By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * * )
Satan (Harvey Keitel) has been on the job for 10,000 years but decides it's not quite time to retire. That really upsets his sons Cassius and Adrian, who head to New York and freeze the gates of Hades behind them.
With no fresh
souls to feed on, Satan starts to disintegrate until he's two hands holding his mouth.
Worried about his old man, his third son, Little Nicky (Adam Sandler), follows his better-looking brothers to Manhattan, where he makes friends with a talking bulldog named Beefy and a young woman (Patricia Arquette), who likes him even though he occasionally blurts out naughty things because "the Devil made me do it."
Whizzing past almost 666 cameo appearances (Rodney Dangerfield as Nicky's grandfather, Ozzy Osborne as himself, Quentin Tarantino as a blind preacher, Reese Witherspoon as an angel/Valley Girl), the three ambassadors from hell get under the skin of the Big Apple.
"I Love NY" becomes "I love hookers", the drinking age is lowered to 10 and, in general, the whole fun idea disintegrates into the usual Sandler parade of low-grade jokes, projectile vomiting scenes and schoolboy humour.
His fans will love it. Me, I've given up waiting for the 35-year-old to grow up so he can use his talents to make the half-pie decent movie that he's capable of.
Running time: 93 mins
Rental: Today
