Little Nicky

Adam Sandler seems to go out of his way to make each gimmick character he plays (Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Waterboy) more grating than the last. In Little Nicky he plays the retarded son of Satan, lurching around like a Hunchback of Notre Dame jack-in-the-box trying to save the world from his two evil brothers. For the record, Sandler spends the entire film with his face screwed up in a hit-by-a-shovel grimace, speaking in a childish, raspy voice (his version, apparently, of stretching as an actor). But, in fact, Sandler isn't responsible for even the smallest snicker in the whole course of the movie. Rodney Dangerfield (as grandpa Satan), Michael McKean (as a possessed police chief) and Quentin Tarantino (as a blind street preacher) provide sparse smiles here and there, but the only out-loud laughs come in the last 10 minutes, courtesy of a giggly cameo by Reese Witherspoon as an air-headed valley gal angel. Not recommended. (R. Blackwelder)