Death to Smoochy (2002) review

Popular kid show host "Rainbow" Randolph (Robin Williams) is apprehended by the Feds for taking bribes from parents so producer Nora Wells (Catherine Keener) hires childlike idealist Sheldon Mopes (Edward Norton), whose alter-ego is Smoochy the Rhino, to take his place, except "Rainbow" desperately wants his old job back and will stop at nothing to sabotage the program ... and Sheldon also has to contend with crooked talent agent Burke (DeVito), embezzler Marion Frank Stokes (Jon Stewart) and mob boss Merv Green (Harvey Fierstein).  While it isn't the "worst" idea for a movie, the execution is what led to it being a box-office dud: it's unevenly written, mostly unfunny (with the exception of Williams, who probably improvised some of his best lines) and DeVito's "stylistic choices" (with his hyper-active cameras) are dreadful (he would have gotten fired from Sesame Street).  A few solid points are in there about artistic integrity and struggling to be a decent person in showbiz, but they're lost in the general goofiness.  Perhaps director Danny - who's such an iconic personality - should have taken advice from another filmmaker, Charles Chaplin: "Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot."