Such a frustrating disappointment

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Mordechai Jefferson Carver, aka the Hebrew Hammer, is an orthodox Jewish stud who goes on a mission to save Hanukkah. When Santa Claus's evil son Damian is pushed over the edge by his father's liberal policies, he does away with the Christian patriarch. Subsequently stepping into his father's role, Damian launches a campaign to eradicate the Jewish Holiday. The Hammer joins forces with Esther Bloomenbergensteinenthal, the gorgeous and dangerous daughter of the leader of the Jewish Justice League; and his brother-in-arms Mohammed Ali Paula Abdul Rahim, the head of the Kwanzaa Liberation Front, to topple Santa's evil progeny and to save Hanukkah for future generations of Jews.It's a bigoted intolerant sacrilegious movie that could only be made in America. Morty gets a dreidel while all the Christians get an abundance of presents. Well whose fault is THAT?I now this is a comedy, but the movie is idiotic. And if any Christian made a film that started with a title page that said something to the effect of "we're sick of the Jews" Hell would be had to pay.Suck is the double standard under which we live today. Time to change things, don't you think?Anyway, it's a reasonably funny movie, albeit a one trick pony.

I admit a weakness for these types of self-conscious parodies when done well.For me, that means a mix of riches. First, it has to be brutal. There's no sense in toying with something stupid and at time showing sympathy for that stupidity. All the better if the targets of the thing have some sort of societal proscription.MASH was funny (when it was) because it treated war like something completely without honor or value. Anything that Mel Brooks does fails the brutality test. He's merely juvenile, and not ashamed to shift perspectives for a giggle.This is funny because it destroys two boundaries. The most obvious is the Jewish stereotype. Yes, it exists. Yes, like any other group, they identify themselves, quite actively bending their lives, by drifting toward those very characteristics as a matter of definition.There's a long tradition of stage humor where Jews make fun of themselves and I assert that all these societal parodies spring from it, at least in the US.But the other bit is ever so clever. What they've built on is a pastiche of blaxploitation movies (and a few others as well). Part of the cleverness is in revealing these things to be even dumber than we readily admit; they take us to extremes we wouldn't otherwise go. Its a bit risky, that.So we have a triple layer here: Jews making fun of the kind of Jewishness they cling to. All of us making fun of a similar dynamic in blacks that black culture isn't mature enough to disparage. (Though half of Chris Rock's stuff comes close.) And on top of that we get some posturing, not much, but some that rigorously belittles us for being the moviewatchers we are. In recent memory the second Charlies Angels did it best, but there wasn't the delicious edge this has.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

I got his film on DVD for Channukah. The friend who gave it to me and my best friend watched it recently. The film itself is quite good. Lots of cool folks in it (and Andy Dick). Some fine comedic acting and a lot of fun visual gags.We had fun watching it. But when we decided to listen 'for a few minutes' to the commentary we were in stitches. The director and the star of the film were discussing it when the director's Mother came in. She MADE the commentary. We laughed so hard we had to back the thing up to hear what we'd missed. She's a hoot! Great flick, except for Andy doing his usual shtick. FANTASTIC director's commentary.Buy the DVD and enjoy!

I had heard some people mention this movie and that it was on comedy central, but I didn't know much about it before I came across it at blockbuster. This was by far, one of the funniest movies I've seen in a really long time. My husband and I we're in tears from it, and have been quoting lines all week. The movie reminds me of something like Blazing Saddles crossed with Naked Gun and Shaft, but is more very clever and sly in how it tells a lot of the jokes. Adam Goldberg (the guy from Dazed and Confused "I just want to dance!" is the Hebrew Hammer - a Jewish Superfly/Batman kind of character who takes on an evil bi-Sexual Santa Clause. This description isn't even doing it justice. The movie is very creative and original, and you have no idea what's coming next. I was surprised something this good didn't get more notice, and I guess it was probably because it was a comedy central movie. But oh my god, if you like smart, un-PC comedies that don't let up, RENT THIS MOVIE! It's one of the funniest things you'll see. After we took it back, we bought a copy for our DVD collection - it's that good.