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| Movies,
Jerry Carpenter,
20 January 1999 |
Rating: F3
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In ‘Little Nicky’, Adam Sandler plays the son of the Devil. To a lot of people, Adam Sandler IS the devil – he’s responsible for a string of recent comedies that’d make Mr Blobby look high-brow, yet have consistently topped the US box office. He may not be the sole person responsible for the lowest common denominator comedy that’s been sweeping the US for the past three years ( The Farrelly boys have done their fair share ), but he’s certainly the force that’s made it acceptable to squeeze horrifyingly large dollops of schmaltz and sentimentality into the mix.
The opening scenes of ‘Little Nicky’ confirm some rough pre-conceptions – once again Sandler’s character is a supposedly appealing mentally-challenged moron figure (the result of a spade hit to the head), and it’s tough work sitting through some of these bits. The lame-o plot about Nicky travelling to earth to capture his two runaway devil brothers gives rise to some so-so fish out of water comedy, and his ‘cutesy’ scenes with love interest Patricia Arquette stick in the throat unpleasantly.
But somehow out of the mess that’s playing out onscreen there’s enough to keep you in the seat. The devil-movie in-jokes, the crude talking dog gags, the mountain of cameo roles (Dana Carvey! Micheal McKean! Henry Winkler! Regis Philbin! even Quentin Tarantino is alright), and some great semi-surreal visual humour. Towards the end, the film manages to raise fond memories of horror-comedy classic ‘Ghostbusters’, as events spiral out of control with Hell rising up into Central Park, and a bizarre good vs evil showdown begins. At this point the film is flinging everything at you, and most of it sticks, even managing to make reference to previous Sadler hits (when Rob Schneider’s cajun red-neck turns up), without missing a beat.
So, a return to form of sorts for Sandler, (whose first film ‘Happy Gilmore, was actually really good), but for all it’s pleasures still riddled with enough trademark problems ( sentimental, occasionally homophobic , wasting Harvey Keitel!) to shift it up a notch to being great.
UK rating:
12
US rating:
PG
Steven Brill and Theo Van De Sande
2000 US
Adam Sandler, Patricia Arquette, Rhys Ifans, Tom "Tiny" Lister Jr., Kevin Nealon.
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