Adam Sandler’s Leo May Be A Netflix Success, But His First Animated Feature Bombed

As a kid, I was allowed to watch pretty much anything so long as it fit under the umbrella of comedy (or sci-fi, but that’s a traumatizing story for another time). I grew up quoting Austin Powers and “Wayne’s World” in elementary school, and frequently watched movies from Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison productions, like “The Waterboy” and “Billy Madison,” from a tender age, too. All of this makes the fact that my dad made my brother and I get up and leave the theater about 20 minutes into the 2002 Hanukkah film “Eight Crazy Nights” all the more remarkable.

“Eight Crazy Nights” holds a particularly loathsome spot in the history of pop culture. It’s hated by many for its attempts to mix crassness and straight-up mean humor with holiday spirit, for its lackluster animation (one review called it “Nickelodeon-quality animation”), and for its obnoxious lead — a misanthropic deadbeat Sandler character who hits rock bottom and keeps going. Like “Leo,” “Eight Crazy Nights” was released right around Thanksgiving, but even 20 years ago, as properties like “Jackass” and “Family Guy” were hitting big, audiences still weren’t having it. The movie has a small cult following, but it reportedly didn’t recoup its budget (it made $23 million and is said to have cost $34 million), and it currently sits with an abysmal 13% on Rotten Tomatoes.