Hey folks, Harry here... I haven't been the biggest Sandler fan, but I find myself in the rather odd place of dying to see an Adam Sandler film this fall... the Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson, Adam Sandler project. I can't wait to see what PTA turns out... Then again, I can't wait to see this project as I'm always a fan of Animation projects and hope for the best from them... We'll see how it goes as it gets closer, but right now... it still seems to need a bit of work... but there's a long time to go before it's time to be released.
Here's a minor-spoiler review of Adam Sandler's 8 Crazy Nights. The version I saw was an animated work-in-progress - most of the scenes were in black-and-white with just outlines. The audience was mostly 8 to 13-year olds with their parents.
Overall. If you love Adam Sandler, can't get enough of him, then by all means, enjoy this movie. The rating is PG-13, but I'm not exactly sure who the movie is for. It's too cutesy for adult audiences. There's too much gross-out humor and salacious comments for children attending with parents. I think this film will work best with kids that have just gotten to the age where they can start attending movies by themselves.
Cast and Crew, from IMDB. Directed by Seth "Dilbert" Kearsley. Written by Adam Sandler, Brooks Arthur and Allen Covert (regular Sandler collaborators). Sandler does the voice of the 3 main characters.
Story. David Stone is an alcoholic twentysomething slacker with no parents. The town hates him, and frankly he hates himself. After a particularly drunken night, he is arrested. Instead of having to serve time in jail, Stone will have to help Whitey, an elf-like elderly character who has been the head ref for the neighborhood basketball leaugue. Whitey and his sister are always optimistic, and he just wants to win a certain patch at the annual awards banquet. And all of this is told during the holidays, with animation and songs.
Execution. The story could go in many directions. Unfortunately, it is the mood that goes in many directions. In the first ten minutes, the lead character sings an alcoholic (not fun drunk, but sad scary drunk) song about how he hates himself. I thought: cool, a serious adult animated film with Sandler jokes.
But then there was the comedy...I counted about 20 big laughs in the 90 minute story...mostly on the fart jokes, people-covered-in-shit jokes, vomit jokes, and morning erection jokes. And every once in a while, the old cute optimistic guy would break into a seizure, or they would pick on some fat kid, and everyone would laugh.
And then, of course, this is an animated holiday movie, so there's a 'message' to be given here in some cutesy animated manner. Everyone in the town dumps on the cute Whitey character until 10 minutes are left in the film, at which point, they collectively just decide to be nice to him. 'Character arc on a dime'. Like the writers just reached page 80 and said, well, we gotta wrap this up (which also happens on the upcoming America's Sweethearts).
And it's a Sandler movie, which means inexplicable events will happen, like semi-talking reindeer. And corporate logos. And men with hooks. And women that are men. Etc. I generally like the absurdness of Sandler stories and characters, and it worked here.
So I find myself confused on what type of movie this wanted to be. If it's meant to cross traditional boundaries, it certainly did, but the resulting film is a mish-mash, and I'm dying to see how they market it. Probably as a 'South Park'-hey-look-an-animated-film-that-swears-and-has-poop-jokes campaign.
This film is scheduled to be released in December 2001 in the USA.
Cheers,
--Caller From LA
