video review : Child’s Play

video review : Child's Play

A toy that talks, walks and murders people in a story otherwise set in the real world requires a suspenseful of disbelief. That is unless you believe in Vodou magic. If so, you might be as crazy as the adults think little Andy is when he says Chucky, his Good Guy doll, is really alive.

As silly as it may be, the plot of Child’s Play thrills in some interesting ways. Who’s in the doll, how he got there and how to get out; that’s where Andy and the aforementioned Vodou come into play; are the gist. The boy’s mother and everyone else are just obstacles in his way.

As far as horror movie killers go, Chucky is a force to be reckoned with. He’s more fun and less scary than the others, but no one has more fourth-wall-busting potential in the business of branded toys. With the popularity of this flick, Good Guy dolls should be selling off the shelves.

my rating : 4 of 5

1988

video review : Halloween 2

video review : Halloween 2

This sequel isn’t a remake of the sequel to the Halloween the Halloween this is a sequel to is a remake of. It’s a new story. And if you’re confused, ghostly white horses will only make matters worse. Rob Zombie outdid John Carpenter with the liberties he took in 1, but he goes too far here. The first twenty-something minutes are a thrill, then a flashforth happens and Halloween is over.

At least that’s how it feels between kills. Those are the best parts. Laurie Strode and her PTSD are far less interesting, along with Samuel Loomis and his book. Even The Bogeyman himself is a bore; wandering around unmasked with a hood and beard, seeing visions of his mother and that damn white horse; when he isn’t severing a security guard’s spine or bashing a stripper’s face in.

my rating : 3 of 5

2009

video review : Halloween

video review : Halloween

The Halloween series resets itself again, this time all the way back to the 1978 original. It’s a remake by Rob Zombie and easily the best movie in the franchise. That’s mostly due to the liberties it takes with the plot, a third of which focuses, close-up and shaky, on “Mikey” as a psychopathic child.

Character backstories are usually best left untold, or at least kept to a minimum, especially the enigmatic Bogeyman type, but the case study of Michael Myers, led by Malcolm McDowell as doctor Samuel Loomis, lends a layer of poignancy to the later kill scenes. It also explains why he wears the mask.

my rating : 4 of 5

2007

video review : Cult Of Chucky

video review : Cult Of Chucky

Chucky movies should’ve ended with Child’s Play, but the toy business still makes a lot of money, so here we have it; the seventh episode of the “show”, which now follows the old-school horror-sequel titling Of Frankenstein and the like. Cult is one of the worst Chucky movies yet.

The problem isn’t the doll; his humor is the flick’s one genuine source of entertainment; it’s the hackneyed storytelling of writer and director Don Mancini. There are some cool kills and sexy undertones, but the plot; the setting of which is a psychiatric hospital; is all over the place.

my rating : 2 of 5

2017

video review : Curse Of Chucky

video review : Curse Of Chucky

Chucky looks sort of gay now, at least when his face goes from that of a still doll to a live one. When he smiles, he looks like a little fat Asian kid. The CGI, which doesn’t kick-in until about the movie’s halfway point, is to blame. The corny Freddy-like one-liners he mutters before kills, overdramatic musical score and cliché horror-flick plotting are the fault of writer and director Don Mancini.

For what it’s worth, Curse Of Chucky is better than Seed Of Chucky as it takes the series back to the more serious, less campy, tone of the original Child’s Play trilogy. There are, however, major continuity problems. Why didn’t a certain surveillance video acquit a certain character in court? I also wonder why the movie has two contradictory epilogues tacked onto the end.

my rating : 3 of 5

2013