Film - review Death To Smoochy (From Western Telegraph)

Film - review Death To Smoochy

Directed by Danny DeVito. Starring Edward Norton, Robin Williams, Catherine Keener, Danny DeVito, Harvey Fierstein. Dur. 110 mins, Cert. PG.

Death To Smoochy is directed by Danny DeVito. A small man in the big chair. Hes directed numerous comedies with varying success from boom to bust. His comedies are largely slapstick and tend to be rather blacker intaste. Death To Smoochy tells the story of 'Rainbow' Randolph Smiley, played by Robin Williams. Hes the silly-costumed, secretly shamefully corrupt star, of a kids TV show, a living institution, until hes fired after an embarrassing bribery scandal.

Hes replaced by Sheldon Mopes, played by Edward Norton, who wows the nation and jaded network executive Randolph, as Smoochy the Rhino. Hes a good person. A really good person. Little does the fluffy rhino know that he is the target his predecessors rage and hatred. Smoochy is soon at the wrong end of Smileys revenge attacks as he tries to return to the spotlight as America's most loveable clown.

Thats all you need to know. Its silly stuff and most of the US critics hated it, but when I saw it I was in a darkened theatre full of people laughing. Not laughing a lot but laughing enough. Plus there is an undertone, the one that may or may not be intentional. The hapless Sheldon Mopes is a good-guy, hes politically correct and hes a fool. Hes supported by good and bad guys and the difference between the two is blurred. Such is life. More than that, some of the characters I Iiked best are actually rotten to the core but have a grain of something more human and loveable than the supposedly loveable Smoochy who may or may not deserve DEATH! Death To Smoochy has a great cast and is well worth seeing if only to get in to the debate above, unless you have a life of your own. Also released

Slackers. is another teen movie from the good old U. S of A. Its about a typical geek who discovers that three fellow college students are scamming the system. So he blackmails them in order to win over the school's most popular girl.

Dog Soldiers. is a British flick, which is why I think its worth mentioning. Its about a group of soldiers who are Werewolves. A kind of horror action picture. If you can find it, go and see it. Even the support of bad British films, of which there are more than we can afford, will actually help make better ones.