Review of The Hebrew Hammer (2003) by Benjamin H — 19 Apr 2013

Made as a production for Comedy Central, this is writer/director Jonathan Kesselman's take on the detective/spoof film. Expanded from a short Kesselman made, this is the story of a super cool Jewish private eye named Mordechai Jefferson Carver, aka The Hebrew Hammer.

When Daminen, the evil son of Santa Claus kills his dad, takes over, and goes on a mission end Hanukkah, The Hebrew Hammer sets out to make things right, By his side are a nice Jewish girl, and help from his brothers at the Kwanzaa Defense League, who also seek more tolerance and acceptance during the winter holiday season.

The film is a very good natured, but very un-PC spoof film, with blaxploitation films being the primary reference point. As a fan of blaxploitation, and blaxploitation spoofs, I was immediately drawn to the concept, especially since I dig on Jewish stereotypes too, but not in a cruel way.

The film is funny, but it's more silly than anything. I dug the references I(and got most of them), but the film is really pretty shallow, and is stuffed with more jokes than substance. I did enjoy it, but it really lacked the punch that a lot of modern exploitation (and spoof) films have.

There are some really choice moments that made me squee though (and yeah, I just said squee...get over it), so even though the film is light, it's moderately amusing,. The cast are ultimately what hold it together, and you can tell they're trying hard to make things work.

Goldberg is a lot of fun as Mordechai, Judy Greer is fun as his love interest Esther, and Andy Dick is delightfully nutty as Damien. I dug the participation from the Van Peebles clan, too.

All in all, the film has its moments, but it seems to miss almost as much as it hits. As a general fan of this sort of thing, I give it a bit more credit, but overall, this is rather underwhelming.