Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Jack Black | ... | Stine / voice of Slappy | |
Dylan Minnette | ... | Zach | |
Odeya Rush | ... | Hannah | |
Ryan Lee | ... | Champ | |
Amy Ryan | ... | Gale | |
Jillian Bell | ... | Lorraine | |
Halston Sage | ... | Taylor | |
Steven Krueger | ... | Davidson | |
Keith Arthur Bolden | ... | Principal Garrison | |
Amanda Lund | ... | Officer Brooks | |
Timothy Simons | ... | Officer Stevens | |
Ken Marino | ... | Coach Carr | |
Karan Soni | ... | Mr. Rooney | |
R.L. Stine | ... | Mr. Black | |
Caleb Emery | ... | Dumb Jock |
After moving to a new small town, teenage Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) meets the beautiful girl next door, Hannah (Odeya Rush). But every silver lining has a cloud, and Zach's comes when he learns that Hannah has a mysterious dad who is revealed to be R. L. Stine (Jack Black), the author of the bestselling Goosebumps series. It turns out that there is a reason why Stine is so strange - he is a prisoner of his own imagination - the monsters that his books made famous are real, and Stine protects his readers by keeping them locked up in their books. Zach unintentionally unleashes the monsters from their manuscripts and they begin to terrorize the town. It's up to Stine, Zach, Hannah, and Zach's friend Champ (Ryan Lee) to put all the monsters back in their books.
The Goosebumps book series where a big sellers in the 90's, so was the T.V. series, which was The Twilight Zone for preteens. R.L. Stine proves he had a creative mind with such bizarre tales and some insane plot twist. So having some of the Goosebumps characters come alive in the real world, is quite a tribute to R.L. Stine's work.
Jack Black is quite enjoyable, seems to having the most fun has Stine, at times he is a little over the top, but in a good way. Odeya Rush is good has Hannah. But it's Dylan Minnette and Ryan Lee who play Zach and Champ, really bring the comedy here, those two have such comedic chemistry they are like a comedy team. The effects are incredible, an amusing CGI fest. The movie never takes itself seriously, if you like The Monster Squad(1987), so I'll bet you'll get an good ride out of Goosebumps.