Robin Williams Loved Pushing Boundaries In This Controversial Movie: 'It's Nasty Fun'

Robin Williams' filmography was no stranger to a flop — four of the biggest box office duds he starred in arrived within five years of each other — but he relished making at least one of them, and said as much during interviews, both at the time and years later. "Death to Smoochy," the 2002 black comedy crime film directed by Danny DeVito, featured Robin Williams in a role far removed from the ones that made him a household name. It sold a paltry $18,247 worth of tickets worldwide across its entire theatrical run. At home, the film managed to scrape just over $8.3 million against a budget of $50 million. And yet, when looking back on "Death to Smoochy" in a 2005 chat with Blackfilm, Williams remarked, "I loved that movie just because it's nasty fun, but I think that's what hit people."

"Death to Smoochy's" impressive cast also included Edward Norton, Catherine Keener, and Jon Stewart, with DeVito himself joining the fun as a crooked talent agent. As Roger Ebert noted in his review, "Those with lesser gifts would have lacked the nerve to make a film so bad, so miscalculated, so lacking any connection with any possible audience." Razzie voters lined Williams up for worst supporting actor, a prize he ultimately lost to Hayden Christensen for "Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones." 

By every metric, it was a wipeout. But, in an interview with the Arizona Daily Wildcat, conducted on its premiere day, Williams was gleeful about the material. "I laughed my a** off when I read it," he shared. "It was almost like my stand-up [routines] because it was so free form and nasty in its own way." Still, the comedy legend acknowledged that "Death to Smoochy" isn't for everyone, describing it as "nasty funny, kick-a** funny."

The $50 million budget for "Death to Smoochy" — amounting to Robin Williams' entire reported net worth at the time of his death, funnily enough — didn't come from one place. It was a German-British-American co-production, and FilmFour, the film arm of Channel 4, helped finance it with Warner Bros. as part of a three-year deal to put out seven movies. They ended up releasing just two; "Charlotte Gray," a £15 million production that pushed the limits of British independent cinema, and "Death to Smoochy." Both flopped, and in July 2002, Channel 4 absorbed FilmFour back into itself, dramatically reducing the annual funding from £30 million to £10 million. Maybe that's the real punchline in the "Death to Smoochy" story, and what explains its appeal after all these years. 

The movie was a sharp satire about what happens to children's entertainment once the money men get hold of it. The baffled critics and audiences of 2002 have given way to a reappraisal that deems the film a black comedy way ahead of its time. The quality Williams most prized was the movie's uncompromising nastiness. Critic J. Hoberman even arrived at the same conclusion. "The film has the distinction of being made for no discernible demographic," he pointed out in The Village Voice back in 2002. But even Hoberman contended that "Death to Smoochy" "is often very funny" regardless. 

For completists wishing to experience Robin Williams' career right through to his final year of life, with all its ups and downs, it might be worth the two-hour runtime.