Little Nicky * (2000, Adam Sandler, Patricia Arquette, Harvey Keitel) – Classic Movie Review 1976

Director Stephen Brill’s 2000 silly comedy tries hard to raise laughs but it is mostly almost painfully unfunny.

Adam Sandler stars as Nicky, the geeky, mild-mannered son of The Devil (Harvey Keitel), sent from Hell to New York to bring back his evil brothers Adrian and Cassius (Rhys Ifans, Tom ‘Tiny’ Lister Jr) who have escaped to wreak havoc on Earth, and stop his father from dying. Despite the expert comedy cast, it hardly works at all.

As compensation, there’s quite a cast. Patricia Arquette, Rodney Dangerfield, Reese Witherspoon, Michael McKean, Jon Lovitz, Dana Carvey, Quentin Tarantino, Allen Covert, Kevin Nealon and Rob Schneider also star. Henry Winkler, Ozzy Osbourne and Regis Philbin appear as themselves. Sandler and Brill hack out the unusual but clumsy screenplay with Tim Herlihy.

Keitel replaced Dustin Hoffman as Satan. Carvey (Referee) broke his ankle while filming the Harlem Globetrotters basketball game scene, ending up on crutches.

Rated PG-13 for crude sexual humour, drug content, strong language and thematic material.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1976

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/