BRIDE OF CHUCKY **1/2 (out of four) -a review by Bill Chambers' Id (wchamber@netcom.ca)
(Visit my review archive, play some movie trivia, and more! FILM FREAK CENTRAL http://www.geocities.com/~billchambers/ )
Revoke my critic's license; sentence me to a public hanging. Both suitable punishments for what I'm about to write: BRIDE OF CHUCKY is a fun, fun movie. Whether it's any good is another issue altogether, but like another of this year's sequels-that-nobody-asked-for, Halloween: H20 Twenty Years Later, BRIDE OF CHUCKY is bearable and even enjoyable.
Tilly stars as Meg (though not billed separately, Tilly's breasts steal her every scene), ex-lover to Charles Lee Ray, the serial killer whose soul inhabits "Chucky" the Good Guy doll. For three movies now, Chucky has terrorized unsuspecting white folk. In this fourth Child's Play, Meg steals a mangled Chucky from a police impound (which houses, among other horror memorabilia, Jason's mask and Leatherface's chainsaw), sews him back up, and revives his evil spirit with the assistance of a guidebook called "Voodoo for Dummies". Their first victim: a goth punk wannabe (hilarious Alexis Arquette of The Wedding Singer) who ends up suffocated during a menage a trois with Chucky and Meg. But after domestic squabbles ensue, Chucky electrocutes Meg in a bathtub-and her spirit possesses a female doll called Tiffany. United as toys, Chucky and Tiffany enlist the help of ignorant next door neighbour Jesse (Stabile) to retrieve an amulet that will enable them to transfer their souls back into a human being. So Jesse and his runaway fiancee, Jade (Heigl, whose breasts also deserve special mention), naively transport the multiple-murderer dolls across America, leaving a trail of bodies behind.
As horror icons go, Chucky is one of the most absurd. His pint size and minimal strength prevent him from doing much damage without the assistance of a whole person. Yet in BRIDE OF CHUCKY, he (along with Tiffany) manages to shoot a quiver of nails into corrupt police chief John Ritter's face (after this and his turn as a psychotic android on "Buffy The Vampire Slayer", Ritter has proved he can play a heavy), blow up a car, and impale a pair of newleyweds with a thousand shards of glass. After the lame, tame Urband Legend and I Know What You Did Last Summer (why both those movies were given an "R" rating remains a mystery to me), BRIDE OF CHUCKY's tasteless, repulsive and extreme violence is a breath of fresh air. Chucky's a nihilist-he and Tiffany decide to off one key character just because they haven't killed someone in a while! Dourif's excellent voicework is the most lively and memorable performance he (has repeatedly given) since becoming American cinema's resident wacko. (After winning an Oscar for his portrayal of tragic Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Dourif took to playing human monsters in such films as The Exorcist III and Body Parts.) His Beavis-esque vocal stylings are matched by Kevin Yagher's special effects: the puppeteering of Chucky and his bride is flawless-very little of it looks computer-assisted.
If BRIDE OF CHUCKY fails to entertain on one level, it's in the alliterate characters Jesse and Jade. Both are unaware of Chucky and Tiffany's evil: they take turns accusing each other of a secret and insatiable appetite for homicide. The trouble is, this young couple is excruciatingly dull (although I suppose it's difficult not to be upstaged by Chucky and Tiffany). And don't bother going for the scares-there aren't any. The fright factor is nil, but the laugh quotient is high; not since Peter Jackson's Meet The Feebles have devilish (and, I should add, carnal) dolls been this guiltily enjoyable to watch.
-October, 1998
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews