Eight Crazy Nights

In the small fictional town of Dukesberry, New Hampshire, Davey Stone is a 33-year-old Jewish alcoholic troublemaker with a long criminal record whose antics have long earned him the community's animosity. Davey is arrested for refusing to pay his bill at Mr. Chang's Chinese restaurant, attempting to evade arrest, stealing a snowmobile and destroying festive ice sculptures in the process.

At Davey's trial, Whitey Duvall, a 69-year-old volunteer referee from Davey's former basketball league, intervenes. At Whitey's suggestion, the judge sentences Davey to community service as a referee-in-training for Whitey's Youth Basketball League. Under the terms of the community service if Davey commits a crime before his sentence is completed, he will serve ten years in prison.

The next day, Davey's first game ends in disaster. As Davey disrupts and harasses the players, Whitey suffers a grand mal seizure, and the game is abruptly halted, Davey forfeiting it to the opposing team. Attempting to calm Davey down, Whitey takes him to the mall where they meet Davey's childhood friend Jennifer Friedman and her son Benjamin. Jennifer is now a divorced, single mother having moved back to her hometown and taking a job at the mall after her husband had left her for another woman that he met online. Whitey reminds Davey that he lost his chance with Jennifer twenty years earlier, but Davey secretly still has feelings for her.

As time progresses, Davey and Whitey's relationship strains, especially after Whitey threatens Davey that he will notify the judge when Davey shoplifts a piece of candy; despite letting him off the hook, Whitey keeps to his word and vows to tell the judge if Davey commits another crime. Whitey's various attempts to encourage Davey are met with humiliation and assault. Later, Davey bonds with Benjamin while playing basketball at the community center but Benjamin's unsportsmanlike behavior—egged on by Davey—leads Jennifer to scold Davey for his actions. While the two are driving to their respective homes, they reminisce about their happy childhood together and how much things have changed.

When Davey gets home, his trailer is being burned down by one of the men who lost the basketball match to him. Davey runs into the burning trailer to rescue a Hanukkah card from his late parents, then watches the trailer burn. Whitey opens his home to Davey, who reluctantly accepts; also living there is Whitey's diabetic twin sister, Eleanore; to keep Davey in line, Whitey and Eleanore explain the complex rules of the household, stating that Davey will have to leave if he does not abide.

As Davey slowly starts to turn his life around, his progress screeches to a stop when Whitey recalls what happened 21 years earlier: En route to one of Davey's basketball games, his parents were tragically killed in a car accident, and Davey learned of their deaths after winning the big game. Devastated by the loss of his loving parents and leaping from foster home to foster home, Davey spent the next 21 years numbing his pain with alcohol and petty crime and, as a result, ostracized himself away from Jennifer and his other friends. Uncomfortable with this reminder of his tragic, painful childhood, Davey loses his temper and insults Whitey and Eleanore, resulting in Whitey evicting Davey from their house.

Davey spends the rest of the day binge drinking, and that night, he breaks into the closed mall. In his drunken stupor, he imagines the logos of various stores coming to life and confronting him about his inability to grieve, which they identify as the source of his alcoholism. He finally opens his parents' Hanukkah card, which contains a heartfelt message praising him for being a good son and asking him not to change the way he is. Davey finally cries and comes to terms with his loss. Just then, two cops arrive to arrest him, but he escapes and boards a bus to New York City. The bus is then forced to stop when a single thumbtack in the road punctures all eight rear tires. Reminded of the Miracle of Hanukkah, Davey sets out to find Whitey and make amends.

Davey finds Whitey at the All-Star Banquet, an annual town celebration in which one member of the community is recognized for positive contributions with the "Dukesberry All-Star Patch", which Whitey has wanted for 35 years. When Whitey is passed over for seemingly the final time, he decides to move to Florida and live the rest of his life in anonymity, feeling like no one cares about him. Risking arrest, Davey enters the hall and reminds the townspeople of Whitey's many selfless contributions and abuses he's endured throughout his life.

Davey leads them to Whitey, who has gone to the mall with Eleanore to "speak to it" one more time. The townspeople thank Whitey for his service over the years, and the Mayor officially grants him the Patch Award, with the previous recipients giving theirs as well. Davey and Jennifer reconcile and Whitey goes into a seizure which he calls "the happiest seizure of my life!"

• Adam Sandler as:
  • Davey Stone
    • Josh Uhler as Young Davey
  • Whitey Duvall
  • Eleanore Duvall
  • Deer
• Jackie Titone as Jennifer Friedman
  • Alison Krauss as Jennifer's singing voice
  • Ali Hoffman as Young Jennifer
• Austin Stout as Benjamin Friedman
  • Jason Houseman as Benjamin's singing voice
• Rob Schneider as:
  • Narrator
  • Mr. Chang
• Kevin Nealon as Mayor Dewey
  • James Barbour as Mayor Dewey's singing voice
• Norm Crosby as the Judge
• Jon Lovitz as Tom Baltezor

Eight Crazy Nights was animated by several studios, including Anvil Studios, A. Film A/S, Bardel Entertainment, Goldenbell Animation, Marina Motion Animation, Spaff Animation, Tama Production, Time Lapse Pictures, Warner Bros. Animation, Y. R. Studio and Yowza! Animation. It was the only animated film that Sandler worked on until Hotel Transylvania in 2012, and remains the only traditionally-animated film with his involvement. This was also the first and only film produced by Meatball Productions, the animation division of Happy Madison Productions.

Kearsley revealed in an email to Doug Walker (The Nostalgia Critic) that certain elements of the movie 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.[4]

The soundtrack was released on November 27, 2002 by Columbia/Sony Music Soundtrax.[5][6] 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.[7]

Eight Crazy Nights came in at fifth place on its opening weekend among U.S. box office, making only $14 million since its Wednesday launch. It only grossed a total of $23.6 million in North America and negligible foreign box office receipts, for a total of only $23.8 million worldwide. This made Eight Crazy Nights become a box office bomb, losing an approximate at lowest $10.5 million to up to $44.6 million.

• List of American films of 2002
• List of animated feature films of 2002

Wikiquote has quotations related to Eight Crazy Nights.

• Eight Crazy Nights at IMDb
• Eight Crazy Nights at Box Office Mojo