Movie Defense Force: Death to Smoochy - A Delicious Dark Comedy

Jimothy Sterling

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Apr 18, 2011
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Death to Smoochy - A Delicious Dark Comedy

One of my favorite Robin Williams performances ever. Why did critics hate this!?

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Lightknight

Mugwamp Supreme
Nov 26, 2008
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Yes! I absolutely agree. I had no idea at the time why it was so poorly received. Dark and weird but also funny. Sad how it was so easily dismissed.
 

luvd1

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Jan 25, 2010
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Hmmm, never heard of it. Must not had reached over the Atlantic . Looks like I'm going treasure hunting this weekend for it then.
 

Right Hook

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May 29, 2011
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I adore this movie, after seeing it I looked into critical reception, was shocked and slightly angry. Obviously I've been thinking about rewatching it lately and really glad to see it got on MDF.
 

hentropy

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Feb 25, 2012
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I loved Death to Smoochie, I think as a comedy it might have been a little ahead of its time and critics were generally confused as to who its audience was. Because, you know, critics tend to be [small]disconnected from the likes and sensibilities of audiences and put too much weight into aspects of media that have nothing to do with whether the media was entertaining...[/small]
 
Aug 12, 2013
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I've seen it and I thought it was pretty damn funny, and I'm generally not a fan of so-called dark comedies except ones like The Great Dictator and Monsieur Verdoux.
 

Makabriel

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May 13, 2013
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This is the movie that caused me to hate the Hulk reboot. I can't see Norton as anything but Smoochy now.
 

Attercap

Irascible Webmaster
Jun 22, 2012
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Good timing, Jim. I re-watched this last weekend and I enjoyed it as much as the first time I saw it in theaters--which was very much. I think, for the most part, the typical movie critics don't seem to "get" dark comedies. I remember (and Rotten Tomatoes confirms) The Cable Guy was also panned by critics, but I quite enjoy it.
 

WWmelb

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Sep 7, 2011
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Makabriel said:
This is the movie that caused me to hate the Hulk reboot. I can't see Norton as anything but Smoochy now.
Now i want to see smoochie overlayed into every scene in Hulk lol. Thanks a lot lol
 

Darth_Payn

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Aug 5, 2009
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I thought this was one of the funniest damn movies I ever seen, and Williams and Norton both make it work! The whole time it never occurred to me it was supposed to be a "black" comedy. And Bonus, Jon Stewart has more joke-on-himself fodder for The Daily Show.
 

ZZoMBiE13

Ate My Neighbors
Oct 10, 2007
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I'm with you 100% on this one Jim. I love this movie.

I remember being genuinely shocked when I looked up the Tomatometer and saw how low it sits. This is one of my favorite movies, and one I regularly quote (Everything the Irish boxer says is pure gold).
 

Imre Csete

Original Character, Do Not Steal
Jul 8, 2010
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I think if it was a UK flick it would have been better received, british black comedies are awesome (like Death at a Funeral).

Definetly a great movie if you are into that kind of thing.
 

Trucken

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Jan 26, 2009
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Oh for fucks sake, this one actually needed defending? What the hell is wrong with critics, Death To Smoochy is brilliant! Honestly, it's probably the best movie Robin Williams ever did, and possibly his finest performance ever.
 

RJ Dalton

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Aug 13, 2009
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I've actually never seen this one. I am aware of it being critically panned, but I never bothered to watch it.
 

Saltyk

Sane among the insane.
Sep 12, 2010
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Funny enough, I just watched this movie a couple weeks ago. I was watching it with friends as we wanted to watch some Robin Williams movies to remember him.

And honestly, I think this is a great black comedy. Robin is just as funny and energetic as ever. Ed Norton is great as the naive dork who got thrown into the surprisingly seedy world of children's entertainment. And I love that the Irish Mob is among the "Good Guys" in this movie. Yes, you read that right, the Irish Mob are good guys. I'm half surprised Jim didn't mention that.

However, I might know part of the reason this movie was not well received. This was one of the first movies Robbin Williams did that were rather dark. Yes, it came out the same year as Insomnia and One Hour Photo, but this one was also a comedy. Robbin Williams was generally well known for family friendly comedy. That might have put people off of this movie just a little.

On an unrelated note, I just went over his IMDb page. He was prolific and had a much more varied career than I realized.
 

Spyre2k

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Apr 9, 2013
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Growing up I never really payed much attention to critics, in large part I barely knew of them or where to even look, but it didn't matter cause if I wanted an opinion on a movie I talked among my friends.

That said I thought Death to Smoochy was hilarious and so did my friends at the time. I had no clue the was large negative review of it by critics. I did have some acquaintances at the time that didn't much care for it cause they thought the humor was a bit vulgar but those were up tight prude, part of the reason I wasn't friends with them was cause they couldn't take a joke.
 

Imperioratorex Caprae

Henchgoat Emperor
May 15, 2010
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I loved this movie, and if I already wasn't a fan of critics, this movie would have put my opinion of them in the lowest category. This movie was awesome, and Robin Williams absolutely killed it with his part. Norton is always a great actor but Williams really put the dark in dark comedy in this movie. Holy shit if I hadn't seen One Hour Photo before this movie I wouldn't have thought Robin Williams could pull off such an evil role. He was absolutely awesome in this movie... I can't understand why people didn't like it except that it was not a typical Williams flick (and it was rated "R"). Definitely not family fare but you can't down on Robin for breaking the mold people put him in.
I'm gonna go in a corner and cry a little bit now, still reeling from the loss of such a great actor and humanitarian.
 

Wolf Hagen

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Jul 28, 2010
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For a weird thing, it was the last Movie I watched with Robin Williams in it before he went the the way all living things go.

It's far from a perfect movie, but it is defenatly fun to watch. Exspecially if someone likes to see corrupted sweet things. >:D
Seriously: Williams was scarier sometimes in this then in one hour photo.
 

Jandau

Smug Platypus
Dec 19, 2008
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The thing is, critics (in general) hate things that are strange, unusual or different just as much as the lowest common denominator morons do, it's just that their acceptable baseline is different than that of the broad audiences. There's a reason why designing "Oscar bait" and films geared towards critics in general is possible - there are patters in such movies that are just as formulaic as the ones found in whatever Michael Bay regurgitates next. And anything diverging from those patters gets a paddlin', so to speak.