Hey folks, Harry here with the ol dome-boy himself with them groovy cufflinks and awesome eye broaches... That's right, it's Mysterio. Hero to fired Special Effects mavens around the world, and a major Anti-CGI/pro-practical effects work pirate. Here he takes a look at Adam Sandler's latest project to come from the world of New Line and while Mysterio isn't a big fan of it.... to me... it certainly sounds more fun than WATERBOY or BIG DADDY. I haven't seen the script, so I'll hold off judgement. He doesn't tell us what happens at the end, but he goes into what happens in the film. So if you wish to avoid that because of your passion for Sandler films... Move along, otherwise let this evil bastard do his work...
Greetings Harry, let me take a moment to properly introduce myself. I've often watched and observed your site growing to potential over the past few years and have occasionally popped up under different aliases, but felt the time has come to properly materialize myself. For I am MYSTERIO (any who calls me bubblehead or goldfish bowl will ultimately face my wrath, as I am everywhere: in your thoughts, your dreams, your nightmares, your fantasies… your reality). So with that, I have spoken, and feel the time is now to make my presence better known. I know some of you may have thought that I recently met an untimely demise at the hands of one of my "lesser" foes, DAREDEVIL (in recent issue #7).
But let me quickly dispel that book as an excellent piece of fiction, written by fan-boy and indie filmmaker extraordinarie, Kevin Smith. Kudos to you Mr. Smith, and thank you for remembering me. With the world having thought I had perished, it's given me the chance to rise like a phoenix from the ashes, and unleash my own brand of evil upon an unsuspecting world who thought briefly they need not fear me anymore. Fear me you will, for fear me now...
I now mark my "first" official review, of a script ripped out from a dead studio executive's clutched hand (you see, his studio had fired me off their last picture because they claimed my effects work was too "Harryhausen" for them, so to speak).
So without further adieu, I give you the script review for… LITTLE NICKY.
I figure, this would be an interesting script as Adam Sandler stars as LITTLE NICKY, the youngest of three sons to the DEVIL incarnate himself. A son who embodies all that is evil, but wait, this is Adam Sandler were talking about, so he can't be all that bad can he?
Of course not. That is left to his two elder brothers, CASSIUS & ADRIAN. You see, the time has come in hell, when the devil, affectionately known as "DAD", has declared that his rule of hell for the past 10,000 years is up. Now it's time to pass the torch onto one of his sons, just as his father, their grandfather, LUCIFER had done the previous 10,000 years. But DAD's final decision is an unwelcomed one by CASSIUS & ADRIAN, as dad has declared that he feels that neither of his sons are ready to rule, so he will rule Hell again for an additional 10,000 years.
This outrages CASSIUS & ADRIAN, but relieves NICKY of such a responsibility. Angered and filled with evil, CASSIUS & ADRIAN decide to forcefully take hell from their father and rule it themselves.
In hell, there is an underwater river that flows ever constantly with souls of the damned. Without fresh souls, Dad (the Devil) will start to deteriorate and eventually die. Adding to that, if the river were to stop, then the damned souls coming into hell would back up like a sewage pipe and spew back out onto earth.
CASSIUS & ADRIAN both decide to journey up to earth, and breaking the river's flow, to rule it as the "new hell", to where they choose, what else, but New York as their capital.
As Dad is made known that his two eldest sons have become renegade demons, he begins to quickly lose any strength to leave hell and bring the two back down. So he sends NICKY to bring the two back down, causing the river to flow again, and thus saving his life. Nicky must bring the two back at the same time, through a waterfall to restore order. He is given a flask that if they drink from it, will capture them like a genie in a genie in a bottle, to carry them both through.
Armed with the flask, Nicky is sent through to find and pursue his brothers. Upon entering New York through a portal of sorts, he is met by a talking dog in Grand Central Station, named BEEFY who the devil has sent to aid NICKY in his new found world, and pursuit.
From there, it's a bit fish out of water for LITTLE NICKY as he comes to learn what the world and people have to offer. He particularly takes a liking to POPEYE'S CHICKEN, and along the way (of course) falls in love, and soon begins to realize he's only "half-evil".
Now if this story concept sounds recently familiar, it is at least for it's first half. The tone and set up, had Kevin Smith's recently touted DOGMA coming to mind (and even has two heavy metal stoner characters, named JOHN & PETER, aiding Nicky's quest in it).
So there the story isn't as original or clever as it could (or should be), it eventually spools itself into typical Sandler fluff fare, where you can't help but liking the character of NICKY. Which is part of the problem here. He's supposed to be the son of the devil, and evil and all, but you never get that sense from Nicky… ever. It tries at points in the story to show his "evil", red glowing eyes and such, but never really succeeds. Thus losing any character change or development throughout the script, except that he mainly learns to know what "love" is. "Whoopdide-dooooo!" What a stretch. We've seen it all before.
It amazes me to see why something like THE WATERBOY was a huge theatrical hit, but since video, everybody that I know says it's terrible. I can't imagine these same people seeing THE WATERBOY in theaters, aren't the same ones renting it when it comes out on video. So who are these people, I wonder?
I suppose for what it is and who it's written for, it's not surprising to see this be another notch in the Adam ("I'm a $$$ making machine") Sandler's filmography. But ya know what, it's gonna get old sooner or later, and now when your at the top of your game, why not take some chances, and PLAY A CHARACTER, rather than yourself under a different name. Same wacky schick, just a different character name and movie title. As it stands, NICKY is pretty much a one-note character, and the story suffers because of it. By the end I'm rooting for the two evil brothers because they just seem to be having the most fun with their evil powers, unlike myself who was just mainly bored throughout most of the 96 pages, with only an occasionally amusing chuckle here and there. Now it's time to have some evil fun of my own and decide what havoc I should seek to wreak out next…
Technical information:
LITTLE NICKY
STUDIO: New Line
Writers: Tim Herlihy & Adam Sandler
Revisions by: Steven Brill
Additional Revisions by: Tim Herlihy & Adam Sandler
Draft date: Revision 4-August 23, 1999
