Cast: Adam Sandler, Harvey Keitel, Patricia Arquette, Rhys Ifans, Tom 'Tiny' Lister Jr., Kevin Nealon, Jon Lovitz, Reese Witherspoon, Rodney Dangerfield, Quentin Tarantino
Director: Steven Brill
Producers: Jack Giarraputo, Robert Simonds
Screenplay: Tim Herlihy & Adam Sandler & Steve Brill
Cinematography: Theo van de Sande
Music: Teddy Castellucci
U.S. Distributor: New Line Cinema
Sitting through this movie is hell.
There are several lessons to be learned from the debacle that goes by the name of Little Nicky. In the first place, it's important to recognize that Satan isn't really such a bad guy - he's just misunderstood. Secondly, Harvey Keitel may be the better actor, but I'd rather watch Elizabeth Hurley with the pitchfork and pointed tail any day of the week. Thirdly, Alicia Silverstone does the clueless valley girl routine better than Reese Witherspoon. And finally, it is possible to make an Adam Sandler comedy that doesn't offer one really good laugh. Little Nicky isn't so much a movie as it is a series of failed jokes and missed opportunities. It's almost possible to sense the filmmakers' desperation here - a growing urgency to make the audience laugh coupled with the realization that the material isn't funny. By comparison, efforts like Big Daddy and Billy Madison are comic masterpieces.
There's no doubt that the idea behind Little Nicky (the Devil's inept son on a quest to save his father) is ambitious - far more ambitious than anything attempted by Sandler in his previous flicks. In fact, the film's scope is part of the problem - so much time is invested in setup and plot that there isn't much opportunity for humor. There are stretches when director Steven Brill doesn't seem interested in harvesting laughs; he's too busy pursuing exposition. In a strange way, Little Nicky reminds me of Cable Guy, Jim Carrey's first attempt to broaden his horizons. That film was a box office disaster, and, if Sandler's fans are as disappointed with Little Nicky as Carrey's were with Cable Guy, the bean counters at New Line Cinema will not be happy.
The movie opens with Jon Lovitz playing a peeping tom who falls off his perch in a tree and, like Humpty Dumpty, can't be put back together again. His next destination is a passage out of Dante's Inferno. But hell is an unsettled place, because a power struggle is underway. Two of Satan's sons, Adrian (Rhys Ifans), and Cassius (Tom Lister Jr.), have decided to usurp their daddy's position. They escape from hell and leave Satan (Harvey Keitel) in a state of slow decay. If Adrian and Cassius don't return within one week, he will expire. The devil's in the details, and his only hope is his third son, the meek and foolish Nicky (Sandler), who must follow the other two to Earth and trap them, confining them in a flask like genies in a bottle. Once there, Nicky gets some help from a talking dog, a human woman named Valerie (a badly miscast Patricia Arquette), and his angelic mother (Reese Witherspoon), who acts and sounds like she spent a tour of duty in the San Fernando Valley. But Adrian and Cassius are both stronger than Nicky, and, by all accounts, he doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of overcoming them.
The movie contains many of the Sandler staples - physical pratfalls, moments of gross-out exuberance, and extreme expressions of political incorrectness - but the energy is missing. There's a sense of weariness about these elements, almost as if they don't really belong but Sandler included them because they're expected of him. For the most part, they aren't funny. The laughter in the theater - what little there was of it - had a forced, canned quality. I have never been a big fan of Sandler's films, but even the worst of them has provoked an occasional laugh or two - until now.
Unfortunately, Little Nicky is the kind of motion picture that relies upon loud, unabated laughter to camouflage the gaping holes representing things like "story" and "characters". Sure, there's plenty of plotting, but it's all pretty uninteresting. Besides, people go to a film like this for one reason - to laugh. If a comedy can't deliver on that promise, then, by definition, it's a bad movie. The fact that Little Nicky doesn't do much of anything else right almost goes unnoticed in light of its primary failure.
Little Nicky easily contains more special effects than any previous Sandler outing. We are presented with artistic, albeit traditional, images of heaven and hell, complete with cherubim and seraphim (in the former), and demons and gargoyles (in the latter). Heaven is a airy place, filled with clouds, butterflies, and flowers. Hell is red and fiery. And somewhere in between is New York City, which seems like the worst place to be. Brill also makes unconventional use of the latest technology. Little Nicky may be the first motion picture to feature computer generated urine and vomit. Think of what this means for the industry... bodily fluids on demand! George Lucas, eat your heart out.
In terms of star power, Adam Sandler stays firmly within the bounds of the persona he has created. We're supposed to root for Nicky, even though he isn't exactly endearing (in fact, with his speech impediment and ungainly gait, he can become irritating). Most of the other actors - Patricia Arquette, Harvey Keitel, and Rhys Ifans - are disappointingly bland. There are numerous cameos - Jon Lovitz, Rodney Dangerfield getting (and deserving) no respect as Satan's father, Ozzy Osborne, Michael McKean as a dirty cop, and the incomparably awful Quentin Tarantino as a blind preacher.
Let me make it clear that my problem with Little Nicky is not with the grossness or stupidity of the material - I can enjoy a dumb, raunchy comedy as much as the next classless viewer. But it has to be funny, and Little Nicky isn't. There's much to endure here, and very little to enjoy - even those who worship the ground upon which Sandler treads will have a devil of a time finding something to like.
© 2000 James Berardinelli