Little Nicky

Little Nicky is a 2000 American fantasy comedy film directed by Steven Brill. It stars Adam Sandler as Nicky Schear, one of Satan's three sons as he tries to save his father and prevent his brothers from taking over Earth.

This article is about the film. For other uses, see Little Nicky (disambiguation).
Little Nicky
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySteven Brill
Produced byJack Giarraputo
Robert Simonds
Written bySteven Brill
Adam Sandler
Tim Herlihy
Starring
Music byTeddy Castellucci
CinematographyTheo van de Sande
Edited byJeff Gourson
Production
company
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
  • November 10, 2000 (2000-11-10)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$85 million
Box office$58.3 million[1]

The film performed poorly financially and received negative reviews from critics.

Plot

The story revolves around a struggle to determine which of Satan's three sons will succeed their father as ruler of Hell. Adrian is the most devious, Cassius is the cruelest, and Nicky is their father's favorite. Adrian and Cassius claim that Nicky's mother is a goat and torment him by controlling his body with their minds. Nicky has had a speech impediment and a disfigured jaw since Cassius hit him in the face with a shovel.

Having been the Prince of Darkness for ten thousand years, the Devil assembles his sons to decide which of them will succeed him; he tells them that they are not ready yet, having decided to keep his throne. Angered by this decision, Adrian and Cassius go to Earth to create a new Hell by possessing religious and political leaders in New York City. As they leave, they freeze the entrance to Hell, preventing more souls from entering and causing Satan's body to begin decomposing. To stop Adrian and Cassius, Satan sends Nicky to Earth with a silver flask that traps whoever drinks from it inside.

At first, Nicky has trouble staying alive on Earth. He is killed several times, landing in Hell and returning to New York each time. While learning how to eat and sleep, he meets a talking bulldog named Mr. Beefy, rents an apartment with an actor named Todd, and falls in love with a design student named Valerie.

Nicky's first encounter with his brothers occurs when Adrian sees him with Valerie, takes mental control of his body, and makes him scare her away. Then Nicky sees Cassius on television, possessing the referee of a Globetrotters game. When he goes to the court and tricks Cassius into the flask, Satanist metalheads John and Peter are so thrilled with his performance that they become his devoted fans. That evening, Nicky tries to apologize to Valerie. The meeting goes badly at first, but she accepts him after he explains who he is and why he is on Earth.

The next day, Adrian possesses the Chief of the NYPD and accuses Nicky of mass murder. Not knowing what to do, Nicky has Todd kill him so he can go back to Hell and ask his father for advice, but his father has trouble hearing because his ears have fallen off, and his assistants are in a panic because the midnight deadline to capture Adrian and Cassius is only hours away. Back on Earth again, Nicky and his friends devise a plan to capture Adrian in a subway station, but Adrian discovers their trick. In the ensuing fight, Adrian grabs Valerie and dives onto the track as a train approaches, but Nicky throws her out of the way, leaving himself and Adrian to be killed by the train.

Arriving in Hell just minutes before midnight, Adrian begins the process of taking over Hell by pushing what remains of his father aside and sitting on the throne, rising to Central Park, and starting a riotous party. Meanwhile, Nicky wakes up in Heaven as a reward for sacrificing himself and meets his mother Holly, an angel who tells him that he can defeat Adrian with the Inner Light that he inherited from her. After she gives him a mysterious orb, he goes to Central Park. Adrian appears to win a battle by locking Nicky in the flask and turning himself into a bat, but Nicky escapes from the flask. When he shatters the orb, Ozzy Osbourne appears, bites Adrian's head off, and spits it into the flask.

With his brothers captured, Nicky is ready to save his father. After he sins to make sure he goes to Hell, he and Valerie express their love for each other and she kills him. In Hell, Satan regains his body and recommends that Nicky go back to Earth. The film ends a year later, when Nicky and Valerie live in New York with their infant son.

Cast
Cameos

Reception

It opened at #2 at the North American box office making $16 million USD in its opening weekend, behind Charlie's Angels, which was on its second consecutive week at the top spot. The film went on to earn $39.5 million domestically and another $18.8 million worldwide, bringing the total to $58.3 million.

Based on 115 reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 22% of critics gave Little Nicky a positive review. The site's consensus states [that] "Despite the presence of a large, talented cast, the jokes in Little Nicky are dumb, tasteless, and not that funny, and Adam Sandler's character is grating to watch."[2] Comedian and former Mystery Science Theater 3000 host Michael J. Nelson named the film the worst comedy ever made.[3] Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4, describing Little Nicky as "the best Sandler movie to date," while at the same time lamenting Sandler's lack of finesse.[4]

The film was nominated for five awards at the 21st Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Adam Sandler), Worst Supporting Actress (Patricia Arquette), Worst Director and Worst Screenplay. It lost in all categories to Battlefield Earth starring John Travolta. At the 2000 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the film received seven total nominations: Worst Picture (lost to Battlefield Earth), Worst Actor for Sandler (lost to John Travolta), Worst On-Screen Couple for Sandler and that unfunny pit-bull (lost to John Travolta and everyone in the galaxy for Battlefield Earth), Most Annoying Fake Accent for Sandler, Worst On-Screen Hairstyle for Sandler (lost to both Travolta and Forest Whitaker for Battlefield Earth), Most Annoying Product Placement for Popeye's Chicken (lost to FedEx and Wilson in Cast Away), and Most Unfunny Comic Relief for the painfully unfunny talking pit-bull (lost to Tom Green for Road Trip and Charlie's Angels). As noted, its only win was for Most Annoying Fake Accent.[5]

Home media

Little Nicky was released on DVD and VHS on April 24, 2001. The DVD includes two audio commentaries, a special feature dedicated to rock/metal music, the music video "School of Hard Knocks" by P.O.D., and deleted scenes.

Soundtrack
Little Nicky Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by
Various Artists
ReleasedOctober 31, 2000
GenreAlternative metal, nu metal, alternative rock
Length48:31
LabelMaverick
ProducerTerry Date, Rae DiLeo, DJ Crook, Don Gilmore, Ben Grosse, Safta Jaffery, John Leckie, Geno Lenardo, Scott Litt, Sylvia Massy, Jonah Matranga, Chino Moreno, Guy Oseary, PM5K, Rick Rubin, Adam Sandler, Dennis Smith
Singles from Little Nicky
  1. "School of Hard Knocks"
    Released: December 2000
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[6]

The soundtrack to the movie was released October 31, 2000 through Maverick Records and featured a lineup that leaned heavily toward Maverick recording artists that included Deftones, Insolence, Muse and Ünloco. The track listing as listed on Allmusic:[6]

No.TitleWriter(s)ArtistLength
1."School of Hard Knocks"TraditionalP.O.D.4:04
2."Pardon Me"Brandon Boyd, Mike Einzenger, José Antonio, Pasillas II, Alex Katunich, Chris KilmoreIncubus3:45
3."Change (In the House of Flies)"DeftonesDeftones4:58
4."(Rock) Superstar"Louis Freese, Lawrence MuggerudCypress Hill4:37
5."Natural High"M. Henry Herman, P.J. PerryInsolence3:20
6."Points of Authority"Linkin ParkLinkin Park3:21
7."Stupify" (Fu's Forbidden Little Nicky Remix)DisturbedDisturbed5:08
8."Nothing"Brooks ArthurÜnloco2:40
9."When Worlds Collide"Powerman 5000Powerman 50002:57
10."Cave"Matthew BellamyMuse4:46
11."Take a Picture"Richard PatrickFilter4:22
12."Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" (Acoustic)DeftonesDeftones4:33
Total length:48:31

Some songs featured in the film, but excluded from the soundtrack, were "Ladies Night" by Kool and the Gang; "Running With the Devil" by Van Halen"; "Flying High Again", "Mama, I'm Coming Home", and "No More Tears" by Ozzy Osbourne; "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" by Chicago; "Everlong" by Dave Grohl; "Two of Hearts" by Stacey Q; "Southtown" and "Rock the Party (Off the Hook)" by P.O.D.; "Rock You Like A Hurricane" by Scorpions; and "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC.

Video game
Main article: Little Nicky (video game)

A Game Boy Color game was released based on the film shortly after its release.

gollark: I prefer languages which are actually parseable.
gollark: Oh, no. My problems with perl are different.
gollark: Also, it's nice if you can program application logic faster rather than wrangle pointers.
gollark: No, it does, but you're dealing with untrusted input and need safety more than an extra millisecond.
gollark: Really, applicationy stuff should be done with... not C, so C can do what it's mildly okay at, weird low level stuff.

References
  1. "Little Nicky". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  2. "Little Nicky (2000)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
  3. Nelson, Michael J (2007-03-06). "Inoperable Humor: The 5 Worst Comedies of All Time". Cracked.com. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
  4. Ebert, Roger (2000-11-10). "Little Nicky Movie Review & Film Summary (2000) | Roger Ebert". Rogerebert.suntimes.com. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
  5. "Past Winners Database". The Envelope at LA Times. Archived from the original on 5 January 2007. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
  6. AllMusic Review by Heather Phares (2000-10-31). "Little Nicky - Original Soundtrack | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
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