Synopsis: Davey Stone, a 33 year old drunk who was perfect 20 years ago, gets one more chance or he goes to the state prison for 10 years. For his sentence, he is to be a referee-in-training for the Junior Basketball League. While learning to be nicer from Whitey Duvall, an elderly basketball referee, Davey falls in love again with his childhood girlfriend and learns some valuable life lessons.Adam Sander was one of the writers of this and play quite a few of the main voices, so as you'd expect it's got a lot of his fingerprints all over as far as the humor style. The lead character, Davey, is pretty much the typical character you get from a cross of Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison. He's obnoxious, loud, crude and can be just plain annoying. That also sums up the movie quite well. It's definitely not for young kids, but with all the typical Sandler comedic hallmarks it falls right in the wheelhouse for the early teen boys who laugh at every fart joke and think a lady with 3 boobs is comedy gold.
What sets it apart a little bit is the animation is very nice and it's also got quite a few musical numbers that are actually pretty fun. The lyrics are typical Adam Sandler fare but I actually chuckled a few times. Or my inner fart joke loving child chuckled I guess.
One of the main characters, Whitey, is voiced by Sandler and at first I found his voice really annoying but by the end I was actually loving and feeling sorry for the old man. He does have a few classic lines and nobody can call a technical foul like this guy. He's pretty sympathetic and very likeable, which is a nice counter to Davey's obnoxious, rudeness.
The story itself is quite predictable if you know your Scrooges and It's A Wonderful Lifes and in the end it all wraps so nicely, as a good cliche should I guess. I kept expecting a curve ball maybe, but there was none to be had. It's smaltzy and tries to pulls your heartstrings. Is there really any moral for the holiday to be learned from it? I guess to not let the past haunt you. And to be kinder to people. And maybe even that when deer laugh really hard, poop shoots out of their butts. No, really, I saw it.
It's not a holiday classic, that's for sure, but it's actually sort of entertaining at times and if you're not offended by some crass, crude and pretty much just flat out inappropriate humor you might laugh a few times. Maybe you can enjoy it with some fruitcake. Or very alcoholic eggnog.
5/10
