CORPORATE LINE: Everyone’s favorite plastic slasher doll, Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif), returns for a fifth installment of this popular horror series. Apparently Chucky and his equally murderous bride, Tiffany (voiced by Jennifer Tilly), had a child, which has grown up in a cage as part of a heavy-metal ventriloquist act in England. Eventually it (one never learns its exact gender) escapes to Los Angeles to revive mom and pop, whose doll corpses are being used for a movie based on their previous killing spree. Jennifer Tilly shows up as herself, and she’s great–hamming it up as a floozy actress so desperate for the part in rapper Redman’s latest film that she lures him home for a casting couch tryst, with hilarious (and fatal) results. Meanwhile, the child of Chucky is horrified by the violent murders its parents are so fond of committing and, with a little help from a 12-step book, tries to help them kick the homicide habit. Of course it’s hard when there are so many deserving targets around, including John Waters as a scuzzy paparazzi. In sum, this is one crazy sequel; it’s got a refreshing lack of morals, a light heart, and a clever script with a lot of great insider jokes for buffs. The gore is extreme though, including eviscerations, beheadings, melting flesh, and other raunchy business that makes its R rating well-earned (no true Chucky fan would have it any other way, of course). Rappers Eminem and Big Pun contributed tracks to the score.
THE FILM: I’m writing this after having seen everything in 2004 and it’s easy to call this the worst movie of 2004. I’ve enjoyed the Chucky films in the past and yet this is a bloody mess—no pun intended.
The first mistake? When did it become okay for Chucky to be amongst the people without being hidden? Even worse is the arguing between Chucky and Tiffany. Aren’t they supposed to be some sort of serial killers? Instead they turned into a pair of annoying arguing dolls.
Jennifer Tilly is sexy and that is about it. It’s obvious why she can’t get any roles other than B movies. Nothing about her role does her any good for making more out of her career as an “actress.”
DVD FEATURES: The commentary with Mancini and Tilly is great. Tilly is hysterical as she talks about who was sleeping with who on set and takes shots at the studio. Too bad the movie wasn’t this funny. The second commentary by Mancini and Tony Gardner, the puppeteer, is more technical and not nearly as interesting.
“Chucky’s Insider Facts on Demand” are interesting—if you liked the movie. There is an interview with Chucky by Jim Moret which is really cheesy.
FRANKLY: Seed of Chucky tried so hard to be scary or gross or whatever that it went so far over the top that it ended up being laughable. The scenes that were meant to be funny and the scenes that were meant to be scary were laughable. Somewhere Chucky got all messed up.
+ Charlie Craine
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