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Leprechaun in the Hood (2000)
Leprechaun in the Hood (2000)
2000 | Horror
"Holy shit, you midget Midas motherfucker!" - Mack Daddy

Let us get straight to it. Leprechaun in the Hood is so goddam cheap. It's painfully obvious that the entire film was made on a low budget, and shot on a limited movie set (pretty sure one scene is shot in a props cupboard) and this blights what could have been one of the better entries in the Leprechaun series. I say this because this sequel is horrendously entertaining, despite how poor the production values are - a true champion of the so-bad-it's-good mantra.

The big positives here are the lead characters. Postmaster P., Butch, and (to a lesser extent) Stray Bullet, are three amateur rapper protagonists who you can get behind. They're actually kind of likable, which is a genuine rarity in this franchise. Warwick Davis' Lep seems to actually have less screen time than usual, but it's not even noticable because of these characters. Ice-T also stars as ex-pimp-turned-music-mogul Mack Daddy, and he's a welcome addition to the Leprechaun lore. Speaking of lore, this is another sequel that yet again pays no notice to the other films, and just does its own thing. It has a vaguely resembelent set up to Leprechaun 3 but other than that, a big Fuck You to any sort of narrative consistency, which honestly isn't much of an issue at this point.

Leprechaun in the Hood is so so silly, and as mentioned, shits the bed on the production side of things, but it's occasionally funny, occasionally gory, and entertaining to a degree.
That full rap number that Lep does at the end is fucking awful though, and no one is going to change my mind.
  
Hocus Pocus and the All-New Sequel
Hocus Pocus and the All-New Sequel
A.W. Jantha | 2018 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
8
6.8 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
It's a very sad thing when the book you were so excited about lets you down. Such is the case with Hocus Pocus & The All-New Sequel. The book, written by A. W. Jantha is split into two parts.

Then.

Now.

Then is a novelization of the movie which I very much enjoyed. 90 percent of the dialogue is taken directly from the movie while there's just enough added detail to give the characters some new depth and set up for the second half of the book.

Now: the second half of the book, the sequel was...

well, It was disappointing.

How?

First, there's the bizarre jump from third person to first and later second POV.

It just throws you into Poppy's world with minimal backstory on who she is and why we should like her or her friends, Travis and Isabella.

Secondly, the characters are STUPID!

Stupid choices left, right, and, center.

As a writer, I understand there needs to be some way to kickstart the conflict but going to the Sanderson house has danger written all over it.

Oh, let's talk about the Sandersons,

The witches are back in all their evil glory with added sister Elizabeth who turned her back on the family legacy of darkness.

Then there's their mother. Their mother who they could not shut up about. Mother this and Mother that.

All the hype got me excited about Sanderson's sister's flashbacks. Backstory. Entire chapters dedicated to them.

it didn't happen.

I was treated to brief remembrances but no backstory.

Then the Mother who was so hyped up made a one chapter appearance before going kersplat.

WHAT WAS THE POINT??

You don't hype a character that much for them to do NOTHING.

The book gets by on nostalgia alone.

Don't even get me started on the bizarre and unneeded cliffhanger.

Very sad.
  
A Quiet Place: Part II (2021)
A Quiet Place: Part II (2021)
2021 | Horror, Thriller
Contains spoilers, click to show
In A Quiet Place: Part II we get to see how it all started, the film begins on 'Day one' when the creatures first arrive (this is also most of the footage used in the trailer). At first glance this seems like an odd move as the film is advertised as sequel, however, this introduction serves as a reminder to the set up of the first film, a reminder as to who some of the characters are and does actually set up a couple of things for later on in the film.
The film soon jumps ahead and picks up almost directly where the first one left off, Evelyn Abbott (Emily Blunt) and family look for other survivors and try to find a way to use what they found out at the end of Part 1.
Like the first film Part 2 uses sound, or the lack of, to help build the suspense and switches between tense, atmospheric scenes, some action and jump scares. It can be slow in parts but this is all in scene setting and tension building.
One of the good thing about 'A Quiet Place: Part 2' is that it doesn't fall into the typical post apocalyptic trap that all survivor groups are sinister (Walking dead, I'm looking at you). In fact the film does make you think that that is the way it's going to go.
A Quiet Place: Part 2 is a sequel in the truest sense, as I said, after the first few scenes it picks up directly after the first film in a way that, if you haven't seen part one (or haven't seen it for a while) then you will be missing some quite important information so a re watch of part 1 may be a good idea.
  
Bride of Re-Animator (1990)
Bride of Re-Animator (1990)
1990 | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
The first Re-Animator definitely ranks in my personal top horrors of all time, and it's sequel isn't that far behind in quality.

First and foremost, Bride of Re-Animator is batshit insane, arguably more so than its predecessor. My the time the climax rolls around, there is just an unholy amount of crazy shit going on at once. It's genuinely quite challenging to take it all in, and it's nothing short of marvelous.
The effects work is outstanding. Practical effects and stop motion are used to bring a plethora of rejected experiments to life, and the whole film is just caked in gore and viscera (be prepared if you get funny about veins and ligaments...)
There's one particular moment that could well be one of the finest examples of body horror ever committed to screen.

The puppeteer of this madness is of course Herbert West, a bonafide icon of horror, and once again played by the great Jeffrey Combs. It's great to see David Gale and Bruce Abbott back for another stint as well, and Kathleen Kinmont gives it her all as the titular and showstopping Bride of Re-Animator.

The only real way that Bride falls short of the first movie is really down to pacing and structure. The payoff is fantastic, but the majority of film that comes beforehand feels a bit jumbled together (much like the Bride herself) and comes across as disjointed at times. Honestly, any character that isn't mentioned above is also just kind of there, but that's a minor grumble in a film that involves Hebert West.

Not quite as brilliant as the first Re-Animator then, but a suitably absurd sequel that can stand proud on its own merits.
  
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LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Annabelle Comes Home (2019) in Movies

Oct 26, 2020 (Updated Oct 26, 2020)  
Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
2019 | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Incompetent, one of the worst horror movies I've ever seen. No film with a 70s soundtrack this cool should suck this hard, just as a bylaw from now on. Gives you false hope by starting off with Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga's charming Warren couple (after rehashing that first π˜›π˜©π˜¦ 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘫𝘢𝘳π˜ͺ𝘯𝘨 scene for the third goddamned time in three different movies) then violating your trust by immediately veering into pure shit. Not even remotely scary, just really loud and irritating - somehow even less frightening than 𝘈𝘯𝘯𝘒𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦: 𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘒𝘡π˜ͺ𝘰𝘯 and that useless spinoff wasn't scary either. The same tropes with increasingly less charm, wit, originality, and purpose with each subsequent entry - this one having the added facet of looking like total ass now too! You'd think a beloved multi-million dollar franchise would be able to produce a film that doesn't look like a cheap Halloween section at a Party City with only like one and a half cool shots lmfao. At first you may think that maybe its lack of polish is supposed to add into a nostalgic, old-school Hollywood horror vibe but no - they just didn't care. For a now defaced series so adamant on overstuffing itself with intertwining lore (like so many films feel the need to nowadays during this unholy "just wait for the good stuff... it's building for now..." franchise kick) to the point of losing all sense of singularity they really put nothing into this writing to justify any of that. They really just turned this into some disgraceful, borderline unwatchable, generic drek that'd feel right at home in 2011/2012's rotten horror catalogue. A sequel to a prequel of a prequel to a main entry which has its own sequel that has *its* own spinoff. The pits.
  
Jurassic World (2015)
Jurassic World (2015)
2015 | Adventure, Sci-Fi
Dinosaurs (2 more)
Amazing location
Great effects for the Dinosaurs
Training Raptors?! (0 more)
We spared no expense
I do love a good Dinosaur film and generally I'm a big fan of first three films. We've been waiting a long time for the 4th instalment and it didn't disappoint. Bigger, badder with huge action scenes. The park is finally open and booming and it is great to see. The technology in the park brings the series up to date. I like the little touches which refer to the other films, mainly the first one as it's set on the original island 20 years later. Parts of the plot are a little over the top but this can be excused. It feels more like a sequel to the first film in many ways which is a good thing. Grab the popcorn, buckle up and enjoy the ride.
  
G.I. Joe---The Movie (1986)
G.I. Joe---The Movie (1986)
1986 | Action, Animation, Family
The real toy story
Most of u us had G.I Joes growing up and watched the cartoon and we wanted to beat the evil organization called Cobra. It is brought to life in this action packed movie

Duke (Tatum) is a life long military man who is charged with delivering new top secret missiles when his unit is attacked by members of the evil Cobra. We see the use of future weapons and good battle scene and he and partner Ripcord (Wyanes) are saved by members of the G.I Joe elite. The go with them to learn about the unit and ultimately the missiles get stolen and they join the unit to fight back and recover them. THe movie has some good twists and turns and a good fight scene here and there. This movie spawned a sequel why I don't know
  
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David McK (3372 KP) rated Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) in Movies

Mar 24, 2019 (Updated Jan 18, 2020)  
Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)
Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)
2016 | Sci-Fi
Most of the original cast (0 more)
Hackneyed dialogue and some dodgy effects (0 more)
With the original 1996 film being, essentially, a B movie writ large (and one of those guilty pleasures), this one had quite a bit to live up to.

This is set 20 years after that original (and was also released 20 years after it), with Earth having survived the first alien attack and now having combined alien tech with our own. With most of the original cast returning - bar Will Smith, whose cost (I expect) wa too much - this moves the focus onto the younger generation, who have grown up in the shadow of that original invasion.

It also ends in an absolute set-up for a sequel (or series): to date, no sign of that happening as that is pretty much the epitome of a 'meh' movie.