User Reviews

I have watched this movie four times by now, and it still keeps on being funny. And there is just something uniquely odd about the comedy in the movie which makes "Death to Smoochy" a fantastic comedy movie.

The story told in "Death to Smoochy" is just hilarious. It is about a vindictive former children show star, Rainbow Randolph (played by Robin Williams) who seeks revenge on Smoochy, the new star who replaced his time slot on the network TV. Smoochy (played by Edward Norton) is a gullible person unfamiliar with the way of running children's TV.

There are tons of hilarious situations throughout the entire movie, and they are well-played by the acting talents, and also accompanied by funny dialogue. The characters are colorful - literally and physically. And they all have very real and lovable qualities. I especially love how Rainbow Randolph's appearance becomes more and more ravaged throughout the time.

"Death to Smoochy" is, in my opinion, one of Robin Williams best movies.

There is an impressive ensemble of talents in this fine comedy, and people deliver where it counts.

If you are not already familiar with "Death to Smoochy", then it is a movie well-worth sitting down to watch. Great fun and laughs all around.

It figures that Death to Smoochy didn't get too much advertisement and recommendations...it handles about a sensible and often occurring topic. Entertainment programs for children that are turned into big business, rules and controlled by people who don't care about anything but money, fame and commercializing. Death to Smootch shows how it's perfectly possible to cover up a world of bribery, fraud and blackmail behind the curtains of a colorful and jolly kid-show. Edward Nortons stars as Smoochy the Rhino. His character is dragged head over heals into the business when old-timer Rainbow Randolph is convicted of illegal actions. Smoochy is a pure character and his only intentions are to educate children and enlighten them with some important values of life, but he soon gets faced with the facts that the producers don't care about this at all. Death to Smoochy really succeeds in critisizing the greed in the media-business and manages to portray the producers and sponsors as a real bunch of vultures. It also gives a good image of the downward spiral of insanity someone is going through when he's borne down on the lee shore. Certainly recommended for the intriguing story and surrounding but in the very first place, for the brilliant characters that are involved in this story. The Irish mobsters impress and entertain the most...The sequences where they're "taking care of everything" are the funniest parts in this movie. Director DeVito (his fifth movie as a director and maybe the best of them all) cast himself terrifically as the greedy shorty who introduces himself as the new impresario. Jon Stewart's character is memorable because he has the dorkiest haircut I've ever seen. And then there's Edward Norton of course...needless to say that he's a very solid actor who acts like a true professional, no matter if the production is huge or not. Give Death to Smoochy a watch...it'll certainly be one of the most sparklingly satires you'll ever see.

This movie was hated by critics and bombed at the box office, but I actually liked this movie, It's my biggest guilty pleasures of all time.

The story is about a puffy fascia rhinoceros. As Smoochy catapults to fame - scoring hit ratings and the affections of a jaded network executive Randolph makes the unsuspecting rhino the target of his numerous outrageous attempts to exact revenge and reclaim his status as America's sweetheart.

The good things about this movie: The movie is a dark comedy and to me that worked, because when you got a story about Robin Williams trying to kill or ruin a kid friendly pink rhino called Smoochy, you really can't take that seriously and the movie is aware of that and takes it like a joke. Edward Norton and Robin Williams both did great in this movie. Trying to beat each other to win the kids hearts by taking some dark turns.

The thing that didn't work: As I said before about the dark comedy and how it worked for me, well some scenes it lost that dark but funny tone and goes full serious at times. Some jokes didn't work for me and Danny DeVito directed this, now let me get something straight here; I don't hate Danny DeVito directing in this movie or any other movies that he did, his a good actor and a good director, but everybody can agree that most of his films allow on awkward close ups of actors looking straight into the camera or goofy and weird scenes with characters doing awkward stuff, all that is is this movie and let me tell you it's not pretty.

Overall it's not a perfect movie but to me it's a lot of fun, but it's not for everybody, but if you want some cheesy, goofy fun than Smoochy is your film.

Death to Smoochy is one of the most unappreciated comedies of the last decade. When released, people hailed it to be absolutely god-awful. It topped Roger Ebert's list of the worst movies of 2002. It fell way under the radar, frequently aired on Comedy Central and then finally disappeared. Almost everyone involved in the production of this is ashamed for having released it. But why all the hate? Yes, this is a rather bizarre concept for a dark comedy and it changes the way you look at children's TV ever again. But more that often, its hilarious. Robin Williams delivers possibly his greatest performance as Randolph Smiley. He manages to capture a man whose bitter hatred grows to the point of insanity. Robin plays crazy in every comedy he does, why not actually make him actually crazy. Edward Norton is as charming as ever, especially when he's in that dopey purple rhino suit. Its a fine movie and I think a lot of people should give it a try.

When Death to Smoochy (DTS) came out I'd heard nothing but bad things about it from film critics and never paid it much attention. But after stumbling upon it on the IMDb several years later, and reading numerous rave reviews about it, I decided to take a risk and give DTS a shot anyway.

For those who have spoken highly of the film's concept, acting, look, or uniqueness, I agree with you on those points. DTS throws out most of the conventional comedy mold and attempts to do something different and off the wall. The cast is also a great ensemble, including Edward Norton, Robin Williams, Catherine Keener, and Danny DeVitto among others.

The problem for me was the delivery of the humor just didn't work. DTS relies too much on the uniqueness of itself to generate laughs. A theoretically good concept can't make up for the lack of substance of the greater product. The movie just drags on and on for nearly two hours, despite barely having enough humorous material to fill half that time. The only scene that I really found memorable was Robin Williams's rant about a certain phallic shaped cookie.

Maybe I'm overlooking some deep inner meaning or something, but for me this film just didn't work and while some will no doubt like it for being different, it's a tough sell.

Throughout the years of cinema, a certain dilemma has remained unresolved: how to market a black comedy. Elusive to categorize, it remains equally difficult to articulate exactly what such films are offering, and to which demographic. Certainly such an obstacle arose when marketing Danny DeVito's Death to Smoochy. With a misleading trailer boasting a broad comedy Robin Williams vehicle, the film was greeted as a scornful box office failure that few seemed to know how to approach and proved miles away from what they had expected. Yet this reaction proves all the more disappointing considering the rare treat the film offers - one of a steadily decreasing few which genuinely subvert viewer expectations. While far from perfect, Death to Smoochy remains the sort of fundamentally bizarre yet gloriously daring picture which seldom makes it to theatres, offering a gleefully warped, macabre wit almost guaranteed to please those willing to take it for what it is.

The fact that the word 'death' being present in the title of a mainstream comedy is a rarity should be indicative of exactly how offbeat and downright sinister the film is. Despite a sparkly visual palate of pastel colours, the film could hardly be more dark tonally, with its infusion of frequent brutal violence and sadistic, uncomfortable humour making it about the farthest thing away from the safe, mainstream comedy its trailer attempted to depict. Yet its shady sensibilities cannot possibly quench the film's manic, wickedly sadistic wit, and the enormously quotable screenplay delivers such a varied slew of humour that the viewer cannot help but consistently be caught by surprise. DeVito amplifies such an ambiance with bizarre, off-kilter camera-work and a continuous transitioning from satire to the deadly serious to goofy slapstick and back again, leaving the viewer uncertain when to roar with laughter or to cringe uncomfortably. In fact, the blurring between the two becomes poignantly indiscernible, with DeVito seemingly impishly suggesting that whether cinema makes us laugh or cringe, either way it does not deter our fascination with watching, and that perhaps the boundary becomes simply redundant in the end.

Nonetheless, as fresh as such a fusion of the comedic and the grotesque may be, the lack of obvious prerequisites also results in Death to Smoochy suffering from certain design flaws. The film starts off as a devilish satire of network television, with Norton's sickeningly wholesome entertainer Sheldon Mopes thrust into the fish out of water figure in a sea full of greedy, merchandise obsessed execs. Yet about halfway through DeVito loses his pace, and the film begins to feel more like a chaotic jumble, continually stuffing in new characters and plot twists, and with at least three seeming climaxes uneasily leading into further narrative development. Similarly, the film's treatment of Robin Williams' vengeance obsessed TV host Rainbow Randolph remains equally indecisive. Perhaps due to Williams' star casting, DeVito appears to struggle with exactly what to do with the character, whether to situate him as protagonist or depraved quasi-antagonist. As such, Randolph appears uncomfortably stuck between the two, and the film's ensuing rocky focalization makes it harder for the viewer to maintain their emotional bearings. The addition of a rather conventional romantic subplot also feels somewhat out of place in so uniformly dark and vindictive a picture, making the third act feel all the more unnecessarily chaotic. Nonetheless, despite this mishmash of content, somehow DeVito's loopy pace and zany, twisted sense of humour never quite loses the audience even at its most imbalanced, but instead only becomes more bizarre (often appealingly so) without sacrificing the entertainment front.

DeVito also delights in inverting the typical characters his stars would play, resulting in a deliciously unconventional tweaking of expectations. Despite the publicity hyping Williams, Edward Norton is the most firmly situated as the film's 'main character', which works, as Norton is unreasonably hilarious, superbly counteracting his usual intensity as charming yet irritatingly well intentioned children's entertainer Smoochy the Rhino, who goes out of his way to refuse merchandising money in favour of promoting organic, sugar free foods and respecting hostile step-parents on children's television. Norton is careful to keep the character crucially likable, even at his most simperingly moronic, crafting an enduring emotional centre and grounding the calamity of the film around him. Similarly, fans of Robin Williams' less family sanctioned stand-up act will be enthralled by his performance as unhinged Rainbow Randolph. Retaining his usual flair for colourful improvisation, Williams lets loose in a twisted, exceedingly dark fashion barely glimpsed before, and while he unquestionably rockets light years past being over the top, his slew of bitter, incensed, profanity-fraught rants are just about worth watching the film by themselves.

Catherine Keener's credible charisma and warmth also help acclimatize a shaky character transition from nihilistically jaded producer to earnest, hopeful young woman, making the potentially weakest point of the film instead burst to life with a quirky spark. Danny DeVito himself delivers a familiar but still enjoyable lampoon of the greedy agent figure, and an early performance by TV comic Jon Stewart delivers a tantalizing taste of a gestating talent. The film also offers a collection of memorable character bits worthy of the Coen brothers, from Michael Rispoli's blustering, often incomprehensible lovable nitwit of a former boxer, Danny Woodburn's sardonic children's television actor, and an utterly hilarious Vincent Schiavelli as a narcoleptic, heroin addict assassin.

While certainly not for all tastes, Death to Smoochy delivers a unique, daringly morbid and raucously hilarious product which manages to continually dodge expectations while remaining enjoyable. While its unfavourable reaction is perhaps typical of so unconventional a picture, such a rare delight deserves to be enjoyed and appreciated, flaws and all, and those willing to take in a different kind of comedy are unlikely to be disappointed.

-8/10

For the fifth and last Sunday of January, or my month of Robin Williams, it was a choice between "Good Will Hunting" and "Death to Smoochy", and I was much too intrigued by a black comedy with such a stellar cast, and a... Razzie-nominated Robin Williams. I didn't even know. While it is a certainly flawed movie and a vision that ultimately goes underwhelming places, it is also a likeable one.

A TV kids show host, Rainbow Randolph (Robin Williams), is fired in disgrace after taking bribes for putting people on the show, and the network now has to find someone squeaky clean, with a heart of gold, and they score with Sheldon Mopes a.k.a. Smoochy the Rhino. Unfortunately for Sheldon, kids television business turns out to be no child's play.

As far as black comedies go, I found "Death to Smoochy" to be a fine example of the genre. A kids TV satire with a foul mouth and plenty of darkness for Danny DeVito to play around in the director's chair. The premise is promising and interesting, till, around the middle parts, it gets more and more apparent that we will end up someplace quite familiar, and it was very easy to predict the fates of most characters early on. Nonetheless, the colorful and shady business of children's television endures a carnivalic feast of sorts, as the combination of awesome acting performances, energetic direction and technical flair helps to roll it along.

Edward Norton is a perfect fit for the sweet, moralistic, naïve new world hero Smoochy, while Robin Williams is more demented than ever as the off-the-rails Rainbow Randolph, set to regain his sunshine at any cost. Did he deserve a Razzie nomination? Hell no. Is it fun to see him in such an atypical, villainous role? Hell yes. Additionally, Catherine Keener is good as the love interest of all kids show hosts, and Michael Rispoli heartily plays Spinner Dunn, the man with the saddest story of them all. And DeVito himself portrays an show business agent, fits him like a glove, and somehow appears nostalgic to me.

"Death to Smoochy" is often vulgar and mean, but not without wit and sarcasm, often loses momentum, but doesn't cease to be fun. Couple chuckles are guaranteed too, at least. All depends how will you be vibing with this. My rating: 6/10

This is a disaster of a movie with a plot that could have been hilarious. I'm not sure what went wrong, other than the fact that it seemed unevenly cast and the script was just downright bad. It's a shame because it's a great premise. It should have been much, much funnier. Instead, it was slow, somewhat mean-spirited, and boring.

I've never seen a Danny De Vito film I didn't like, and Smoochy is no exception. Original and creative at every turn, with great performances from Edward Norton, Robin Williams, Catherine Keener, and everyone else in the cast. I smiled and/or laughed through the whole film. What more can you ask from a bent and twisted comedy, I ask you?

The centerpiece is the homage to George M. Cohan -- Devito slaps us upside the head with this. Note Smoochy draped in the flag after accusations of fascism, and redemption through the Battle Hymn of the Republic: you're really seeing "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

What it makes it so cinematically enjoyable is Devito's eye for establishing the pecking order in every relationship *visually*; great stuff there.

It is all about itself: how Devito sees Smoochy seeing the movie of his career as a musical on ice. An angel descends and crowns Norton; he is persecuted by midget devils with pitchforks and swastikas; Rispoli is given a ghostly farewell (set to Wagner and Puccini!)

The problem here is Williams...not the one most people believe they know from three decades of movie goop. Those of us with longer memories know who he really is, and his fig leaf doesn't fool us...which is why the critical dupes didn't get it. A shame, on two levels.

Not brilliant, but still satisfyingly dark.

Ugh, Danny DeVito...as a fellow New Jerseyite, I am embarrassed. You took a good cast, a conceivably good premise, and made a stinking rathole of a movie, and probably spent a ton of money in the process.

Its not funny, its not insightful, its not anything that needed to be put on film and shared with anyone.

I did laugh once, at something Robin Williams said, and I'd bet it was improvised. 2/10.

I would be wrong if I said that Danny DeVito's films were made with full intent to capture the realisms of life, and it is because of his ability to portray an eccentric world (or relationship) that he is able to made the most original and entertaining characters known to film.

For example, although he didn't create the character Matilda, he was able to portray the girl with telekinetic ability in a very effective manner in the film of the same name. And also the characters in 'War of the Roses' were thoroughly over-the-top, but it was because of this that the films directed by the short man were so entertaining.

'Death to Smoochy' was no exception. It is because of the over-the-top characters that it is so funny. Edward Norton's character in particular is hilarious just because of the OTT reactions the 'atrocities' of the world draw out of him, and the overly-nice attitude he oozes.

There are other things that create humour. The lines are hilariously witty and even the facial expressions created by some of the characters give the film replay value. So IS there anything wrong with it?

I, personally, don't believe the dated storyline creates an obstruction, but I do feel that there is a problem with the dramatic character arcs. The biggest example of this is Robin Williams' character who goes, in one scene, from being ridiculously hateful, to wanting nothing more than to save his ex-arch-rival. This is where the over-the-top obstructs believability, although it doesn't do enough to make me dislike the film even partially.

The film, although flawed only by the very dramatic character arcs, is thoroughly enjoyable, and DeVito sprinkles just enough dramatic camera angles to support the extremity of the storyline. It is a rare gem, battered at the box office, but very safe in my collection of favourite DVDs.

Enjoy.

-Stoate.

Danny DeVito scores again with DEATH TO SMOOCHY, a very dark comedy about a fired children's TV show host (Robin Williams) who is out to get his replacement (Ed Norton). There is so much going on in this nasty look at TV programming that it behooves the viewer to watch it a second time. Norton is brilliant as a hack performer in a goofy rhino costume who goes on to inspire millions. Williams is at his maniacal best. Among the sterling supporting cast is Pam Ferris as the rough, tough head of a local Irish gang that latches onto Smoochy and Michael Rispoli as a childlike member of the gang who would do anything to appear on Smoochy's show. The ending running under the credits is a hoot, so stay with it.

After children's TV host Randolph "Rainbow Randolph" Smiley (Robin Williams) is publicly disgraced following a bust in an FBI sting operation, Children's TV network Kidnet swiftly cancels the show with a plan to replace it with someone who's lacking in the baggage of negative publicity. Hardened producer Nora Wells (Catherine Keener) and corporate yes man, Marion Frank Stokes (Jon Stewart) scramble to find someone "squeaky clean" eventually settling for Sheldon Mopes(Edward Norton) and his character Smoochy the Rhino, who sings songs at the Coney Island Methodone Clinic and is sincere and ethical almost to a fault. Sheldon soon finds himself fighting for integrity of both his show and his character as network executives, marketing departments, corrupt charities, even the Irish Mafia all develop an interest in Mopes and his Rhino persona. Meanwhile Randolph continually seeks and orchestrates elaborate revenge schemes against mopes becoming more and more unhinged.

A joint British-American co production between Warner Bros. And Film Four, the movie was written by Adam Resnick best known for his work on The Larry Sanders Show as well as his work on Chirs Elliot's TV series Get a Life and the Chris Elliot film Cabin Boy. The movie is a satire of the vapidness and cynicism of the children's entertainment, particularly inspired by Barney the Dinosaur, and takes great pleasure in tearing away the veneer of wholesomeness to reveal the cynical money hungry monster beneath the cuddly foam suit. The film is notable for being a box office disaster making back a mere $8 million of its $50 million budget and in combination with the failure of the following year's Duplex destroyed Danny Devito's directing career in feature films. Roger Ebert even declared the movie the worst of 2002 (it's not). The movie is certainly flawed, but I'd be lying if I said the movie's pitch black gleefully insane takedown of marketing icons masquerading as wholesome children's entertainment didn't raise a few laughs.

The movie from the get go is definitely and unapologetically a Adam Resnick project. From it's seemingly innocent framework that is loaded with uncomfortable and taboo subject matter, it's a similar approach to how Resnick took the Dennis the Menace format with Get a Life and got comedy from it by way replacing an 8 year old kid with a 35 year old man. Unlike Get a Life the movie does try to have a "good" character who we're supposed to root for with Sheldon Mopes. It's pretty clear that Resnick is in unfamiliar territory trying to write characters who are supposed to be principled and ethical and Sheldon at points feels more like a parody of someone principled and ethical rather than someone who's supposed to be principled and ethical. I'm not sure what exactly the issue is if it falls more on Resnick who doesn't usually write characters like this or if it falls more on Edward Norton who's not typically a comic actor (at least as it pertains to this very broad exaggerated style of comedy). There are moments where Norton's delivery in the character do work such as a scene where he's tricked by Rainbow Randolph into performing as Smoochy for an event that isn't what he was told it was, but the scenes of him playing for sincerity straight just come off as odd for reasons I can't put my finger on.

The movie's best asset is definitely in its unapologetically cruel take on its subject matter, showing the majority of children's TV hosts as being drug addicts, pedophiles, perverts, alcoholics, or subject to some other vice that rules their lives and the studio and network are happy to ignore so long as it doesn't spill over into the public eye. It's a stomach churning take that also manages to be darkly humorous thanks in no small part to a committed assortment of actors such as Danny Devito, Harvey Firestein, Danny Woodburn, Jon Stewart and Catherine Keener who all play their roles very well and create an intriguingly repellent world of foam covered hypocrisy. But easily the best performance belongs to Robin Williams, who plays a disgraced Captain Kangaroo style children's TV host who becomes more insane in his attempted takedowns of Sheldon and his Rhino persona Smoochy with his schemes and meltdowns being comedic highlights of the film.

The movie unfortunately loses its edge a bit in a third act that starts off well enough involving a smoochy centric ice show that starts off quite well with a retelling of many of the events of the movie as done by figure skaters that's very entertaining, but it loses its teeth in the final 10 minutes by offering redemption for Rainbow Randolph and not even having the guts to show the ultimate fate of our main antagonists. If I had to guess I'd say this was most likely a studio note to soften the edges of what I can only guess may have been a darker script.

Death to Smoochy is a flawed film, but it's also very entertaining with a decent skewering of Children's entertainment and a twisted sense of humor. While certain elements work better than others I think the film is a very well done dark comedy that doesn't pull its punches (mostly).

this is one of the funniest movies i have seen!!! although to begin with i wasn't interested because of the whole children's television aspect, i was patient with this movie because of Edward Norton who once again delivered a superb performance of a sweet and innocent, save the world type character. Robin William's also delivers an excellent performance and is so funny he had me laughing so loud, i need to see it again for sure!!! there are loads of funny bits where Randolf , Robin William's character, has just lost the plot. One memorable moment for me is when Randalf spills coffee on himself!!!! hilarious!!! And worth a watch.

I picked this up from the video store not expecting much from it, but keeping an open mind because quite often underrated movies really surprise me. No luck here. I simply did not find it funny at all. I watched the entire movie with a straight face, occasionally checking the clock. For a "dark satire" this sure doesn't get very dark, I couldn't believe how tame the whole thing was. I found the comedy to be at the same level as a Disney film, only with F-words inserted. And yes, I "got" the satire and adult jokes. That doesn't mean they weren't tired and incredibly overused.

So many big names! Robin Williams has pulled out the occasional flop (Flubber), Danny DeVito as well (see "What's the Worst that could happen?"), but I honestly didn't expect Edward Norton to sink this low. Time to change that theory. Now I can easily see why this went straight to the back of the weekly dvd shelf.

This film is a dark comedy directed by Danny DeVito about the cut throat world of children's television. In this film, a popular children's show host (Robin Williams, more madcap than he's been in ages) gets caught taking a bribe and is fired, being replaced by the squeaky clean Smoochy the Rhino (Edward Norton, who is excellent in the role). Of course the former host wants his job back and sets out to "get" Smoochy... Of course everything but the kitchen sink gets thrown into the plot from organized crime to Nazis.. and everything is hillarious. A very dark film that is rated "R" for language, this film is bound to be somewhat controversal as some may be offended by the language and view of childrens programming portrayed here, but if you have an open mind going in the film is drop dead funny.. It does tend to drag a tad in the midsection as a subplot about a disabled former boxer gets tacked on, but the film is very entertaining and worth catching at the theatre. GRADE: A-

I was reading through the numerous positive reviews for this film and I find it amazing that different people can watch the same movie and get totally different things from it. I will give you that it points out that Barney and such may have been started for a greater good but then get thrown into the gutter for profits, but I didn't need this movie to show me that, it is obvious. This movie has a stellar cast, a decent director with a track record, but fails miserably at being FUNNY. Yeah, I got a chuckle out of the step-dad song, but one chuckle does not make a movie.

Let's start with the positives. Edward Norton is Smoochy and surprisingly handles the role well. He seemed to take the character he played throughout Primal Fear and turned him into a guy who wants to change the world for the better.

Catherine Keener is the girl, who is all about the money until Smoochy walks into her life. I like Keener, who was wasted in her role, but did a good job with the part she was given.

There are your positives, now to the negatives (I don't think IMDB gives me enough space to truly handle them all, so I will condense them):

Jon Stewart's role was pathetic and his acting was as bad. The scene with Williams and him in the car was just disturbing, and he brought nothing to the table.

Danny Devito tried like always, but I don't know if it was a problem with directing himself, but his performance seemed flat and his direction...

Robin Williams tried TOO HARD TO BE FUNNY. His character was horribly written and lacked the depth that was necessary to create the illusion of caring for his down-on-his-luck Rainbow (unlike One Hour Photo, where his performance was perfect).

All the rest of the cast stunk up the joint, but I really don't think it was from lack of trying, I think the material just didn't merit this movie to be made. I mean the script has Irish mobsters, clowns, midgets, a drugged out hitman who was an ex-children's show host, a character named Rainbow, a character named Smoochy, a charity organization doing mob-like tactics, a retarded former prizefighter who rings a bell, and Nazis. It was not funny at all. It was not insightful, unless you didn't know that people (including those behind children's shows) try and make money. It smelled of a Shakes the Clown rip-off, and anyone who has seen that movie knows that a rip-off of that movie has to stink (especially Mr. Williams, who was in both).

I don't blame Mr. Devito, I think he directed a movie made with a horrible script as well as could be expected. His choice to take it very dark was the only way to salvage an absolute mess. It didn't work, but at least he tried.

The real problem for me is that Barney is ultra-annoying and should be an easy target to lampoon. This movie instead became as annoying as Barney and on top of that offensive to downright obscene in parts and it couldn't make me laugh. The entire ending ice-capades sequence was so over-the-top (not the credits one which was even MORE over-the-top, but the actual ice show) it just made you want to scream in disgust that someone greenlighted this piece of trash. Tack on the credits sequence which screamed "FILLER", and this movie just overstays it's welcome. Actually I think I should have just shut it off after the first half-hour because it wasn't going to get any better.

If you actually liked this drivel, Hollywood has a track-record of making these types of movies ten times more often than a really good movie, so you are in luck. I can't believe I agree with Roger Ebert, this movie was horrible and I am in shock that this movie is averaging a 6.6 on IMDB. That shows you how bad movies have become, but I gave this movie what it deserved: a 1 out of 10. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME, life is too short. If I can save one person from wasting time watching this film, this review has been worthwhile.

I'm almost embarrassed to say it but I really enjoy this film. I say that because of the humor is sick, mainly the tirades spouted by Robin Williams (especially with kids nearby). Otherwise, this black comedy offers a really wonderful character as the lead good guy: "Smoochy the Rhino," played well by Edward Norton. How Norton could deliver some of these lines with a straight face is beyond me. He must have required numerous takes. He's a real hoot in here.

Despite what you might have read from national critics, there are a lot of laughs in this film. I also thought the cinematography was interesting with vivid, fascinating colors and some nice closeup shots. For a comedy, I don't expect photography to be as good as it is in here. Kudos to the director and cinematographer.

Williams, as the bitter dethroned kiddies TV host, " 'Rainbow' Randolph Smiley," is, well.....Robin Williams, which means very profane and very funny. I expect that sort of profanity out of him, and he gets away with it here and there because of his great comedic talent, but I hate to hear it from female leads who are supposed to be likable. That's the case with Catherine Keener, who seems to play a lot of these hard-looking, foul- mouthed women.....although "Smoochy" finally softens her up by the end of this story.

At any rate, you have to appreciate black comedy and this kind of almost-perverse humor, to like this movie. Of acquaintances who have viewed this film, I am the only one who liked it

This movie is about nothing, offers nothing and wastes much time. I have no idea how to tell you how boring, wasteful and uninteresting this "movie" is. There is no suspense, character identity, drama or realism of any kind. Okay, maybe I could suspend the fact that a child's program will have hysterical popularity with adults. But for real, who would care about a child's program about old men singing bizarre songs? Nobody. And that's just the beginning of how dumb this movie is. If you think children's TV programs are "a really serious issue in today's society" then go and have fun. Otherwise, you will tear you hair out at how dumb this movie is.