After two of the devil's three sons escape Hell to wreak havoc on Earth, the devil must send his third son, the mild-mannered Nicky, to bring them back before it's too late.After two of the devil's three sons escape Hell to wreak havoc on Earth, the devil must send his third son, the mild-mannered Nicky, to bring them back before it's too late.After two of the devil's three sons escape Hell to wreak havoc on Earth, the devil must send his third son, the mild-mannered Nicky, to bring them back before it's too late.
- Director
- Writers
- Stars
- Awards
- 1 win & 12 nominations total
- Cassius
- (as Tommy 'Tiny' Lister Jr.)
- Beefy
- (voice)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
I will always give Adam Sadler films a go because I often find just about enough moments of inspired lunacy among the puerile and pretty unfunny material. Sadly, this outing sees such a terrible plot combined with awful acting, unfunny writing, tired special effects and crude joking and almost no moments that took me by surprise and made me laugh. Instead the film is just plain stupid with very few laughs in it at all. Of course it may well appeal to some with its silly humour and its silly crude joking but personally it was pretty laugh free and the whole idea of the film was too dumb and silly to really work. The actual plot is never a really strong aspect of any Sadler film but here it is just all over the place. It is not that it makes no sense, it is more that it lacks any sense of fun at all and the dark tone is totally misjudged and the usual moments of inspired craziness is really limited to one or two moments (the best being the Fonz covered in bees!).
The cr*p script is not helped at all by a cast that is either rubbish or wasted. Sadler himself falls into the 'rubbish' camp with a performance that is like his usual mugging but even more unbearable. With his twisted expression and nasty voice, he was actually painful to watch and this is not based on a hatred of Sadler (I loved him in Punchdrunk a few days ago) it is based on the fact that this is a terrible performance with nothing but a terrible idea and a terrible character to work with. The support cast is made up of plenty of well-known faces but few are used well at all and too many of them are embarrassing. Keitel falls into the latter category and he has a thankless role that is not worthy of his talent. Ifans and Lister are given hard work by mostly doing voice work with poor dialogue (in their heads) and they were not funny at all. Arquette is given nothing to do at all but still manages to be lame and annoying. The various cameos are mixed Taratino is just dumb; Dangerfield is OK but not given enough time; Weathers, Witherspoon, Witherspoon and others are all given nothing to do other than show their faces but Lovitz and Schneider at least provide some unexpected weirdness in very minor roles.
Overall, Sadler films are normally average at best but I must say that I found this to be devoid of all but the slightest hint of the inspired humour that he can often create. The story is stupid and silly, the acting both bad and embarrassing, the script filled with misfiring jokes that are mostly in bad taste as well as being unfunny (a bad combination). A real waste of time that will only appeal to the most die-hard fans of Sadler and those that only like their comedy to be very basic indeed.
I watched this movie again, after I bought the DVD. First of all, I was impressed to discover the cool Easter eggs! It's actually the first DVD to be presented in InfiniFilm. But since it was used as an Easter egg, it wasn't credited as the first InfiniFilm feature. Well, as I learned a lot more about the behind-the-scenes work on this movie; mostly involving special effects, makeup, costume and set design; I gained a better respect for those who were responsible for making "Little Nicky." I thought of it as more than a shallow comedy. It's obvious that the producers of Sandler's previous films didn't have to bend over backwards to produce any flashy effects--in fact, most of them were made on a modest budget.
However, the laughs faded away a little. Since this is a silly, superficial comedy, don't expect to pick up on any subtle humor that you might've missed the first time around. I always found Sandler's schtick very silly and meaningless. But he's one of those guys who can make me laugh at things for no apparent reason. Almost as if I'm laughing AT him. I've seen "Billy Madison" countless times and I still roll with laughter every time. But with "Little Nicky" most of the jokes that I found silly-funny on my initial viewing were just silly on my second.
One thing to anticipate is a stellar cast. You'll be surprised at the kind of celebrities that pop up in the cameos. Some of the big-name stars include Harvey Keitel, Patricia Arquette, Quentin Tarantino, Reese Witherspoon and (my personal hero) Rodney Dangerfield! And that's just to name a few. It would also help if you've seen Sandler's past films, especially in one particular scene with one of our mystery cameos. You'll be treated to a great inside joke. And of course, expect to see many of Sandler's regulars including Allen Covert, Clint Howard, Peter Dante, Blake Clark and Jon Lovitz.
"Little Nicky" is not a thoughtful piece and will probably do nothing to contribute to mankind. But it's a very funny comedy that I simply advise you don't watch over and over again. You'll enjoy it a lot the first time! Of course, the DVD has some really cool features, so if anything pick that up.
My score: 7 (out of 10)
Nicky, the son of the devil and an angel is sent to make his way in the world while one of his many brothers tries to take throne of Hell from their father. Casting everyone from Harvey Keitel to Rodney Dangerfield this is a film that fits into the Adam Sandler universe since several characters from some of his other films appear. Its a film that on star power alone should work, but it never catches fire. Sure there are laughs but on the whole nothing ever hangs together to form a full movie. I've seen the film several times and can't figure out what went wrong. Even Adam Sandler as Nicky, in one of the worst portrayals in screen history, isn't the reason this doesn't work. There is something else, some other reason.
Still its worth seeing if you like okay comedies. It never scales the heights its ideas and bits say it should be reaching. If its on try it and see if its for you, you certainly could do worse.
Did you know
- TriviaAdam Sandler's real-life dog, named Meatball, is the son of the dog that played Mr. Beefy in this movie. Meatball was Adam Sandler's best man at his wedding.
- Goofs(at around 16 mins) When Little Nicky exits Grand Central Terminal and spooks the street preacher, the traffic on the street disappears and reappears.
- Quotes
John: Hey, by the way, Nicky, check this out, what's Ozzy tryin' to say there?
Nicky: John, absolutely nothing, the blizzard always came straight with his messages, but wrap your minds around this, gentlemen.
[Pulls out a Chicago album]
Nicky: Chicago!
Todd: I love this song.
Voice Of The Demons: I command you in the name of Lucifer to spread the blood of the innocent!
Peter: Oh my God, Chicago kicks ass!
- Crazy creditsDuring the closing credits, flashes of the character whereabouts were explained. When they explain Nicky's mom, (Reese Witherspoon) a picture still of her is shown saying "Mom immediately fell in love with her new aerobics instructor... Chris Farley," giving a tribute to Chris Farley who died 3 years before the film, in 1997. The aerobics reference is referring to his classic skit on Saturday Night Live (1975) that will always be hilariously remembered. Adam Sandler and the rest of the SNL gang were great friends with Farley.
- Alternate versionsIn the FOX 2004 presentation, many things were edited:
- All references to Popeye's are cut, so "Popeye's Chicken is fucking awesome" becomes "Chicken is kickin'".
- "Hitler's ass" was replaced with "Hitler's rear"
- "The shit has hit the fan." shortens to "It has hit the fan".
- A deleted scene of the peeper becoming bait and being eaten by a fish was added.
- The asking of the gatekeeper whether there were boobs on his head was cut.
- The Coke/Pepsi transformation was partially cut.
- ConnectionsEdited into Adam Sandler Goes to Hell (2001)
- SoundtracksSchool of Hard Knocks
Written by Sonny Sandoval (as Sonny), Marcos Curiel (as Marcos), Mark Daniels (as Traa) and Noah Bernardo Jr. (as Wuv)
Performed by P.O.D.
Produced by Rick Rubin
Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Ніккі - диявол молодший
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $85,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $39,464,775
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $16,063,904
- Nov 12, 2000
- Gross worldwide
- $58,292,295
- Runtime1 hour 30 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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