|
"I'm an Oscar nominee, and now I'm fucking a puppet!" --- Jennifer Tilly, playing the challenging role of "Jennifer Tilly" --- From the beginning of the Chucky series sixteen years ago, there has been a consistent strain of gallows humor within the context of horror action. As originally conceived, the series ran out of steam in 1991 when the third one was received with catcalls, but Chucky movies proved to be as durable as the eponymous doll. They were not dead, just sleeping. After a seven year absence, the Chucky series was resuscitated to make outlandish comedies, and the fourth one reversed the declining trend.
The newest entry has abandoned even the vaguest pretense at chills and horror, and can correctly be called a pure comedy, or perhaps a splatter genre spoof. Filmed in Romania, it's basically a self-referential comedy making fun of the entire Chucky series. Jennifer Tilly plays Jennifer Tilly, who is making a new Chucky movie when the movie's Chucky dolls are turned into the "real" Chucky and Tiffany, who then concoct a plan to step up one more level on the food chain, and take over the bodies of Jennifer Tilly and Redman. In addition to the Chucky series itself, the film takes the time to fire some pot shots at other films, pop culture, the movie industry, and especially Jennifer Tilly. Tilly proved to be a great sport with a tremendous sense of humor. She gave the scriptwriters a free rein to mock her without restriction, as their counterparts did to Bill Shatner in Free Enterprise. They took every foul rumor and malicious remark which has ever been uttered about her and incorporated them into the film's exaggerated version of her character. Here's a quick summary of what we "learn" about her in this movie:
Yes, I am proud to report that Chucky's actual "seed" does play a vital part in the film, and we actually get to join the campy filmmaker John Waters in watching some puppet masturbation before we finally get our first glimpse of the precious puppet semen. The puppet portion of the plot is some crazy gobbledygook about how the two insane dolls (Chucky and Tiffany) need to obtain two human bodies for some arcane ritual which will place their evil souls into the human bodies. It's sort of an evil version of the way Pinocchio became a real boy - and also, coincidentally, the same way Mickey Rourke originally became human. I would hasten to warn Chucky and his blushing, murderous bride, that the ritual seems to be temporary, based on the fact that Rourke seems to be changing back into a puppet. The sub-plots include a plan to impregnate Jennifer Tilly with Chucky's sperm, and the appearance of a long-lost son (or maybe daughter) who proves to be a great disappointment to Chucky - by wanting to be kind. Brad Dourif continues to do a great job as the voice of Chucky, as he has done since the first film some sixteen years earlier, but frankly none of the puppet plot elements really matter much because they only exist to provide a flimsy framework for jokes and spoofs and some clowning around by Jennifer Tilly. Which was cool with me. |
|
|
The puppet plot was mostly crap so the film drags when Jennifer isn't around, but she carries her portion of the film with her offbeat charisma and her self-effacing humor, so I think the film was worthwhile just to see her scenes. In this case, I side with the genre sites (who loved it) rather than the mainstream reviewers (who panned it) . It is only rated 4.5 at IMDb, but I think it is a decent comedy and should be rated higher. There is one non-Tilly scene to remember: Chucky is driving on a winding hillside road when he is cut off by Britney Spears, who turns around and flips him the bird (pictured to the right). Big mistake. It's not wise to incite road rage in a criminally murderous puppet! Chucky incinerates her and says, "Oops! I did it again." By the way, the credits specifically say "Britney Spears did not appear in this film" |
 |
The DVD is quite a comprehensive package, including:
|
|
