I watched Death to Smoochy last night. Why isn’t the greatness of this masterpiece recognized?
The casting and acting is perfect. Every actor was at their best. The writing is snappy and funny. The costumes are amazing. The cinematography is perfect (have you ever seen so many beautiful transitions?) and the art design is breathtaking. It’s pretty rare to see a movie with that much care put into the art design.
I’m a film student, and whenever people ask me what kinds of films I want make, I never know what to say. Now I know. I want to make films as good as Death to Smoochy.
I saw Death to Smoochy last winter, after I’d seen Fight Club. I couldn’t get enough of Edward Norton!
I loved Smoochy- It was funny, original…all that. How many other movies include a children’s entertainer being branded as a Nazi? (No, this is NOT your cue to go onto the imdb and come up with a list of 40 year old films that have done this previously!)
Let me just add that Rainbow Randolph is one of the most uniquely disturbed characters of all time.
I loved this movie, and was perversely pleased to see it so widely panned. Mark my words, this movie has “future cult hit” written all over it. I say, jump on the bandwagon early, so you can thumb your nose at all the Smoochies-come-latelies ten years from now who are going to be organizing midnight screenings and dressing up like plush, purple rhinos.
I loved this movie, too. I don’t know exactly why but I just find it utterly hilarious. You think of kids’ TV shows as being so innocent…and then you get Rainbow Randolph. Hehehe.
When it came out I couldn’t wait to see it. Robin Williams. Edward Norton. Harvey Fierstein. Jon Stewart. Directed by Danny DeVito! How could it possibly lose? Sure the critics all said it was a steaming turd, but I couldn’t get a ticket fast enough.
The first half was abysmal, but fortunately (!) it was bad enough that it put me to sleep for the second half. Also fortunately, my mind has seen fit to block access to all memories of that abortion; there was something about a dinosaur puppet or something, I just don’t know anymore.
It was definitely not as good as it should’ve been, though it had a few amusing moments. As said earlier, satirizing Barney was a BIT late. If somebody made a movie making fun of the Spice Girls, it would be about as edgy. Now, to be fair, the content was off-color, but the subject matter was not. I say again, it should’ve been a funnier movie. Took too many easy outs, I think.
And what the hell happened to Jon Stewart’s hair in that thing?
I really liked it, but I expected it to be mildly amusing at best. As such, the fact that it was actually pretty good served as a pleasant surprise. If it hadn’t been for Edward Norton, I likely would never have seen it, but I’m glad I did. That said, it was far from great - it was merely good.
I, too, found it funny. I enjoy Robin Williams more when he’s trying to be menacing than when he’s trying to be heartwarming, and actually being menacing.
But what they did to Jon Stewart was terrible. It’s criminal to give a man as handsome as Jon a Moe Howard haircut.
Easily one of my favorite movies and, as others have said, I saw it mostly 'cause of Edward Norton… my favorite actor. I didn’t realize that so many others thought of him so highly as well though.
I hate folks that post negative things to a positive thread, however…
I just didn’t get Death to Smoochy. If you read the comments at imdb.com, I’m not alone. I like dark/black comedies, but this wasn’t one. I’m not sure what it was…or for whom it was marketed.
Anyway, if you are a young film student, I’ll probably be seeing your work in the years to come. May I say: broaden your horizons. Watch more movies.
I plan to purchase Death to Smoochy on DVD soon. I’m going to place it in the same category as Zoolander. I hated Zoolander the first time I saw it. Now, I can’t get enough of it.
I just saw this on HBO, and it just seemed to me that either they had no script and made it up as they went along, or they had had a bunch of rewrites while they were filming. Either way, the movie, IMO, did not flow, and I would’ve like to have seen more of Catherine Keener.
I kinda liked it… not as dark as it should have been but had some interesting moments. Smoochie at a a Nazi ralley struck me as quite funny… mais a chaque leur soi
I don’t think it’s the best movie ever, but I really enjoyed it. I saw it as less making fun of Barney, then in making fun of childern’s TV in general and the supposdly twisted world behind it.
Huh. I didn’t care for it. I won’t say anything beyond that, because I don’t like people who try to stink up a lovefest. I will say, though, that I agree that Edward Norton was great, but I think it’s because he was the only one in the production who really understood how to make the script work.