WISHMASTER (1997) Reviewed by Chuck Dowling Copyright 1998 - The Jacksonville Film Journal URL:http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/
Cast: Wendy Benson, Chris Lemmon, Andrew Divoff, Robert Englund, Tony Todd, Kane Hodder, Ted Raimi, Ethan Embry, Buck Flower, Reggie Bannister Written by: Peter Atkins Directed by: Robert Kurtzman Running Time: 90 minutes My Rating: NO STARS out of *****
"Wishmaster" is a worthless excuse for a movie, horror or otherwise. It's a cross between "The Monkey's Paw" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street", as we learn about evil genies and their desire to take over the world. They can only cause harm however when you ask them to grant you a wish. Of course, whatever you wish for has some sort of sick and twisted spin on it, to only benefit the evil genie (Andrew Divoff).
The film is your typical horror nonsense, lots of gore and screaming just for the sake of having gore and screaming. The script is standard and the acting is fair at best (Divoff, if he's using his actual voice, is pretty interesting though). And fans of the genre will most likely enjoy seeing various actors from other horror films in cameos here and there.
When the story begins we're in the middle ages, and a wizard or something is battling these evil forces. The wizard manages to gain the upper hand, and encases the evil into a brilliantly beautiful red gem. Why do that? Why put pure evil in something which is bound to gain attention from people? Why not encase the evil in a dirt clump or a rat dropping? No one's going to pick up a rat dropping and polish it, breathe on it, and talk to it. This is the type of stupid "movie logic" we're dealing with here. Just wish that you'll never have to sit through this, like I did. [R]
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