Little Nicky Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)November 10th, 2000
PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com
"We Put the SIN in Cinema"
The Devil must have hired a new PR firm to spruce up his image here on Earth. First, the Great Horned One took the form of a slinky, sexy supermodel in Bedazzled, and here, in Little Nicky, Satan is portrayed as a mild-mannered version of Hugh Hefner, right down to his velvet robe monogrammed with a big “D.”
Little Nicky, like Bedazzled, is rated PG-13, hovers around the 90-minute mark and deals with a young man thrown into a fish-out-of-water story. Adam Sandler (Big Daddy) plays the titular Nicky, one of three sons fathered by the Devil (Harvey Keitel, U-571). Nicky is no bad ass, especially compared to his two older brothers, Adrian (Rhys Ifans, The Replacements) and Cassius (Tiny Lister Jr., Next Friday). He might have turned out as evil as his siblings, but Nicky was hit in the face with a shovel, leaving him with a sluggish brain and a speech impediment that makes him sound like Renée Zellweger.
The gist of Nicky goes a little something like this: Satan is retiring and needs to appoint one of his three sons to rule Hell for the next 10,000 years. When he fails to make his choice, Adrian and Cassius get pissed off and head for Earth, which, for some reason, blocks the gates of Hell and causes the Devil to decompose faster than a leper in an arm-wrestling contest. The only thing that can save him from falling completely apart is Nicky, who is instructed to find his brothers and bring them back within a week.
On Earth, Nicky needs to constantly dress in warm clothes (a nice touch) and experiences things like eating and sleeping for the first time in his life. He meets and falls for a nerdy, snaggle-toothed design student named Valerie (Patricia Arquette, Bringing Out the Dead) and has a great deal of difficulty tracking down his troublemaking brothers.
Part of Hollywood’s fondness for Sandler is because his films gross well while maintaining low budgets (aside from his salary). Nicky is probably the most expensive film he’s made. It’s full of computer-generated animation that seems as foreign to Sandler films as comedy is to The Michael Richards Show. And it appears they may have saved some bucks by raiding the Hell set of Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry.
Nicky is also full of some wonderful cameo appearances from the likes of Rodney Dangerfield, Reese Witherspoon, Ozzy Osbourne, Quentin Tarantino, Dan Marino and a slew of former Saturday Night Live stars including Dana Carvey, Kevin Nealon, Robert Smigel, Michael McKean, Jon Lovitz and Rob Schneider – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Some recurring characters from Sandler’s previous films pop up, too.
Nicky’s acting isn’t anything to write home about, but that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anybody. It’s certainly funny, and may be Sandler’s most consistently funny film since Happy Gilmore – which I consider to be one of the greatest comedies of the ‘90s. His performance here is paper-thin (like The Waterboy), and I’d much rather see him play a normal Joe (like Big Daddy), but Nicky is entertaining enough for that to be overlooked. Tougher to ignore is the glaring product placement of a certain fried chicken chain that is prominently displayed in several scenes.
Nicky was directed by Steven Brill, who has acted in two of Sandler’s previous films. As a director, his only feature film credit is the kiddie pic Heavyweights, but Brill also penned the scripts for duds like Ready to Rumble and The Mighty Ducks trilogy. Like all of Sandler’s comedies, Nicky was co-written by Sandler and Tim Herlihy. And don’t think about leaving the theatre early, or you’ll miss the funny finale in which you get to find out what happens to each of the characters.
1:24 – PG-13 for adult language and violence
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