Release Date:
Friday, November 10, 2000
Adam Sandler is the spawn of hell, whine fancy-pants critics perturbed that the moviegoing masses prefer busting a gut watching Happy Gilmore, The Waterboy, and Big Daddy to sleeping through Woody Allens latest cosmopolitan bore. So its only appropriate that in Sandlers new, guaranteed-hit comedy, he chose to play the son of Satan himself.
Since this fiery netherworld is filmed in SandlerVision, hellish punishments include Jon Lovitz being eternally dry-humped by a bird, and Nicky is more bumbling goofball than slimy demon, happy to hang out in his bedroom and listen to heavy metal. (Nickys vocal tics owe a debt to Sandlers geeky, oft-beaten SNL rock-critic character.)
When Satan (hammy, horn-sporting Harvey Keitel) postpones his retirement, shy Nickys bullying older brothers, played to comic extremes by skinny Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill) and hulking Tiny Lister (Friday), defect to raise their own hell on earth. Their wicked rebellion lowers the drinking age to 10 and changes New York Citys slogan to I LUV HOOKERS. Too bad their high jinks cause their pitchfork-wielding papas body parts to start falling off. Little Nicky is sent to rein in the renegades, accompanied by a foul-mouthed bulldog that teaches our introverted-incubus hero the ways of the world (but not how to dressNicky sports the butt-ugliest wardrobe this side of a Yugoslavian thriftshop).
The inevitable fish-out-of-hades scenes follow, with Nicky encountering a fire-and-brimstone preacher (Quentin Tarantino) and two headbanging devil worshippers. In an especially funny bit, Nicky tells them that Ozzy is tame, then spins Chicagos Saturday in the Park backward to reveal the hidden message Shed the blood of the innocent. (We knew it!) He even falls for a mortal art student (Patricia Arquette).
Though these good-natured shenanigans could be part of any Sandler movie, when Nicky closes in on his brothers and masters his own destructive powers, a special-effects-laden duel erupts that probably cost more than the combined budgets for Billy Madison and The Wedding Singer. Still, its belly laughs we crave, and cameos by Dana Carvey, Reese Witherspoon, and especially Rodney Dangerfield as a retired, strip-poker-playing Grandpa Satan ensure that itd be a mortal sin to miss Little Nicky.
Since this fiery netherworld is filmed in SandlerVision, hellish punishments include Jon Lovitz being eternally dry-humped by a bird, and Nicky is more bumbling goofball than slimy demon, happy to hang out in his bedroom and listen to heavy metal. (Nickys vocal tics owe a debt to Sandlers geeky, oft-beaten SNL rock-critic character.)
When Satan (hammy, horn-sporting Harvey Keitel) postpones his retirement, shy Nickys bullying older brothers, played to comic extremes by skinny Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill) and hulking Tiny Lister (Friday), defect to raise their own hell on earth. Their wicked rebellion lowers the drinking age to 10 and changes New York Citys slogan to I LUV HOOKERS. Too bad their high jinks cause their pitchfork-wielding papas body parts to start falling off. Little Nicky is sent to rein in the renegades, accompanied by a foul-mouthed bulldog that teaches our introverted-incubus hero the ways of the world (but not how to dressNicky sports the butt-ugliest wardrobe this side of a Yugoslavian thriftshop).
The inevitable fish-out-of-hades scenes follow, with Nicky encountering a fire-and-brimstone preacher (Quentin Tarantino) and two headbanging devil worshippers. In an especially funny bit, Nicky tells them that Ozzy is tame, then spins Chicagos Saturday in the Park backward to reveal the hidden message Shed the blood of the innocent. (We knew it!) He even falls for a mortal art student (Patricia Arquette).
Though these good-natured shenanigans could be part of any Sandler movie, when Nicky closes in on his brothers and masters his own destructive powers, a special-effects-laden duel erupts that probably cost more than the combined budgets for Billy Madison and The Wedding Singer. Still, its belly laughs we crave, and cameos by Dana Carvey, Reese Witherspoon, and especially Rodney Dangerfield as a retired, strip-poker-playing Grandpa Satan ensure that itd be a mortal sin to miss Little Nicky.