In the 1400's,
a baby snatching indestructive troll
named Rumpelstiltskin (Max Grodenchik)
wants human life and plans to put his
soul into the baby, but a witch named
Matilda (Vera Lockwood) burns him and
says his name three times which
transforms him into a small jade
figurine. Suddenly, it's present day and
a police officer named Russell Stewart
(Jay Pickett) was shot to death by a car
jacker which makes his wife named Shelley
Stewart (Jim Johnston Ulrich) a single
mother as she is grieving his death.
She goes to an antique store with her
friend Hildy (Alice Beastley) run by
Matilda as they find the figurine in her
store and tried to warn them that it's
dangerous but buys it anyhow.
Shelley starts to think about Russell and
a tear drops on the figure while she
makes a wish for him to return. Suddenly
Rumpelstiltskin is free and terrorises
her and tries to take her baby away from
her killing anyone in his path as she is
on a chase from him and gets help from a
controversial TV talk show host named Max
Bergman (Tommy Blaze) to try and keep
this troll for taking her baby away so he
can have human life as planned centuries
beforehand.
During the near beginning
there's a nice shot on Rumpelstiltskin running away with a baby in the forest
with the villagers
chasing after him along with a good shot
of him stopping at a ledge. We spot a
good presence by Matilda saying Rumpestltskin's name 3 times
showing a good wicked attitude while
doing this.
We also spot a nice present day
with a slow motion on an officer taking out
his gun shouting and a shot on a car
jacker taking out his gun and shooting
him with nice slow motion shots on
him falling to the ground.
We have some nice takes on both Shelley Stewart and Hildy in an antique store looking
around and then spotting the stone with a
nice effect shot of it glowing. We have a
nice close up shot on Matilda acting
aggressive to the both of them and then
cooing to a baby they have and then
snapping out of it acting serious. This
showed some good timing.
A good close up shot on Shelley staring at her late husband's picture
with a tear falling and onto the stone
making a wish and then a good shot on the
stone glowing.
There's also a good moment with her taking out a gun thinking she hears a
prowler and then Russell Stewart approaching telling her it's really
him. Then we have a nice camera shot on
the two of them making out.
Some good takes on Rumpelstiltskin attacking her as well as punching
holes in a door trying to come after her
but however their reactions were very
lacking.
There is a good camera take on Rumpelstiltskin riding on a motorbike trying to go
after her.
Many annoying conversations between
both Shelley and Max Bergman while a truck is crashing into them in a
vehicle. However, during these scene's we
do spot some good suspenseful shots
between both vehicles with the stunt work
too.
A good chase with the truck and Max in his go kart type of vehicle speeding
away as well as his vehicle stalling and
the truck about to crash into him which
looked suspenseful too.
There's a nice funny close up shot on a
female deputy acting cute with the baby
breaking out her serious work at the
county jail. Next, we have some good
shots on her shooting her gun and
freaking out with Rumpelstiltskin about
to attack her.
The best moment of all was at
a cemetary with Rumpelstiltskin placing
the baby down and doing a chant with a
thunderstorm and mist in the air. There's
also a nice struggling moment with both Max and Shelley running through the
cemetary and a zombie comes out and
attacks which packs the film a good
punch.
There's a nice shot on Max driving a tractor with some flames lit on
the front shovel charging towards Rumpelstiltskin.
Bottom line is that the makers of Leprechaun
tried to invent a new type of cheesy
monster flick but they failed big time
with this one and tried to add a touch of
Child's Play and a bit
of the comedy Beetlejuice.
This was just a plain ripoff.
The story was going around in circles
basically focusing on a one big chase
scene with an innocent widowed mother and
her baby against the grasps of an evil
troll and going on a journey through
strangers to help her and the odd time
getting in trouble with the law.
I was going to bomb this clunker but what
made me rate it a bat was close to the
end of the film with Rumplestiltskin's
solo ceremony at a cemetary which looked
powerfully done and good effects too but
that's about it.
At the end there was a door opening for a
sequel but it never arose in which we
should be thankful since the Leprechaun
sequels were starting to be a major bore
after part 2.
The acting is
quite bad as lead actress Jim Johnston
Ulrich (Shelley Stewart) really can't prove herself to
be a worthy character actress and is
supposed to play someone who's as tough
as nails in the film but yet she tries
way too hard and she's just plain
lacking. In a scene she tried to act
tough with a knife and other deadly
objects trying to kill the Rumpelstitlskin character and it wasn't
convincing enough. She couldn't even pull off on
acting emotional when she needed to
either.
Tommy Blaze (Max Bergman) annoyed the hell out of
me playing the heroic type of character
who portrays a controversial TV star on a
talk show. He's way too melodramatic and
overly hyperactive in a bad way. I bomb
his talents big time.
Max Grodenchik (Rumpelstiltskin)
tried way too hard to be funny in an evil
way and just doesn't do the trick. He did
present himself as a menacing little
troll but that was about it. He does well freaking out and
running away from a tractor chasing after him.
Allyce Beasley (Hildy) must've been hurting
big time after he fame in Moonlighting
but she was the only actress who stood
out. She has a great nasal voice who can
bring out some descent character acting
and great expressions too. A shame she
was killed off in the middle of the
flick.
We spot another supporting actress named Vera
Lockwood (Matilda) playing an immortal witch
in the flick as I had to give her credit
too bringing a good sense of humor
sometimes acting goofy and then darn
right serious. She does this both well
even if her role wasn't very big in it. She also does
well to two onscreen actors about talking them out of
buying a stone.
I think the reason why alot of the acting
was bad cause most of these cast members
are famous for starring in daytime soap
opera's which shows alot of lacking
actors.
Jim Johnston
Ulrich exposes her butt after
getting out of bed after a sex scene.
An eyeball is pulled out
An arm is ripped off
A head torn off
Rumpelstiltskin tears his head off
There's the odd chiming
music and alot of Z-grade synthesizer
type of low sounding music too throughout
most of the story. At the same time it
can sound very interesting. There's some
neat electric guitar riffs too. Of course
this was composed by Charles
Bernstein who did music for many TV
movies and on my favourite slasher film
A Nightmare On Elm Street in
which he was much more better on that
one. |
