Little Nicky

Starring: Adam Sandler, Harvey Keitel Patricia Arquette, Rhys Ifans, Kevin Nealon and Jon Lovitz
Directed by: Steven Brill

I quickly ran out of the theater to make sure pigs weren't flying. A funny Adam Sandler movie? Can't be. Or was I simply I weakening to his evil powers. No, the dang thing was really funny. Some scenes were still odiously Sandlerish but for the most part it was an enjoyable hoot and holler.

Adam Sandler, who's screen personas I normally detest, was not as mentally challenged here- ironic- since he's playing a kind of slow in the head spawn of Satan.

Little Nicky's story goes... Satan's ( Harvey "not afraid to bare my pee-pee" Keitel ) term in office is about up. Yeah, but in hell he can rewrite his own agenda- and he does. When his two nasty sons, Adrian (Rhys Ifans) and Cassius (Tom Lister, Jr.) get the extenda-term information from pops they freak out and exit North. T

hey go awohl up to the real city of sin, NYC. Satan falls apart, both figuratively and physically. This leaves his other son, Nicky (Col. Adam Sandler) to go and fetch his runaway siblings back to the depths of hell before...all hell breaks loose- tee hee.

Nicky goes forth with gusto. He's not a bright watted little bulb, but with his new friends Beefy the talking bulldog, and the satn worshipping rock and roll dudes, he may just get the job done.

This little Beefy is a scene stealer. An actual Bulldog with an attitude and a knack for human speak. He's spewing like Goodfellas meets Babe. Then there's the ambiguously gay roommateof Little Nicky, Todd (Allen Covert -operations) He had me howling a few times.

Little Nicky falls in love within 24 hours of reaching NYC, naturally. Enter space cadet Val (Patricia "I got Nicky Cage- eat yer heart out bitch" Arquette). Meanwhile, bros. Adrian and Cassius are turning the city into a hell on Earth. Nicky's running out of time...will he be able to save Hell before it's too late?

Then who is this mansteak called, Ryhs Ifans? Is he really the mushy- scumpod- scank- fest Spike in Notting Hill? Yep, hard to believe. Ryhs is back as Little Nicky's brother, Adrian. This is a Shepherd's Pie of man ingredients girls. Heaps of delightful layers abound; his ultra-sexy Welsh accent, his apparent manly height and his Sid Vicious like physique- a true man yumsicle. Even with the shabby-chic puffy red Liberace jacket (above) I'd do him in a nanosecond.

Sound bizarre? It is! But it's also really funny. Sure some of Sandler's corny- just- have- to- go- stretch- that- joke- till- it's-as-funny- as- Liv Tyler's-acting- ability, but the characters are just too darn funny to care about his comic faux pas'. Come on Harvey Keitel as Satan, Rodney Dangerfield as Lucifer the first, or Kevin Nealon as a whacky "gate" keeper? Casting was done well. The Little Nicky guy didn't even matter.

LN has a nice parade of actors and comedians. Quentin Tarantino, David Spade, Reese Witherspoon, Micheal McKean and Clint Howard etc. Howard was so funny, I had to pull over my car on the way home- he actually caused the rare phenomenon of after laugh!

Take your 13 year old niece or nephew along- it's more for them, but Little Nicky had me roaring quite a few times. It's stupid non-Frasieresque humor. No three syllable words in the whole script to be sure. Simply, silly and really funny.

Snack Recommendation: 8 piece Popeye's chicken, Peppermint Schnapps and pineapple wedges.