7 Days in Hell

It's a perfect six-inch sub of comedy; not a full meal, maybe, but just the right amount, especially for something clearly defined as stand-alone.

7 Days in Hell is flush with over-the-top raunch and absurdist asides, but there's a shaggy charm about this production.

Quick, easy, filthy, stupid, funny. You don't need to know anything more.

It’s by no means the deepest thing you’ll watch this year, but you’d have to search far and wide to find a program that hits its chosen target with such concentrated glee.

Raucous and loony and adroit and lewd, 7 Days in Hell is one odd comedy.

7 Days in Hell is as strange and splendid a bit of satire as you will ever find jampacked into 42 minutes of television.

It serves up just the right combination of silly and sly, and--rare and wonderful in a comedy--it knows when to get off the court.

Marquee HBO comedies--“Veep,” “Silicon Valley”--are known for their intelligence and understatement, but don’t expect that approach here. Or, rather, expect it to be improbably mixed with a crudeness worthy of a frat-house movie.... But along with the ribaldry, Murray Miller, who wrote the show, manages to create a deadpan sendup of sports documentaries.

Fortunately, with its nutty playfulness, 7 Days in Hell is 45 minutes of fast-moving, goofy fun.

Samberg’s comedy style can be a little overly frenetic, and a few of the jokes here just don’t land, but there are some parts of 7 Days in Hell, especially “The greatest point in tennis history,” that really should be seen, especially if you’re one of those who miss the “SNL” years of the ‘90s and ‘00s

It certainly should have been no longer than 41 minutes but even that seems a bit padded.... But 7 Days in Hell is often quite funny, particularly in its sillier moments.

Cute conceptually, the comedy falls short when director Jake Szymanski searches for ways to fill the time. Dumb on-court antics (including sex with two streakers) don’t really live up to the Christopher Guest ambitions of the rest of the film.

Szymanski, who directed from a script by Murray Miller, gets the look of the documentary, including some real footage mixed with new scenes made to look vintage, just right. The tone, though, is so broad, we never for a second forget the “mocku” in the “mentary.”

7 Days in Hell has its share of strong points, and given the marquee names involved, it’s easy to see why HBO would provide subscribers with a courtside seat. That said, the highlights are offset by enough faults, as the match drags on, to prevent this from being scored as a clear-cut winner.

A mildly amusing pastiche.