Little Nicky

Day 274 - 10/1/09 - Movie #274

BEFORE: So this will be the last Adam Sandler film for now - I've got one more to watch, but I'll save it for November 1, to kick off another themed chain. Instead I'm interrupting the flow to watch a month of horror films. Horror is actually my least-favorite genre, because in general, I don't like to be scared. I'm already not getting enough sleep, so I need to know that at 2 or 3 am, when my head hits the pillow, I won't be bothered by ghosts, ghoulies or things that go bump in the night.

My original plan was to watch a very innocuous film like "Casper" and sort of ease into this, but my back-to-school chain led me into Adam Sandler films, so instead I'm starting with the top dog, devil-in-charge, Satan (ok, Satan's son...). So here's how the month is going to shake down: first, films about the devil, then lesser demons, then vampires, Frankenstein's monster, mummies, and then ghosts and misc. phantoms/spirits. Monster films like the new "King Kong" will have to wait, and I'll get to serial killers if there's time, but in general I want to avoid slasher films like "Halloween", "Friday the 13th", "Nightmare on Elm Street" and anything with "Saw" or "Chainsaw" in the title. I met Eli Roth a couple years ago at Comic-Con, and he seemed like a nice enough fellow, but I'm going to avoid "Hostel" as well. Watching people get tortured and cut up is not my idea of entertainment, sorry if that makes me old-school. Today's special-effects make these things a little too realistic-looking, if you ask me. Not my scene.

I'd like to work in some films by M. Night Shimalayan (is that how you spell it?) but I think I might need to put off films of Stephen King stories until next year. I just got "Misery" and "Firestarter", but I want some time to track down "The Shining" and a few others and give his works the analysis they deserve. Oh, and for the month of "Shocktober" I'll be giving each film 2 ratings - the first is for the film's entertainment value as always, and the second will be based on how scary it is (to me, of course - it's all subjective).

THE PLOT: A movie about the independent minded son of Beelzebub and the mischief he creates.

AFTER: This whole film just sort of comes out of left-field. When you're dealing with hell, and the Devil, anything is possible, so the storyline just sort of goes off on these tangents to show how crazy it would be if a denizen of Hell came to New York City. He's got to figure out how to eat, sleep, and interact with the hu-mans, so it's a fish out of water story, combined with the common Sandler plot-line of needing to compete with others to inherit Daddy's business (in this case, the throne of Hell).

I'm sort of reminded of "The Wizard of Oz", which probably had a few people scratching their heads when it first came out in 1939 - today we see a magical trip to a land over the rainbow full of talking scarecrows, lions and flying monkeys and we take it for granted - but the first time you saw it, you had to figure out how the rules work in this strange land of Oz, and who all the characters are. Similarly, the first time you see "Little Nicky" with all these odd demons and a talking bulldog, it seems a little weird. The TV show "Reaper" is maybe a better exploration of the devil and how he interacts with humans - but that show took about a half-season to explain the rules of how the underworld "works", how souls escape and need to be put back.

And if Nicky is the son of the devil and truly "evil", it would be hard for the audience to root for him as a character. So instead he's "half-evil" and we never really see him do anything that counts as evil. Really, do you want to see Adam Sandler causing wars, famine and pestilence? Instead he's sent to Earth to track down his brothers, who truly have evil intent, because they want to claim the throne of Hell. I think this was a great concept for a film, that just sort of fell flat in the execution, choosing instead to go for cheap effects and even cheaper jokes. (For a better storyline showing the transfer of power in Hell, check out the Sandman comic "Season of the Mists" trade paperback)

But you can't fault the casting of Harvey Keitel as the Devil, though you see less and less of him as the film continues. Rodney Dangerfield has a small role as Lucifer, the Devil's father and ex-ruler of Hell (even in Hell, he gets no respect...), with Reese Witherspoon as an angel and Patricia Arquette as Nicky's love interest on Earth. Cameos from a large number of SNL vets, including Jon Lovitz, Kevin Nealon, Dana Carvey, Michael McKean, Rob Schneider, Ellen Cleghorne, even Robert Smigel voicing a dog (other than Triumph). Even Quentin Tarantino appears as a blind street preacher, and of course, Clint Howard as "Nipples".

RATING: 5 out of 10 fried chicken legs

SPOOK-O-METER: 1 out of 10 (it is a comedy, after all...)