Before I get into my review of Death To Smoochy let me relay a little story.
I went to see the 12:05 showing of this film at a theater that's pretty close by to me. Me being disgustingly punctual and all, I was there about 15 minutes early. I was kinda worried too because there's a "retirement community" near-by, and sure enough their funky looking trolley bus thing was parked outside. And sure enough, a group of the "age advanced" bought tickets right before I did. "They're gonna see Death To Smoochy, aren't they", I asked the cashier gloomily. I shook my head as he nodded affirmation, an evil smirk on his face. He knew. Oh yes, he knew.
He knew that old folks can make even more of a ruckus than wee children!
But alas, I entered anyway.
This theater is very prompt, and before my watch said it was time to start, the previews and stuff came on. I was ready. And the geriatrics were behaving.
All was well with the world…

But then as quickly as the previews began, they suddenly stopped. The house lights came on, and the slide show began anew!
What the…???
So I sat simmering in me juices, waiting for my entertainment to begin. Again.
Finally, almost 20 minutes later, the weathered warriors started up. A cacophony of shrill voices, and one loud booming, "I want my money back!"
I didn't get up, I didn't look back. I just sat there, still simmering, hoping the movie was worth the delay. I did however hear doors and comments, and yes, soon enough the movie came on.
Yes, the movie came on.
Not the previews, but the movie itself, already more than a few minutes into it!
I decided to take things into my own hands and walked up to the doors where a sweet young employee was already noticing that the movie was already in progress.
She told me they were working on it and would fix the situation.
I went back to my seat, yes, still simmering!
But then the movie just kept rolling, and I was like, "I don't wanna see this out of sequence"…so I walked out.
I got my money back. The cashier offered no evil smile this time.
I weighed my options, I was really pissed off too.
But then I went to a different theater, and almost two hours later, finally saw:

DEATH TO SMOOCHY

So anyway, I just don't get critics.
See, I can say that because I'm not really a critic by any stretch of the imagination.
Nah, I'm just a guy who writes about stuff and posts it on my website, where it sits mostly unread by anyone, because believe me you, John Smith in Boise, Idaho isn't exactly checking out my site every night after he jerks it to teensluts.com…
No, I'm not a critic, but real critics have really bad mouthed Death To Smoochy, and I don't really understand why.

I knew I wanted to see this film when I saw how dark it looked. Not dark as in gothic or atmospheric, but dark humored. Evil cynicism was afoot, and I needed to see it for myself!
I was not disappointed.
Devious little Danny DeVito has made a funny movie. A twisted little comedy with a great cast and a lot of dirt on the children's television world, although I would hope that even that world doesn't get caught up in murder!

Robin Williams is his usually insane self, and I'm sorry, but he's funny! I wonder how much of his dialogue was scripted, because a lot of it seemed to be Williams just going off. Very, very funny.

Edward Norton is a really, really good actor. He is so believable and even likable in the title role of Smoochy. Well, he plays Sheldon Mopes, the actor who portrays Barney-like Smoochy. A great performance, and very funny stuff here.

Catherine Keener is great here too. She plays a bitchy producer and I must say she's quite effective as a bitch. Ouch. She's a great actress.

In a smaller role is an actor named Danny Woodburn, who I know as the scheming Carl the Gnome on TV's Special Unit 2. I like that show, but I haven't seen it on the air for a while, so maybe it's gone. Shame really. Fun show.
Danny DeVito and Jon Stewart have smaller roles, but they're good too, and like I mentioned, DeVito also directed. I remember really liking War Of The Roses, which he also directed. He definitely likes his comedy dark!

The end of the movie is a bit weird. I dunno, maybe that's why the critics have been so harsh, but sheesh, Death To Smoochy was laugh out loud funny.
I don't know what the problem is.

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