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mrbenn84
Reviews
Child's Play 3 (1991)
Sooo gory but a good film, none-the-less.
What could I possibly write that hasn't already been written about the World's number one walking-talking-slaughtering living doll? I suppose nothing, so I'll settle for giving a review of the film itself. This time around, Andy is all grown-up and serious, with a life ahead of him at a prestigious military academy. When 'Good Guy' dolls go back into production, the manager never thought re-using old materials would cause such a fuss -- and a truckload of corpses. For the materials used contain (drumroll, please).....the spirit of long-thought-dead serial killer Charles Lee Ray!! (Voiced by the wonderfully gravelly-toned Brad Douriff; give the guy a cigar for tirelessly returning for FOUR movies to date. Jeez!).
Anywho, after this calamity Chucky is up and running again and out to capture Andy's body again to house Lee Ray's soul. Upon slicing his way through the academy to reach Andy (and taking ALL. THAT. EFFORT.), Chucky is a little p***ed off to find that the once sweet and innocent young kid that loved him so has gotten older and therefore useless. Chucky discovers a new, younger child to possess and sets about doing this, randomly offing some other folk along the way. But Andy is well on his way to halting Chucky and takes the necessary steps to ending the little dolls reign of terror once and for all...
See, I think I summed up my overall feel of the film in the last line. I understand that, in this post-modern ironic oh-aren't-we-sooo-funny society, slasher movies are supposed to contain characters that are intelligent and knowing, but bite the big one all the same. And we are therefore supposed to look back at the other stalk 'n' slash movies of yore with distaste and bemusement at the apparent lack of 'post-modernism' the characters have. But for crying out loud -- HE'S A DOLL!! Chucky is wonderfully cunning and evil and dangerous et al, but how can you be convincingly scary when you stand at a height even a vertically-challenged pygmy named 'Shortarse' would laugh at? It's like, c'mon man - get some stilts, would ya? The characters in this film all have their deaths prearranged by being so stupid and, although I hate to admit it, this happens to make up quite a lot of the enjoyment of the film.
It's a highly likeable picture, with a strong main character and imaginative death-scenes that passes the time with ease. I suggest a night in with your buddies and get this for a bit of a scare, Fast Times At Ridgemont High or Mallrats for a laugh and The Goonies for a bit of nostalgia. Perfect.
OVERALL: Fun, throw-away horror that is good while it lasts but won't play on your mind for hours after. Unless you are relatively weak-stomached -- in which case I'd dodge the scene where Chucky gets hold of a few grenades.......
****1/2
Toransufômâ: Kârobotto (2000)
Totally trashy but oh-so-much-fun!
For anybody who hasn't seen this yet, and I take that as most of the world, this is the GREATEST Transformers series to date! Fire Convoy (a.k.a Optimus Prime) leads the heroic Autobots in an apocalyptic battle against the evil, but mighty, Destrons (Japanese name for Decepticons). It takes place in a fictional city somewhere in Japan I presume (I've only ever seen the untranslated version) and from what my friends and I can figure out, the shows are self-contained (apart from the overall link of on-going battle, kidnapped scientist and a surprisingly annoying tourist woman whose vehicles end up trashed in each episode during one of the many fight sequences) and are all to do with the trials and tribulations of being a transforming vehicle (or animal, in the case of the Destrons) and, in the case of Convoy, an effective leader to a group of heroes.
The funniest episode to date (and probably of the whole series) saw a group of the Destrons forced to take community service in order to join the Autobots. The sight of Black Convoy, who destroyed half of the city only an episode before, sweeping leaves and muttering about his apparent fall from power (he's just this huge mecha! HUGE!) is one of the best moments I have witnessed on TV in a long time.
Let's hope Hasbro (is that who still makes the show?) pick up on the obvious market for this new version of the already popular toy and TV series and start dubbing it right away. We need more of this on our Saturday morning shows soon!!