Little Nicky (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #82

Here's something strange. Today, 16th February 2021, my last review of "Little Nicky", which I wrote on 16th January 2019, is one of my most commonly read posts. It's been in my top 10 for more than a month, and it's currently in fifth place. When I first wrote the post it only had a moderate amount of readers, not enough for it to enter my top 10. Then it was (mostly) forgotten for two years, until December 2020. Here are the readership stats for the post.

That's weird. The beginning is typical for my posts. 113 hits in January 2019, 9 hits in February 2019, then 0 hits in March 2019. Most of my film posts follow a similar curve. 50 to 100 for the first month is typical for new posts, not enough to enter the top 10. After that, interest drops. If you look at my current list, only one film review this month, "Ip Man 4", has received enough hits to enter my list. The rest are older reviews that have remained popular for one reason or another. My "Little Nicky" post was largely ignored until March 2020. Then there was slight interest for eight months. Then bang! The readership figures shot up in December 2020, and they've remained high for the last three months. Someone pointed out to me that "Little Nicky" was added to Netflix for the first time at the end of last year, but that doesn't explain it. I have lots of reviews of films which are shown on Netflix.

The simple truth is that I don't understand my readers. There must be something that's attracted them to my post, but I have no idea what it is.

After all that rambling about my old review, let's start my new review, I'm curious if it will be as popular.

The film's premise is ridiculous, to say the least, but it's easy to accept in the context of a comedy. It's been ordained that each ruler of Hell has a 10,000 year term in office. Americans are lucky that their president has to be re-elected every four years. Imagine if they had to put up with Donald Trump for another 9,996 years! Satan (most ably portrayed by Harvey Keitel) declares that his 10,000 years are almost up, so it's time to pick one of his sons as his successor. From right to left, the sons are:

Adrian, smart and ruthless.

Cassius, smart and tough.

Nicky, such a sweet boy.

Satan announces that he won't pick anyone because he's decided to remain in power for another 10,000 years. Nicky rejoices, because he thinks his Daddy is a good Devil. Adrian and Cassius are angry, so they hatch a plot to kill their father. They go to Earth – New York. Where else? – which automatically causes Hell to freeze over. Unless they return, Satan will slowly fall apart. Nicky is sent to New York to capture his brothers and bring them back.

There's a frantic search for the two sons of Satan, in which Nicky is aided by various people. There are two heavy metal loving Satanists. We know that all heavy metal fans worship Satan, don't we?

There's a bulldog called Beefy.

There's a pretty young girl called Valerie.

There's a bulldog called Beefy. Or did I already mention him?

Yes, I did, but in my last review I promised to post a few more photos of him. Isn't he cute?

There's only one thing wrong with him? Can you spot it?

Now you see it. He won't let go of the television remote. That's bad manners. If two or more people are watching television together, the remote should be in a central place where anyone can grab it.

But he's so cute.

Wouldn't you fall in love with a dog like Beefy?

A look like this would melt anyone's heart.

Admit it, you'd immediately let him in if he were standing outside your window.

He's a horny dog. This is the only sex scene in the film.

You can't accuse Beefy of racism. He likes human women as well. Hmmm... but that isn't racism, it's specism. Does that word even exist?

This is a brilliant film that's appealed to me ever since I first saw it in the cinema. Is it too low in my list? Probably. And it's criminal that it still hasn't been remastered for Blu-ray.

Success Rate:  - 1.5

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