Death to Smoochy

Jeff’s take

It was nice to see Robin Williams in a movie. I know that most movies I've seen him in are deemed as classics. Having said that, I have to take issue with this one. This was supposed to be a movie that starred Robin Williams yet he is basically arrested in the first five minutes of the movie with no explanation or build up to this. He hadn't done anything to show that he would be the villain. As far as I was concerned, he was a happy go lucky children's television mascot only to be arrested in the next scene without having done anything to warrant it. The viewer is basically left to wonder why he would have been arrested. It took me a few minutes to figure this out myself. I put it together that he may have been a criminal but I couldn't confirm this just by looking at him. To put it simple, this movie fails to take the time to acknowledge the characters as they are. In my mind, they could have at least showed him doing something illegal which in turn would justify him getting arrested and needing to be replaced. For that matter, this movie is supposed to star Robin Williams. As far as I'm concerned, the star of any movie should be the main focus throughout and should get more screen time than everybody else. For the first half of the movie, he is not seen after getting arrested and even when he is, it seems like he is only in a few scenes. To put it simple, he does not get enough screen time to warrant the belief that he is the star. If anything, the star should have been the guy who replaced him. Also, the ending doesn't make sense. I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen this movie but by the end, he is essentially his replacement's best friend after been seen as the criminal throughout the entire movie. It's almost like they couldn't decide whether he should be the villain or not. Unfortunately, I don't have many positive things to say about this movie. All of the faults I have towards this movie are going to drop the final review from what I thought would be a passing score.

As everybody knows by now though, I'm not heartless and I will give credit where it's due. Even though there's so much about this movie that doesn't make sense, it did have Robin Williams in it. To me, this boosts the final score a little higher than it would have been boosted if any other actor took the role. Even at that though, I will not be able to boost it even halfway to a perfect score. There's just too much wrong with this movie. This is one of those movies where the actor playing in it saved the movie from an otherwise complete failure of a score. So I will say that because I got to see Robin Williams in yet another movie, it was good enough not to be horrible. However, I did expect better especially from a movie that stars him. This is one thing I notice about Robin Williams' performances in the 2000's. He had a tendency of playing characters in movies that were less desirable than the ones he played in the 90's when I was growing up. Whether the hero or the villain though, he still helped this movie get a boost as far as being likable is concerned. Even though this movie was no good, he essentially was the hero that saved it from failure.

Jeff O Meter final score: 3 out of 10.

What works

• Robin Williams — he saved this movie from an otherwise complete failure of a score.

What to know before watching

• Not recommended for young children.
• Violence, coarse language, brief nudity and sexuality, minor sexual dialogue.
• Scenes which depict alcoholism, and scenes which imply possible suicide.
• Robin Williams is arrested in the first five minutes with no build up, and doesn't get enough screen time to warrant being the star.