New This Week
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

63 11th Hour, The
47 27 Dresses
29 Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem
39 Alvin and the Chipmunks
81 Bamako
84 Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
47 Bella
68 Business of Being Born, The
69 Charlie Wilson's War
64 Cloverfield
30 Cover
68 Delirious
92 Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
43 Final Season, The
41 First Sunday
51 Golden Compass, The
49 Good Night, The
65 Great Debaters, The
63 Hannah Takes the Stairs
52 Hollywood Dreams
7 Hottie and the Nottie, The
60 I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
15 In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
81 Juno
70 Lars and the Real Girl
47 Lions for Lambs
41 Mad Money
71 Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)
xx Moondance Alexander
53 Music Within
77 Nanking
44 Nina's Heavenly Delights
24 One Missed Call
74 Orphanage, The
30 Over Her Dead Body
39 P.S. I Love You
37 P2
46 Reservation Road
55 Resurrecting the Champ
57 Romulus, My Father
85 Savages, The
78 Starting Out in the Evening
83 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
57 Teeth
92 There Will Be Blood
38 Trailer Park Boys: The Movie
32 Untraceable
63 Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
68 War Dance
71 Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The
43 Youth Without Youth

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Little Nicky
New Line Cinema


6.5

based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 19 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for crude sexual humor, some drug content, language and thematic material

Starring Adam Sandler, Harvey Keitel, Patricia Arquette, Rhys Ifans, Rodney Dangerfield, and Clint Howard

All children like to raise a little hell -- but it's a whole different story when your family is run by Satan. Take the case of shy, awkward Little Nicky (Sandler). (New Line Cinema)

GENRE(S):	Comedy
WRITTEN BY:	Tim Herlihy Adam Sandler Steven Brill
DIRECTED BY:	Steven Brill
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 24, 2001 Video: April 24, 2001 Theatrical: November 10, 2000
RUNNING TIME:	84 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Variety Robert Koehler

Sandler turns the joke around on his detractors and manages to lead a devilishly energetic vehicle that contains about as many laughs as his previous features combined.

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

Juvenile, sloppy and frequently, idiotically hilarious.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The film's rhythm is jerky, bouncing all around the place and making some of the setups feel unnecessary.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

There are laughs to be had, yet the movie is, if anything, more strenuous than it is funny.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Sandler, at the center, is a distraction; he steals scenes, and we want him to give them back.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

It's funnier than "Bedazzled," which isn't saying much.

Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark

Plenty of the tasteless gags don't fly, and for every celebrity cameo that works (a hilariously heavenly Reese Witherspoon), there are two or three that crash and burn.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Certainly Sandler's most ambitious work. It's not just a bid for respectability but a genuine allegory.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

It's a clever idea bogged down in sophomoric sloppiness. Sitting through it doesn't feel like eternal damnation, but it's not exactly heaven, either. It's a $9.50 tour of adolescent purgatory.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The kindest thing that can be said about Sandler's sense of humor is that it's unapologetically juvenile.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Little Nicky will please Sandler's fans and likely won't win any converts.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A feast of bad taste, a demonic hog-wallow.

Film.com Robert Horton

Sandler repeats his sweet-souled doofus routine, with nerdy Patricia Arquette as the object of his affections.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Adam Sandler finally has a good excuse: The devil made him do it.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Little Nicky is but a meek gross-out cousin of "The Waterboy."

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Hell itself is going to hell in Sandler's new comedy.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Though it's debatable whether Sandler is squandered or just supremely annoying here, the film's flaws aren't entirely his fault.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Diehard Sandler fans will probably find it uproarious, but others will have to make do with the occasional chuckle.

USA Today Mike Clark

Don't put yourself through this hell.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Crude and giggly.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Full of kerplunkingly unfunny jokes and ex-"Saturday Night Live" cast members turning up to do shtick.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Stoner jokes, awful gags, and just stupid stuff equate to one bad movie.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Where's Sandler in all this? Lost in gimmicks that smack of desperation. Damn it.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

How much you enjoy this movie depends on how funny you find Sandler talking out the side of his mouth with a gravelly squawk -- for the entire movie.

Film.com Sean Means

Disgusting and humorless mess.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Adam Sandler displays no virtuosity and stirs no pathos in this special-effects comedy.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Sandler deserves to be damned to the pits of hell for this witless masturbatory comedy.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

Little Nicky will redefine the phrase "worst movie ever," because it might actually be the worst movie ever.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Bad actors, bad music and bad plot make it a hellish bummer.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 19 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Sean M. gave it a10:
How can you not like this movie. it rocks great soundtrack average acting and great comedy.

Andrew N. gave it a3:
A mess of a film that revels in its own stupidity. Its unfunny and rather nauseating. The few gags it does have cant save it from banality. Rubbish.

David C. gave it a10:
The movie...how can i put it...rocks. Defintely the best Sandler movie i have seen. The quick humour and one liners are what makes the movie so spectacular. So if you haven't seen it then what the hell you waiting for? your missing out on a part of life!

Jon D. gave it a10:
this is my favorite sandler movie. It is entertaining but if you are one of those people who study a movie instead of watch a movie then you probably wont like it because the things that this movie is about might be pretty dumb but they are still hillarious.

Andrew M. gave it a 3:
It gets a few points for the few laughs I got. Unfortunately though I only saw the first half because I simply could not stand hearing Sandler speak like that for another second! I have never been driven from a movie by such a minor detail...but this one managed to do so. If it wasn't for the voice, I probably would've stayed to the end and maybe rated this higher. Whoever came up with the idea needs a big head butt!!!

Yoon Min C. gave it a 1:
Suffers from Ishtaritis. A small scale Sandler movie can be fun and endearing--Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison--but this gargantuan production is a Hindenburg blimp in crash-and-burn mode.

Johanna H. gave it a 10:
Little Nicky is a wonderful video with a lot of great actors. I have seen the film about 10 times on one week!

Little Nicky New Line Cinema

Little Nicky
New Line Cinema