LITTLE NICKY (2000)
Rating: 1.5/5 stars
http://www.themovieaddict.com/reviews/little_nicky.html
Review by The Movie Addict (John Ulmer), Copyright, 2004
One word describes Little Nicky: sophomoric. This movie has great (or
at least good) potential as a comedy but is ruined by a grating lead
performance, poor scriptwriting, and increasingly lame jokes. Worst of
all, however, is the totally inept direction had the film been
delivered to better talent, it could have easily been Adam Sandler's
best comedy. It's one of his worst, simply because the amateur
handling is similar to that of worse duds like Battlefield Earth.
Sandler's Billy Madison wasn't anything special but at least it was
adequately made.
No faults in the cast. With performances and cameos including Patricia
Arquette, Harvey Keitel, Quentin Tarantino, Rodney Dangerfield, Dana
Carvey, Jon Lovitz, Reese Witherspoon, Henry Winkler, Ozzy Osbourne,
Rob Schneider, Michael McKean, Robert Smigel, Regis Philbin and Carl
Weathers, the film's flaw is its script the talented actors are
required to mutter extremely contrived dialogue, and most of the time
they do so quite embarrassingly. Watching Keitel is painful he's not
even trying. You know you're in trouble when a film's best performance
is by Quentin Tarantino in this case, as a blind preacher who has a
habit of injuring himself (every time we see him it's a new brace,
bandage, etc.).
The plot is basically this: titular character "Little" Nicky (Sandler)
is the son of Lucifer (Keitel), whose other two sons leave hell in
search of fun "up north" in New York City. Their journey magically
breaks the gates of hell, or something, and as a result this causes
the Devil to wither away. Nicky is left as the only possible source of
salvation, having to travel north, bring his evil brothers back and
save his dying father (how does someone in hell die? Don't ask me.).
The movie has a few clever gags for movie buffs Elephant Man and
Scarface references being the best, if not very subtle. The film's
problem is that it quickly runs out of steam it's a one-trick pony
and is only able to sustain its screwball antics for so long until it
becomes a chore to sit through.
One thing I have to give credit to Sandler for is that, although his
comedies may not be perfect, most of the time they are somewhat
amusing and aren't as commercially sloppy as Little Nicky. By that, I
mean that this movie is a by-the-numbers Hollywood product it moves
from Point A to Point B to Point C, introducing all the typical
clichιs of the genre. Sandler's comedies have always been weak in
terms of romantic subplots the tacked-on relationship in Happy
Gilmore was laughable, and Madison's was even worse. Didn't matter
much because the films relied on jokes. Not here. Jokes are rare. The
romantic subplot is the worst so far in any of his films I felt
sorry for Arquette, and I was disturbed by how shallow her character
was written. (She meets Nicky a muttering, mumbling, evil idiot in
New York, treats him nice, goes out on a date, and then he swears at
her and makes obscene gestures and tells her that he's the spawn of
Satan and she gives a cute smile and goes on a magical Satan-powered
flight across the city with him. Absolutely pathetic.)
Characters are handled as throwaways Dangerfield's
potentially-hilarious performance is watered down and never given full
opportunity, showing up once and a while to add a few laughs to a flat
sequence. Keitel's performance is weak and Sandler has once again
created a grating voice Little Nicky sounds just like his geeky
character from SNL who would show up on Weekend Updates to give music
reports. A better comedian might really find a character to play
underneath the surface Sandler isn't able to because, to be fair, he
isn't much of a comedian. As a result his performance is painfully
blunt about as subtle as a hammer over the head. Instead of playing
a wacky, annoying person in his next movie, why doesn't he just play
himself? That's what he's always been good at. There's a reason Happy
Gilmore is still his best comedy, and Punch-Drunk Love was so great.
The gratuitous cameos become almost as annoying as the constant
merchandising tie-ins and references (I counted Coca-Cola, Pepsi,
Popeye's Chicken, and the television show Felicity, not to mention the
rock soundtrack that cuts back and forth to one song after another
without using them to any real advantage).
The cameos? That's Chubbs Peterson from Happy Gilmore ("It's all in
the hips!") and Henry Winkler, apparently not reprising his role as
the coach from The Waterboy. Those two were fun enough, but the Rob
Schneider reprisal is lame having the same character show up time
and time again to say the same thing ("You can do it!") isn't clever
if he's annoying to begin with. The movie is one big Adam Sandler
Celebration it references Gilmore, Madison, Waterboy, and even lines
from the films (having said "It's all in the hips!" about three
times). Then there's the inclusion of characters from Sandler's music
CDs mainly Whitey the Coach, who is played by Dana Carvey, and who
was later voiced by Sandler in the animated flop 8 Crazy Nights.
All in all the movie tries to be a number of different things and
becomes absolutely nothing at all. It wants to be a social and
religious satire but is content to stay within the PG-13 guidelines,
so it never becomes as raunchy or funny or downright refreshing as
Dogma. Kevin Smith is a daring director and is capable of extending
the craziest of material into something clever. Steven Brill, the
director of Little Nicky, is considerably less talented and as a
result his movie which similarly moves towards an apocalyptic ending
a la Dogma becomes a complete and under mess, totally predictable
and stupid.
Little Nicky is a big disappointment.
- John Ulmer
http://www.themovieaddict.com
e-mail: webmaster@themovieaddict.com
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