...

With some actors you either love them or hate them.   Julia Roberts, Sean Penn, Nicole Kidman, Winona Ryder are just a few that spring to mind.  (some people are very passionate about the actors they truly loathe :)

Adam Sandler is one such actor who definitely belongs in the Love him or Hate list.  His childish and often immature antics are truly despised by many people.  On the flip side it's these very things that some people just love to see him do on a regular basis. 
Personally i don't mind the movies made by Adam Sandler School for Toilet Humour.   They don't take themselves seriously in any way and know exactly how pathetic their humour is (there's so many audiences to cater for ....isn't there? ;)

In Mr Sandler's latest film to hit DVD, Little Nicky, he plays Nicky, the son of Satan, well one of three current Sons of Satan with the other two being Adrian (Rhys Ifans) & Cassius (Tom "tiny" Lister Jr).  
Unlike his brothers, who smashed him in the head with a shovel as a child which disfigured his face so he talks kinda funny and looks kinda funny, Nicky is a dear sweet boy, as his demonic father Satan (Harvey Keitel in one of his infrequent non-nudity roles :) likes to say a lot.
With Satan's ten thousand year rein at an end, the two bad boys get a bit pissed when Satan overlooks all three sons as his successor, and chooses himself again :) and so they climb up though the gates of hell to earth, and this causes the fire pits to cease working.  As a result no soul can get in or out of hell, and Satan begins to literally fall apart. 
So it's up to Nicky to Go to earth (seeing as he's not a mortal with a soul) and return his brothers back to hell before his dear 'ol Dad dies and one of his brothers takes over. 

Nicky's first encounter on Earth is with Mr Beefy, a talking pit bull (some truly excellent CGI was done with this character).  Mr Beefy's job is to aid Nicky in his quest to find his brothers, but also to teach Nicky the ways of human existence.  Along his trek, Nicky ends up sharing a flat with Kevin Spacey wannabe Todd (Allen Corvert, a "sandler film regular"), meets a beautful quirky girl Valerie (Patricia Arquette), gets a could of Devil worshipping Groupies (2 more Sandler regulars Peter Dante  & John Loughran) and also discovers Popeyes Deep Fried Chicken.

With the biggest bugget of any Adam Sandler film to date (reported to be some $US80 million), the box office taking in the USA alone wasn't even half the budget :( .  It's still a good little film, not up there with The Wedding Singer, but you gotta love Mr Beefy who has all the best lines :)) ...oh did i mention Rodney Dangerfield is also in it playing the Father of Satan? 

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VIDEO
This very bold looking Anamorphic Widescreen Transfer has been sourced from a very nice print, but fails to truly live up its potential thanks to some smatterings of MPEG Artifact compression.

I still class this as a very nice looking picture, as colour saturation is wonderfully intense & very well under control. Black Level is spot on and Sharpness is in most instances, excellent, resulting in a highly detailed picture with good clean image depth. 

Having a whopping 5 audio tracks and a truckload of extras probably didn't help matters with the result being some light MPEG artifacting.  These problems don't necessarily stand out like a sore thumb, but i often noticed light movement in backgrounds and faces, and to some extent a mild breakup of edges (peoples outlines, etc).

There is so much to enjoy with the look of this DVD that I don't consider this a major deterent, however, the problem is there and so impacts the overall quality on offer a little bit :(

Presented on an RSDL DVD, Little Nicky's layer change can be very sneakily found at Chapter 18..the start of the Closing Credits :)

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AUDIO
It's only early days yet for the inclusion of DTS on region 4 DVDs, but I do wish MORE region 4 Distributors would follow Roadshow's lead and offer this superior sound format whenever possible.

Little Nicky marks Roadshow's THIRD DTS encoded DVD in less than 1 month!!! (the first being The Main Event and the 2nd being Se7en, which has the honour of carrying the first DTS-ES 6.1 mix for region 4) 

In terms of soundtracks offered on this DVD you have a choice of Dolby Digital 2.0 (192kbps),  Dolby Digital 5.1 (448kbps) and DTS 5.1 (754kbps) (plus the two audio commentaries)..  The USA Region 1 DVD doesn't have a DTS Mix so we're one up on them here :)

All offer excellent sound reproduction for their respective format/codec, with highly intelligible dialogue, and good clean sound for FX and music.

The DTS track wins out again, of course :), offering a superior sonic experience, with sweeter highs, deeper lows and simply more information within the soundtrack (just listen to the surround activity in Chapter two as the camera dollies into the bedroom window...the "siren effect" as a much richer sound and goes back a lot further behind you).   I can't say the DTS leaves the Dolby Track for dead, but again, it offers an improvement to sound quality and that's all the matters  (I know I won't be bothering with the Dolby track of future Screenings :))

Surround usage on the 5.1 mixes is quite constant and very discrete and offers a deep level of ambience.  Bass attack goes nice and low at times with no sloppiness at all (is just the way it should be).

I love fun sound mixes like this. 

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EXTRAS
Can you say....loaded to the hilt? Starting with fully animated menus with a killer Dolby Pro-Logic Mix (though it's recorded incredibly loud for menus)

also included are

• Cast Commentary - heaps of the actors come and go in this one and it's hosted by Michael McKean (he plays the police commisioner in the film).  Has a few good moments (and the Fonz is cool as always :)
• Crew Commentary - this ones pretty good, as Star, Writer and Director (all long time collegues and friends) join in for a few stories.  (some interesting tid-bits are mentioned on this one)
• Featurette - Adam Sandler Goes to Hell.   a pretty decent 30 odd minute behind the scenes making of.  not the best of quality, but it has been reframed for Anamorphic Widescreen
• Featurette - Satan's Top Forty Not at all expected, but quite appropraite really given the premise of this film.   interviews and what not with a few Rock industry folks.(reframed for Anamorphic Widescreen)
• Music Video - School of Hard Knocks by P.O.D  (4x3 with DD2.0 sound)
• Deleted Scenes - see!! you can get high quality deleted scenes and there's over 16 minutes worth ..all Anamorphic Widescreen
• Trailers - 2 Theatrical Trailers and 2 Teaser Trailers  (Anamorphic Widescreen with DD5.1 sound)
• Cast and Crew Filmographies.
• Easter Egg ever so lame..and not in the good way..but quite well hidden.  to find it..highlight this text On the Special Features Menu Go down til "Main Menu" is highlighted. Click Right and this will reveal "1984" down the bottom right of screen...then Click Enter   end of hidden text :)
• Dolby Digital RAIN Trailer
• DTS Piano Trailer
• Subtitles for the Hearing Impaired
  

All in all this is a very good DVD, with just a few quibbles in the video department.  definitely worth a rent, and quite a good buy really...and kudos to Roadshow for bothering with a DTS track....please keep it up :)

Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T50W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Pioneer DV717  (using RGB outputs)
Receiver : Denon AVC-A1SE THX Ultra (Dolby Surround EX, DTS-ES Discrete)
Speakers:-
     Mains: Quadral Amun
     Centre: B&W CDMC-SE
     Surrounds Left/Right: M&K SS500 (Dipole)
     Surrounds Back : Polk RT/fx (Diplole)
     Subby: M&K V125 

- Reviewed 5th August 2001

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