This is a holiday movie about a Jewish 33-year-old named Davey (basically an animated Sandler) who is always in serious trouble. His latest antics have landed him with a stiff jail term, but as a last-chance he's allowed to do community service with the incessantly chattering basketball coach Whitey (one of Sandler's most annoying silly voices), a cross between Yoda and Mr Magoo who lives with his twin sister Eleanore (Sandler again) and befriends the local herd of reindeeer. Over the course of the eight nights of Hanukah, Davey is forced to learn Important Life Lessons, confronting his past and re-connecting with his childhood sweetheart Jennifer (Titone).

Yes: It's a Wonderful Life, Mr Scrooge! The plot is simply a cut-and-paste job, stealing every element from Christmas classics and only tangentially touching on Hanukah themes. The songs are rather forgettable and sometimes downright painful (the best one--both musically and visually--has the townsfolk remembering all the terrible things they've done to Whitey over the years).

There are a few gags that make you laugh out loud, mostly because you're surprised when something is actually funny. The animation only occasionally surpasses second-rate TV cartoons. And then there's the Sandler sensibility: The film is crammed with bodily-fluid humour and gross-out jokes that make fun of obesity, height, body hair, sexuality and even epilepsy.

It's one of those films that you watch with slack-jawed disbelief, wondering who on earth would ever want to see it (beyond a cult following of 25-year-old males). And then there's the song that goes with the closing credits, "outing" famous people as Jews as if it's shocking ... or helpful in any way. One of the strangest films you'll ever see. If you bother.