Little Nicky

10 April 2012

For the second week running, the Devil has all ... the best films? Not quite. But at least Adam Sandler's new comedy doesn't hit the cloacal depths of his last gross-out. Little Nicky (Sandler) is third son of the Devil (Harvey Keitel). Dad's literally wearing out - the pressure of business. The furnace doors to the Underworld are permanently open for the intake and his prime time's being eroded by a perpetual appointment to stick a pineapple up Hitler's rectum. His other two sons (Rhys Ifans and Tommy Lister Jnr) go Awol, to create their own hell in New York, and Old Nick sends Little Nicky in pursuit to call his bros back to keep the home fires burning.

After his sheltered life in Hades, NY is unbearable and, in quick rotation, he suffers mortal mishaps just crossing town, which prematurely return him to Hell. Then he has to pass for a human - difficult when Sandler walks and talks like a mutated spastic - which means learning how to chew burgers and use bedroom and bathroom with only a spike-collared bulldog that talks like a wiseguy to tutor him in worldly ways ("Don't shit on the street - I do that").

It's pretty rough and ready-made with dumbsized gags, though a few are passably inventive like Little Nicky sleeping on the radiator to feel Hell's warmth in his bones and snoring like Linda Blair in The Exorcist or the MGM lion after a disagreeable meal. His siblings have more fun, turning Big Apple rotten by lowering the drinking age to 10 and subverting other civic virtues. Where humour fails, morphing succeeds and the final duel of diabolical SFX between Nicky and his brethren possesses a memorable moment when Sandler deconstructs himself into a swarm of black spiders each bearing his head.

Cameos come from Quentin Tarantino, Henry Winkler and the Harlem Globetrotters. A brand of chicken burger is plugged intensively; but Coca-Cola, which may not have played ball with the product-placement merchants, is mutated into its arch-rival Pepsi as Nicky strives to drain off his evil power. The good news is, this time it's the bulldog which urinates, not Sandler: for this relief, some thanks.

Little Nicky
Cert: cert12

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