LITTLE NICKY
A New Line Cinema release.

review by Joseph B. Mauceri

SYNOPSIS: When Lucifer decides to postpone his retirement. So two of his sons take off to set up their own personal Hell in New York City. On their exit from Hell they freeze the gate, preventing damned souls from entering. The lack of fresh souls weakens Lucifer. His only hope is his third son, Nicky. A typical youth, he is more interested in metal music then the family business. It is up to Nicky to get to New York, capture his older brothers and restore the gates. The only problem is Nicky has never been anywhere outside of Hell.

REVIEW: For the record, there is a brilliant novel called Good Omens, which is a black comedy about the anti-Christ. Describing it as ÒThe OmenÓ meets ÒHitchhikerÕs Guide to the GalaxyÓ does not do it justice, but you get the idea. So, if Good Omens ­ which Terry Gilliam has been interested in bringing to the screen ­ is prime rib then LITTLE NICKY is a Big Mac and fries. Hey, and we all get a craving for McDonalds once and a while.

The story here is basic as it relies more on cameos and sight gags. You get the feeling that Sandler and company were trying for that ÒItÕs a Mad, Mad, Mad WorldÓ thing. They come real close to pulling it off. The film falls short due to the lack of substance to the main characters of Nicky, his ÒgirlfriendÓ and evil Òstepbrothers.Ó With a running time of around 90 minutes there isnÕt much time for character development as they try to accommodate all the cameos and gags they stuff into this film. LITTLE NICKY is so gag loaded as to provide the hound from hell, Beefy, with flashbacks in an attempt to get a laugh.

The performances are designed to be either signature characterizations by stars or way over the top, such as Tarantion as the Deacon. Sandler comes up with a new physically challenged, speech impaired bit. Unfortunately, it is more annoying then it is funny. I actually felt the urge to pick up a shovel and smash him across the face in order to fix it.

LITTLE NICKY pulls out all the stops when it comes to delivering the costumes and effects to support the nature of the tale and locations. You can tell that they had a budget to play with as they mix things up. Not everything is digitally rendered, and they blend prosthetics with CGI. There is just enough window dressing to feel like youÕre getting something for the price of admission.
 

OFFICIAL WEB SITE:
http://www.littlenicky.com/

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