|
|
HORROR / THRILLER |
| SEQUELS | REVIEWS | SCARY TOP 10 | SCIENCE MOMENT | UNFAIR RACIAL CLICHÉ ALERT | VARMINTS |
|
The thing about CHILD'S PLAY was, you knew what was up: a killer doll; yet you wanted to see the whole thing play out anyway! An uncool thing about CHILD'S PLAY 2 is Chucky could have gone anywhere, everywhere, and have done a bunch of different stuff on his way to become human again. But instead, he goes after little Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent: CHILD'S PLAY) again. That's where the movie falls apart from the get go. How many movies are they going to make where Chucky is in, "I gotta get Andy!" mode? Well, they made three. CHILD'S PLAY 2, despite the really cool poster art was a big drop for a movie that was barely above B-status in the first place. Once we saw what the doll could do, it was time to introduce new things. What things I'm not sure, but anything would have been better than going after Andy again. Even the PUPPET series of Horror movies have been more creative than that. He could beat Malibu Barbie senseless until the cops show up. He could rape the Bratz. Oh don't go giving me that look! If he can chase a child with a knife through 3 installments he's evil enough to rape! CHILD'S PLAY 2 starts off with what little is left of Chucky aka The Good Guy Doll, aka the sinister spirit of serial killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif: CHILD'S PLAY, THE EXORCIST III, DEATH MACHINE, ALIEN: RESURRECTION, BRIDE OF CHUCKY, LORD OF THE RINGS: The Two Towers). Pieces of burnt fragments, the remains of the Chucky doll from CHILD'S PLAY, are used to reconstruct a new Chucky doll by the company that originally made it. No one at the company believes the story of a doll coming to life. The police department deny it, Andy's mother, Karen Barclay has been shoved into a psychiatric ward for talking about it, and young Andy is waiting the arrival of his foster family to provide a stable environment. Despite the ludicrous idea that the doll could kill, tabloids are having a field day with the very suggestion, since the Good Guy doll is a rather sophisticated robot created to respond to voice suggestions by the child. Is it possible that some cranks at the company programmed the doll to say things like, "Kill your babysitter and go get me a beer?" The CEO of the company, catching heat from the board of directors and the company investors, wants assurances, but his management guy, while trying to placate his boss, demonstrates the recently restored Good Guy doll. All that's left is to have two technicians use their machine to pop the doll's new eyes in and all will be jake. But instead of getting jake, they get Chucky and merry mishaps occur. One preposterous death follows the next and you have to wonder where the creativity of the original movie went. In CHILD'S PLAY, Chucky clearly operated in, and was vulnerable to, his weight and strength as a plastic doll. His method of murder relied more on stealth and surprise than shear brute force. Yet, in CHILD'S PLAY 2, Chucky uses his weight and strength to subdue his much larger, far stronger opponents. The potential fear factor could give way to fun if the killings were presented in the macabre humor of dark satire, but instead, they just happen. Easy to spot victims are presented and quickly dispatched. The dippy factory worker; the corporate stooge, the vile teacher, and so on. Jenny Agutter, so rich an actor in movies like LOGAN'S RUN and AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, is pretty wasted here as a by the numbers character waiting to be put out of her misery. Likewise Gerritt Graham (BEWARE! THE BLOB, PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, THE DEMON SEED) who is often an excellent oddball of comedy relief, is asked to play an anemic role in serious mode. I really enjoyed the first CHILD'S PLAY. Our reviewer, Mike Oliveri disagreed with me, but different strokes. Yet the fun and scares to be had in the first are not only absent from 2, but 2 doesn't even want to make the attempt, instead playing off of standard Hollywood Horror sequel formulas and an ending crammed with an aggravating number of "Now he's dead. Let's touch him! Oh My God! He's faking and still alive!" gotchas. Giving CHILD'S PLAY 2 a two is generous but fair.
|
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
 |
