Skip to main content

Goosebumps (2015), PG, ★★★

Jack Black and the kids in trouble. 
I must confess that I have not been a fan of R.L. Stan's Goosebumps series because when I read the books, I never could connect to the humor and the parody of the horror genre as how kids witnessed the all these type of mawkish Halloween characters spooking the younger characters into terror and belief. But, I believe R.L. Stein said that they never put the characters into situations where they are involved with death or something life-threatening. I believe that is refreshing. It is sort of a premise for a Saturday morning cartoon. We do not get as many fun Halloweens for younger audiences as we should but this movie is right for that demographic as this version contains enough fun material and source to control our attention and center ourselves into that ride. It is an admirable and fun movie.

Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) and his mom, Gale (Amy Ryan) move to Madison, Delaware where Gale heads a new job as a vice principal at a high school. He's still getting over the death of his father since it has been a year of that tragic event. But, the only person he knows in town is Zach's sister, Lorraine, who gives him a little gift. While Zach is accommodating himself into his new home, he meets the girl next door, Hannah (Odeya Rush). She is called into her house by her dad, Mr. Shivers (Jack Black) and warns him like any other strict dad to stay away from her or there will be consequences.

There's enough skepticism for Zach as he finds out why Hannah was not at school and she responds that she is home-schooled. While Zach and Hannah both hang out and get along in an abandoned amusement park, they return and Shivers scolds them both. Failed to persuade the cops to find out what is going in Shivers' home, Zach lures him away from his home and with Champ's (Ryan Lee) help, they go upstairs in Shivers home and find a locked manuscript of "Goosebumps" stories and when opened, he unlocks one of the creatures and causes havoc to the whole town.

Chill out! They are only zombies. 
Boy, when you have movies you have low expectations on, you get worried. I was worried about watching this movie and to tell you truth, the kid-friendly, frantic spook-fest turns out to be an amusement ride of fun and thrills. It is not a spoiler but we find out that Mr. Shivers turns out to be the author of the Goosebumps series, R.L. Stine, and we learn that he created these characters to get through the bullying he had to suffer through when he was a child. We understand his pain, however, his therapy goes way too far and over his head as they threaten the whole town. The movie's visuals are not the best in the world but no matter what, the frantic pace of the film carries you all the way through with no boredom and some humor.

Jack Black has some experience in the children's genre department, for better and for worse, School of Rock and the awful Nacho Libre, this movie falls into the former category with Richard Linklater's underrated movie about rock and school. He fits his mannerisms, humor and a bit of drama into the character and we follow him all the way through. The kid actors in the movie do a solid job not being too annoying and with a few characters, there is some complex background and agenda behind them that we like them and we want to follow them. Thank goodness there was some character development in the first third so we will not have to follow just one-dimensional caricatures.

Director Rob Letterman does a solid job of forming characters and a firm storyline to try to lure the creatures back to their habitats in the books. This movie will definitely appeal to the younger crowds of 9 and up because there is some scary material regarding the creatures and a few characters. Nevertheless, even if this is a fun slumber party movie for the young kids, I had a blast with this movie and it surpassed my expectations. This movie pulls off almost everything and turns into a Halloween bonanza and then next thing you know it, you get a sugar rush. But, hey, it will be worth it in the end.

***

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2015 Documentaries

I have only seen 6 documentaries this year which also includes Amy and I Am Chris Farley . But, I have to be honest, this has not been a particularly strong year for documentaries except for onethat got me emotionally and mentally as what I examine for when they uncover the truth or some facts from the people involved in these documentaries. But, here are the four I have seen this year: Listen To Me Marlon, Unrated, 4 stars This is the most insightful documentary of the year as we only hear Marlon Brando narrating his life and experiences what he has gone through regarding his family, his private life and his film experiences regarding The Godfather , Apocalypse Now , Last Tango in Paris , etc. It is like Marlon Brando came out of his grave to give us another profoundly moving movie only we hear his voice and scenery and nothing else. The Look of Silence, R, 3.5 stars Joshua Oppenheimer's follow-up documentary is a light-hearted but still-disturbing film regarding a ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Daddy's Home 2 (2017), PG-13, ★1/2

The first Daddy's Home was surprisingly a financial success as I thought it was not as bad as many people thought. I thought it was a solid cable watch because it had enough laughs for that sort of mixed recommendation. I was not craving for a sequel for this movie because again, comedy sequels have a very bad record, however, the only difference is that it is not too late since the first movie came out a few years ago. But, this sequel is a reminder as to why we do not need a sequel to a hit comedy because this is a pretty much forgettable comedy, especially a holiday comedy...which I hade a guilty pleasure for. This did not work for me. Brad and Dusty (Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg) have become friends after the events of the first film and they set up a co-dad system where their two children, Megan and Dylan, spending time at each father's home. Dusty has re-married to writer Karen (Victoria's Secret model Alessandra Ambrosio) and he is step-dad to Adrianna, Karen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), R, 4 stars

The stockbrokers worshipping Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) like a god. Wall Street. The clients, the adrenaline, the stocks, the money, the power, and the decadence. The former three pertains to the man's job, but the latter three pertains what any stockbroker wants in order to have the freedom to do whatever they want with the client's money. As Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey) would say, "The name of the game is: move the money from your client's pocket into your pocket." We basically spend three hours seeing all of these Wall-Street scumbags steal the clients' money into their own pockets and spend it on booze, drugs, women, and other insane things in more insane activities. I have witnessed here is a great movie that I would not watch repetitively. The movie starts with Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) blowing cocaine onto a hooker's butt and he and his brokers throwing a little person onto a board with a dollar sign in the center. It'...
Post a Comment
Read more