mockfilmsblog
When I was a young buck fresh out of film school, hungry for a chance to do anything in the field, I was hired on my second real movie gig as a an Art PA to build and dress sets. Given the script on the day I was hired, I couldn't believe the pitch told to me in the moments following me reading the title. The evil son of Santa Claus named Damien kills Santa in order to monopolize the holiday season by putting an end to Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. The only hope of saving the day is Mordechai Jefferson Carver aka The Hebrew Hammer, the hardest hitting heeb this side of the Tel Aviv (not my words) and his allies at The Jewish Justice League and The Kwanzaa Liberation Front. You dig!Made as a spoof of the Blackspoitation films of the 70's, The Hebrew Hammer is basically the Jewish Shaft. Part man. Part street. 100% kosher. With offensively un-PC jokes aimed at everyone regardless of race, religion or creed, the film is nothing, if not fair, to everyone that it might offend. (and you may just be offended. You're an adult, suck it up!) But that aside, the concept of the film is a solid one. Only held back by it's low budget, but I can tell you from being there, we did the best with we could with what we had and it mostly worked... mostly.
gavin6942
An orthodox Jewish blaxploitation hero (Adam Goldberg) saves Hanukkah from the clutches of Santa Claus's evil son (Andy Dick).My biggest complaint with this film is the sex jokes. I thought they carried themselves well with the racial and ethnic humor, and made a mockery of racism and stereotypes. Throwing is sexual material just seemed to cheaper it, and for that I had to dock them a star.What I found interesting was having Peter Coyote as the head of the Jewish Justice League. With a name like Coyote, I did not think he was Jewish. Turns out I was very, very wrong. His father was a Jewish investment banker and his maternal grandfather was a rabbi. He certainly knows about the stereotypical Jewish, New York City life.I also found my appreciation of the film changed between my first and second viewings. The first time I loved it for the racial humor. The second time, there was still that, but I had since seen "Superfly" and a few other films and better appreciated the homages that were thrown in, particularly the use of the Curtis Mayfield.The MC Hammer and Mike Hammer jokes were good, and hopefully not over anyone's head (by 2003, did people still know who MC Hammer was?).
BuffySchultz2004
I found the movie funny at some points. I am not a huge fan of these types of films. However, my teenage children loved it. They certainly have more of a taste for satire films, and they thought it was great. I think that being a Jew or at least having knowledge of Yiddish and Jewish traditions and stereotypes are clearly the prerequisites for being able to understand; let alone enjoy; this film. I find that regardless of production quality, if a person just didn't get the joke then clearly they will not enjoy the movie. I review this movie so highly because my teenage children loved it so much. I think that people who are Jewish, who like satire, and who love cheesy B-movies are the exact target audience for this spoof film.
Galen Rutledge
I picked up this movie because it caught my eye as movie with a Jewish comedy focus - something I had not seen before. I approached this film with an open mind, and was interested in the way it began. The opening is well put together, and the first half of the film gave me many reasons to laugh, and this is good.However, the humor soon became repetitive, the plot became confused and strained, and I realized I was no longer enjoying the film. I have tried to avoid saying this, but the movie became rather "cheap" - not a bad thing for a comedy if the humor holds up, but it didn't. I confess that I may have missed some of the humour, not being Jewish myself, and having little experience with Jewish culture. However, considering how heavily telegraphed the bulk of the humour was in this film, it's unlikely I missed much.The idea is a good one, and perhaps if a little more thought was put into it the film would have been watchable all the way through. I wish I could give the movie a higher rating, but strictly speaking it would have been better as a TV series or as a series of skits. There was just not enough worthwhile fresh material for a full-length movie.One thing to say about the casting - the lead role looked as if it had been designed with Ben Stiller in mind, but I don't think the movie would have been any more worthwhile if he had been in it.
AD
