"The Hebrew Hammer" is a crass, sophomoric and, more to the point, offensively unfunny parody that sets out to remake Shaft and his blaxploitation ilk as a Jewish action hero. Clearly influenced by the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker comedy cannon, not to mention early Mel Brooks, writer-director Jonathan Kesselman has stretched his original film school short into a very thin feature following the exploits of Mordechai Jefferson Carver, "the baddest hebe this side of Tel Aviv" who must prevent Santa's evil son from destroying Hanukkah. Strand Releasing, which obviously sees some kind of "Bad Santa"-style counter-programming potential ("Hammer" has already aired on Comedy Central), is opening the film this weekend in Los Angeles and New York, but you don't have to be Jewish to be put off by Kesselman's relentless milking of tired Borscht Belt-era stereotypes.

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