12/17-The Hebrew Hammer (2003)

Okay, so yes, the other Hannukah movie was made-for-TV, but this is literally the only other one!  Plus, I already did both a Christmas made-for-TV and just a Christmas episode of a TV show, so this should be fine.  I will say, if you Google Hannukah movie, An American Tail sometimes shows up, but that doesn't really count because although Fievel and his family are Jewish, they celebrate Hannukah in the opening scene and then it isn't relevant to the plot again, so I'm not going to classify as a Hannukah movie.  Jewish movie?  Yes.  Adorable movie?  Also yes.  Hannukah movie?  No.  And in something that is only tangentially related to all of this, here is a scene from Community with Troy and Abed singing a song from An American Tail:

Back to The Hebrew Hammer!  First thing to note, this is a satire of the Blaxploitation genre from the 1970s, so it's got a very distinct style because it is parodying said style.  The movie stars Adam Goldberg as the Hammer, whom you may know as the Jewish guy from Dazed and Confused, or the Jewish guy from Saving Private Ryan.

Basically, Santa's son, Damian (oooo foreboding), kills Santa, who had been known as a particularly tolerant Santa, instigating the "Happy Holidays" movement. so that he can take control of the North Pole and eliminate Hannukah once and for all.  Evil Santa is played by Andy Dick, by the way, which suits him well.  The Jewish Justice League tries to get the Hammer to help save Hannukah by sending the chief of the organization's daughter (played by Judy Greer) to see him, which leads to a send-up of classic crime noirs, with heavy narration, only to have the narration actually being played aloud in the scene via a tape player.  I tried to find the scene online, but failed.  But trust me, it's a funny bit that shows this isn't just 90 minutes of Jew jokes.  Not that the Jew jokes aren't funny, as long as you are aware of the stereotypes.  And if you don't, here's a scene I could find that gives a nice rundown of stereotypes:

Along the way, the Hammer enlists the help of friends with the Kwanza federation, seeing as the evil Santa would be targeting Kwanza once Hannukah was one of the way.  This provides some moments of true Blaxploitation parody, as opposed to using Jewish parallels.

Again, this movie is very stylized in order to match it's source material, but if you like Blaxploitation movies, or even homages such as Jackie Brown or full-on parodies like Black Dynamite or Undercover Brother (which by the way, was written by the same screenwriter who did 12 Years a Slave, which I was very surprised to learn), and have at least one fairly Jewish friend, you'll really dig this movie.

Rating on the feel-good-o-meter: 4 out of 10 hugs