a diminutive, eccentric aging volunteer referee from Davey's former youth basketball league, convinces the judge to let Davey do community service as a referee-in-training for the league. The judge agrees, but warns that if Davey commits another crime before his tenure at the league concludes, he will be sentenced to a minimum of ten years in prison.
As Davey harasses the players at his first game, Whitey has a seizure and the game is abruptly halted with Davey forfeiting it to the opposing team. Attempting to calm Davey down, Whitey takes him to the local mall, where they encounter Davey's childhood crush Jennifer Friedman, now a divorced single mother who has moved back to Dukesberry and taken a job there, and her preteen son Benjamin. Davey still secretly harbors feelings for Jennifer, but Whitey reminds Davey that he squandered his chance with her years ago.
Whitey's various attempts to encourage Davey are repeatedly met with humiliation and assault. Later, Davey bonds with Benjamin while playing basketball at the community center, but Benjamin's unsportsmanlike behavior, encouraged by Davey, earns him the ire of Jennifer. On their respective rides home, Davey and Jennifer reminisce on their past. Davey returns home to find his trailer being burned down by one of the men whom he defeated in the earlier basketball game and rushes inside to retrieve a Hanukkah card from his late parents. Whitey invites Davey to stay with him and his diabetic twin sister Eleanore; Davey reluctantly accepts. The siblings explain the complex rules of their household, threatening to evict Davey if he does not abide.
Davey gradually starts to improve himself, until Whitey one day recounts Davey's past—en route to one of Davey's basketball games, Davey's parents died in a car accident, which he learned of shortly after winning the game. Davey spent the rest of his childhood in and out of foster facilities and state homes, numbing his pain with alcohol and petty crime during his teenage years and ostracizing himself from Jennifer and his other friends. Enraged after being reminded of his trauma, Davey insults the Duvalls, resulting in a heartbroken Whitey evicting him.
Voice cast
Adam Sandler as:
Davey Stone, a self-hating and short-tempered alcoholic
Josh Uhler portrays the character's younger self
Whitey Duvall, a strange and elderly volunteer referee diminutive
Eleanore Duvall, Whitey's bespectacled fraternal twin sister
The vocal effects of Dukesberry's local deer
Jackie Titone as Jennifer Friedman, Davey's childhood friend and love interest
Alison Krauss provides the character's singing voice, while Ali Hoffman portrays her younger self.
Austin Stout as Benjamin Friedman, Jennifer's son
Jason Houseman provides the character's singing voice
Rob Schneider as:
The film's narrator
Mr. Chang, the owner of Dukesberry's local Chinese restaurant
Kevin Nealon as Mayor Dewey
James Barbour provides the character's singing voice
Carmen Filpi as a homeless man
Norm Crosby as the judge
Jon Lovitz as Tom Baltezor
Additional voices
The rest of the cast are listed under this section in the end credits:
Tyra Banks as Victoria's Secret gown
Blake Clark as Radio Shack walkie-talkie
Peter Dante as Foot Locker referee
Ellen Albertini Dow as See's Candies box
Kevin Farley as Panda Express giant panda
Lari Friedman as The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf cup
Tom Kenny as The Sharper Image chair
Dylan Sprouse and Cole Sprouse as the KB Toys soldiers
Carl Weathers as GNC bottle
Jamie Alcroft as Eli Wolstan
Brooks Arthur as Rabbi Fliegel
Allen Covert as:
A bus driver
Mayor Dewey's transgender wife
An elderly woman
Lainie Kazan provides the latter's singing voice
Judith Sandler as Davey's unnamed mother
Ann Wilson provides the character's singing voice
Stan Sandler as Davey's unnamed father
Richard Page provides the character's singing voice
Production
Eight Crazy Nights was animated primarily by Meatball Animation. Prior to production, during a transitional period from the focus of 2D to 3D animation in Hollywood, several traditional animation studios closed down, with many animators who were laid off being hired by Meatball; allegedly, employees at Meatball were largely those formerly employed at Fox Animation Studios and Warner Bros. Feature Animation. Several studios, including Anvil Studios, Bardel Entertainment, Goldenbell Animation, Marina Motion Animation, Spaff Animation, Tama Production, Time Lapse Pictures, Y. R. Studio and Yowza! Animation, also did animation work. It was the only animated film that Adam Sandler worked on until Hotel Transylvania in 2012, and remains the only traditionally-animated film with his involvement.
Kearsley revealed in an email to Doug Walker that certain elements of the film that were notorious, specifically the feces-eating deer scene and even Whitey's voice (which was originally more high-pitched and annoying), were intended to be cut, but were kept due to "focus groups" who had seen the film (who lowered Whitey's voice), as well as the fact that the product placements were used without permission.
Music
The soundtrack was released on November 27, 2002, by Columbia/Sony Music Soundtrax. The soundtrack contains every song in the film, including 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, included on the DVD release. The soundtrack was pressed onto vinyl in 2021 for the Vinyl Me, Please record club.
Release
Eight Crazy Nights came in at fifth place on its opening weekend among U.S. box office, making $14 million since its Wednesday launch. It grossed a total of $23.6 million in North America and negligible foreign box office receipts, for a total of $23.8 million worldwide.
Critical reception
Film critics panned Eight Crazy Nights. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 13% of 109 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Sandler returns to his roots in this nauseating concoction filled with potty humor and product placements." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 23 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.
Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four possible stars and criticized the film's dour tone, saying that "The holidays aren't very cheerful in Sandlerville." Matthew Rozsa of Salon called it the best known Hanukkah film despite its poor quality. William Thomas of Empire gave the film a one out of five stars, saying, "File under 'What the hell were they thinking?'. With this, and Mr. Deeds, Sandler's pulled off quite the combo. Avoid like the plague."
Sandler won a 2003 Kids' Choice Award for "Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie". He was also nominated twice for the 2002 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor for his performances in both Eight Crazy Nights and Mr. Deeds.
Home media
Eight Crazy Nights was released on VHS and single and two-disc edition DVD on November 4, 2003, by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment. The two-disc "special edition" features deleted scenes, several audio commentaries, and Sandler's short film A Day with the Meatball, among other bonus features. A Blu-ray was issued on December 13, 2016.