BRIDE OF CHUCKY Reviewed by Jamie Peck
Chucky (again voiced by Brad Dourif), of course, is the star of the "Child's Play" series, a My Buddy-type doll possessed by the spirit of a slain serial killer. In "Bride," the plot (heh) picks up with his girlfriend Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) resurrecting Chucky's remains (he was blown up at the end of "Child's Play 3") with the help of a black arts manual called "Voodoo for Dummies." Silly mortal. Before long, she's also been reduced to shin-high figurine status, and the plastic incarnations of these one-time lunatic lovebirds hit the road to scope out some potential new human bodies.
The rest of this rocky horror puppet show plays out as Tiff and the Chuckster stalk a young couple (Nick Stabile and Katherine Heigl) with conjugal plans of their own, leading them towards a New Jersey grave where a magical, soul-transferring amulet allegedly lies in wait. Along the way, our murderous Barbie and Ken go through post-marriage motions similar to any given pair of newlyweds - bicker, argue, kiss and make up. But when they squabble over who's going to do the dishes, watch out. Hey, even faux people have got to work through their problems.
Director Ronny Yu keeps the mayhem flashy and stages an inventive scene or two, but not even visual flair can make up for the fact that these creepy Kewpies are neither scary nor menacing. When one of them charges, it's nothing a good forward punt couldn't take care of. And when a climactic chase scene is needed, one of the dim-bulb protagonists must _pick_Chucky_up_ so the demonic toy can force his hostage to run at gunpoint. Throw in some silly casualties and a ridiculous ending (will "Son of Chucky" be next?) and this is a bizarrely bad 89-minutes at the movies.
As is the thing to do in post-"Scream" slasher cinema, Don Mancini's screenplay slathers on the in-jokes and genre-parody. But little of the humor succeeds, proving self-reference can be completely worthless when it lacks bite. To be fair, though, most of "Bride of Chucky" is on auto-pilot, so it's not quite right to single out one misfired aspect of the film. Similarly shaky, the acting ranges from screeching camp to boring bland, the effects aren't that special and the story is one big groaner. Here's hoping Chucky and his entire clan - past, present and future - rest in peace.
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