Review of Death to Smoochy (2002) by Kevin R — 05 Nov 2009

Children's entertainer Rainbow Randolph (a foul mouthed Robin Williams) loses his job and is replaced by goody-two-shoes Smoochy the rhino (Edward Norton playing it cute and unfortunately still coming across as threatening) and he wants revenge.

Now this plot is simple and a bit desperate (there is plenty of needless swearing at the start deliberately trying to shock the audience into laughing) but it works for what it is and is funny. But for some reason they decided that the premise wasn't enough to carry the film and added in a load of stuff about the mob and kept changing the villain until it was complicated, confusing and irritating, while there was no consistency of character.

As long as it is desperate Randolph versus adorable Sheldon (that's Smoochy when he's not in the suit) it works, but the rest is just boring and unnecessary.