In this animated Christmas/Chanukah movie, Adam Sandler provides the voice of Davey, a small town, 33-year old man-child Scrooge, who no longer has the holiday spirit and no longer cares about other people's feelings or even himself. Why? Well, like in any holiday movie, that will be revealed in the third act. In the meantime, he is given a shot at redemption by a kindly old man named Whitey; who doesn't know the meaning of the expression "Bah-Humbug".

I'm a holiday film lover. Okay, the truth is I'm a sucker for them. From IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE to GREMLINS, it doesn't take much to get me in the spirit of the season and give me that warm, fuzzy feeling inside. So, it's with great disappointment that I must write this review, because EIGHT CRAZY NIGHTS came so close to being good-- nay great -- but it veered off course and ended up in toilet humor town where many potential good films have gone to die before. This really upset me because the movie has a lot of heart and if I may quote the great George Costanza from SEINFELD after his viewing of another holiday gem called HOME ALONE: "The old man got to me". Yes, the old man got to me in this too and so did the wonderful animation, the great setting in a cozy, snowy old-fashioned New England town, many of the songs (unfortunately some were tainted with gross-out humor too) and the sweet, if not altogether, original story. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a prude, in fact, some of the funniest moments in this film are the unexpected curses and profanity uttered by certain characters (the film is rated PG-13), but for the filmmakers to demean themselves and forcefully add (and it does feel forced) sick, toilet humor in a movie that's obviously trying to find a place on the perennial holiday movie shelf, is a bad idea. It's not only out of place, but truly not funny.

Sandler is quickly becoming a well-respected actor, being praised for his great comedic talents and recently for his dramatic work too (see: PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE). He could even conquer the wonderful world of animation, as his humor and delivery come off just as well in this medium. There were many moments in EIGHT CRAZY NIGHTS that I laughed heartily (although unlike his other comedies, the gags in this movie are hit and miss). He voices all three main characters brilliantly: Davey, Whitey & Whitey's sister (she's too adorable). If only he and the other three writers had held off a little on the poop-fart jokes. What does work though is the film's ability pull at the 'ol heartstrings (I swear I'm such a pussy sometimes). Dudes, I was touched...and I'd be lying if I said my eyes weren't glimmering on more than one occasion during my viewing of this movie. I know, I know, I'm the same jerk who broke down during TWO WEEKS NOTICE, but this movie has a great message and even a tender moment or two that make it worth the looksey...baby. Don't expect a holiday classic and you just might have a pretty decent time. Now where are those damn tissues, my, um...allergies are acting up again...

Video: The best of both worlds: Fullscreen and Widescreen (1.85:1).

Audio: English 5.1 (Dolby Digital) and French (Dolby Surround). Subtitles in English & French.

This is a special 2-disc Special Edition DVD.

DISC 1:

Cast & Technical Audio Commentaries: There are two separate audio commentaries on this disc. The first features one of the writers (Allen Convert) joined with the characters of Whitey and his sister Eleanore (both voiced by Adam Sandler). This is pretty original and it turned out to be very amusing, especially when you consider that it's actually Sandler cracking the jokes in the commentary on behalf of these characters. A good idea that works well. The second is not as exciting, but very useful for animation and trivia buffs. As the header says it's more technical than anything else. The producers & animators reveal every little cool and interesting tidbit on the making of EIGHT CRAZY NIGHTS. Overall, two pretty rockin' commentary tracks.

"A Day With The Meatball" Short Film: The funniest two minutes I've ever seen. This is a non-animated short film that starts off with Sandler waking up with his bulldog "Meatball" next to him. He doesn't feel like getting up so he tells Meatball to get up instead and go on with his day. I won't spoil the rest, but it's exactly the type of crazy, wacky and Sandler-esque nuttiness that you would expect. I loved it. Please watch this!

"Chanukah Song Part 3" Music Video: Sandler recorded a third version of his famous Chanukah song for Eight Crazy Nights. This video is the performance of the song on SNL. Funny, funny stuff. Rob Schneider pays a visit as well.

"NBA: Love It Live" TV Spot: A TV spot which has Whitey and Davey introducing some NBA stars and basically pushing the league. I guess this makes sense seeing as basketball plays an active role in the film. But still, it's just a commercial.

We also get some trailers from the film.

DISC 2:

All these features are integrated within their own particular sections on the second disc's main menu. For the sake of simplicity, I'll list them all together.

"Davey": Sandler, along with various other folks from the movie discuss the main character of "Davey". From animating him, to having Adam voice the character, to his mental condition, they cover all of the angles. Davey was as fleshed out as Sandler's other characters from his previous comedies, which is to say, enough for you to invest some care and emotion into.

"The Deer": The deer in the film are very cute and add to the holiday feel of the movie. Adam ended up doing their voices in the film in his very familiar "weird, kiddie Sandler" voice that we've all come to love from his years on SNL. Cast & crew talk about these furry friends of Whitey's and how they came to life.

"Eleanore": I loved this character. She was funny and extremely adorable. She worked well as Whitey's crackpot sister and Sandler did a superb job in voicing her. She's easily my favorite character in the movie and many of the filmmakers seemed to have loved working on her judging from their comments in this featurette.

"Whitey": Much like the features above, this one also explores the progression and history of a character. This time it's Whitey (voiced by Sandler). Yeah, yeah, this is the old guy that got to me. No dislikeable characters at all in this movie. A welcome change in a holiday film.

"Townspeople Of Dukesberry": An exploration of the many colorful characters used to populate the town of Dukesberry. As expected, many cameo voices are present, most of whom are alumni from other Sandler films (Kevin Nealon, Jon Lovitz, Rob Schneider).

"Jennifer and Benjamin": Davey's love interest Jennifer and her son Benjamin play pretty pivotal roles in the films. The filmmakers get into their incarnation and drop a rather large bomb on me. Sandler's real life girlfriend (now wife) voices the character of Jennifer! I had no idea. She does a bang-up job too!

"Voices Of Dukesberry": This feature explores the methods the filmmakers used to record the voices for the film, and it was anything but professional. This is actually pretty funny and kind of makes it look like these guys were just "winging it" when making this movie. They must have done something right because the animation and sound are great in the film.

"Dukesberry Sings": As expected, this feature focuses on the songs and, to a certain extent, the score of the film. As I mentioned earlier, the songs in this film are, for the most part, very funny and entertaining. My two favorites being "Technical Foul" and the sad, sentimental duet between Davey and Jennifer, "Long Ago". They crafted these songs well and worked a great deal on them. This feature puts the spotlight on the whole process they went through in creating an animated musical. Good little feature.

"Creating Dukesberry": Aaaaaah, I love these snowy small towns. So does Sandler seeing as the movie town is actually a replica of Sandler's boyhood stomping grounds in New Hampshire. They really did their homework in creating this warm little New England town and maybe that's why it worked so well. All this and more is discussed in this feature. Well done.

13 Deleted/Extended Scenes With Optional Commentary: A lot of cut scenes to choose from here. Many of these are half-animated/half-storyboarded scenes that didn't get far enough in the process to be fully realized. They're worth checking out though. There are many funny gags and Sandler-isms that didn't make the final cut. The commentary is a welcome addition too, as it sheds light on why certain scenes weren't included.

HBO First Look Special: One of those made for TV "you gotta see this movie" features that has the cast & crew talking the film up with frequent snippets of the film sprinkled throughout. At 12 minutes, it's harmless and generic enough. Although it did put me in the mood to watch it again. Mission accomplished, I suppose.

Multi-Angle Animation Progression: A very in-depth and thorough feature which allows one to explore the many angles and stages of the animation process of Eight Crazy Nights. For die-hard animation fans, this is gold; for the rest, it's probably a snore. A nice addition nonetheless as I was particularly impressed with the simple, yet gorgeous, animation in the film.

A wonderfully put together double-disc package with a movie that had the potential to be great, but just fell short. Not worth the purchase, unless you're really into Sandler (as I am), but you could do worse renting this as the holidays approach. In the end, it's more good than bad, but that doesn't cut it when you're trying to be a holiday classic that'll survive through the years. I doubt you'll be disappointed with a rental though. Go for it!