Rating:
Director: Danny Devito
Producers: Andrew Lazar and Peter MacGregor-Scott
Writer: Adam Resnick
Director of Photography: Anastas N. Michos
Cast: Robin Williams, Edward Norton, Catherine Keener, John Stewart
| DEATH TO SMOOCHY Rating: Director: Danny Devito Producers: Andrew Lazar and Peter MacGregor-Scott Writer: Adam Resnick Director of Photography: Anastas N. Michos Cast: Robin Williams, Edward Norton, Catherine Keener, John Stewart |
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Review by: Ryan
Kugler
3/30/02
The only question I have is: What the hell were they thinking? By "they" I mean everybody that was involved in the travesty known as Death to Smoochy. I'm holding Warner Bros., director Danny Devito and screenwriter Adam Resnick accountable for this mess. Just how bad is this supposed satirical comedy? Well, it joins the list of such cinematic abortions as Last Action Hero, Congo, Stargate, Godzilla and Mission to Mars as one of the "all-timers." In fact, there was actually a point at about the halfway mark of this excruciatingly long two-hour fiasco where I wished that I were at a screening of Howard the Duck instead. Yup, it's that bad.
The film opens with a silhouetted children's character getting beat up and shot by a group of thugs. We then flash back six months earlier, where we get to meet the star of the most popular show on the most popular kid's network. Rainbow Randolph (Robin Williams) is a clown-like figure that sings and dances and is a big hit with the kids. He's an enormous success and everything from cereal to action figures made in his image is selling through the roof. Things quickly go bad for him and his life takes an unpleasant turn after he gets busted in a sting operation while trying to take bribe money from some parents who want their kid to appear on stage with him in an upcoming show.
Randolph is immediately fired and his elaborate stage set is taken apart. A couple of network executives (Catherine Keener and John Stewart) must find a replacement and fast. Enter Sheldon (Edward Norton), a sweet and caring guy that dresses up like a purple rhino named Smoochy and plays guitar and sings down at the local methadone clinic. The executives think that Smoochy would be the perfect replacement for Randolph and before he knows it, he's hosting his very own show.
Smoochy quickly becomes the biggest sensation on air, and the bitter, jealous and vengeful Randolph comes up with different ways to try and sabotage him and his show. One of the film's lowest points comes when a disguised Randolph tells Smoochy that he's taking him to an arena to perform for a bunch of children. Turns out that children are nowhere to be found when the house lights are turned up and Smoochy is face to face with thousands of Nazis dressed in full regalia (that's right folks, we're still resorting to Nazi humor). Not that I'm overly sensitive or believe in the P.C.ing of the world, it's just that this type of joke is so old and overused (we even got a similar scene in last year's far funnier, though still dreadful Rat Race).
The rivalry between the two gets more intense as the film plods along, but it all gets real old real fast. Luckily, we are also introduced to a midget, a retarded boxer who's obsessed with Smoochy, his Irish clan of gangsters led by a trash-taking old lady named Tommy and a heroin addicted rival kid's show host turned assassin. As you can probably tell, wackiness ensues. All of these additional elements turn a bad film into something far worse -- an out of control train wreck (though on paper, I do admit that it sounds crazy enough to be funny. Trust me, it isn't).
Devito directs this film as if he was on acid and the tone of Resnick's script is all over the place. The production design is ugly and unappealing (the kid's show scenes reminded me of a cross between Willy Wonka and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, but in a bad way) and the cinematography is severely lacking (with far too many close-ups).
Norton is one of my favorite actors currently working and this won't change that opinion. Everybody's entitled to some bad roles and as far as I'm concerned, this has been his only real misstep to date. Williams on the other hand has been in a DeNiro-sized slump for far too long. You'd have to go all the way back to the 80's to catch him in his only truly great movie (Good Morning Vietnam). Keener does a good job (she always does) with what she's given to work with, but Devito and Stewart are wasted in paper-thin roles.
I'm no fan of Barney the purple dinosaur,
but I'd rather watch an episode of his show any day of the week
than have to sit through another minute of Smoochy. At
least Barney has a better singing voice than Norton does, you
can turn him off and you only have to spend 22 minutes at a time
with him (minus the commercials) instead of 122. Death to those
that greenlit this project.
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