Ragdoll

This is probably one of the worst movies ever made. The script is awful, the acting is ridiculous and the special effects, well, they aint too special. It is so bad it passes beyond basic camp to a level of pure comedy. It is almost set up to look like a spoof. I have only seen a few other FULL MOON films, and they looked like Academy Award winners compared to this. Rent it for a laugh, NOT a scare.

This is yet another effort of full moon. and a better one at that. seventeen year old KWAME performs in a local hip hop band. while living with his aged grandmother, he has grown up listening to her "magical powers". When his Gran is put into the hospital by local thugs, KWAME invokes the killing magic and puts it in his Gran's old rag doll. However there is a terrible price to pay for dealing with the magic of the killing kind. I gave this movie **1/2 stars. The story is good. It would have gotten higher if the doll hadnt looked so damned fake! Still,RENT IT!

This project was in development years back. I remember reading about the storyline and it was much different then the movie you see today. I know that Full Moon had some problems with Paramount Pictures about it, so the idea has been in Charlie's desk for a long time. I'm happy to see that it turned out well. I think Ted Nicolaou did a Marcellus job on it, mind you - he is an absolute directing genius. This Movie became Alchemy Entertainment's first film. later on Producer Mel Johnson Jr. changed the company name to Big City Pictures, because they had an idea about making a record company with a similar name. The soundtrack to Ragdoll is out there on CD. This is the only Movie Alchemy made under that label and by far the best one Mr. Mel Johnson Jr. Produced. also look for him in Full Moon's Hideous, he is very entertaining in that one. So grab those Popcorn's and Injoy!

I actually love the over the top storyline. It was very 90s considering it was at the cusp of the new millennium. I would have liked it at the movies or from Blockbuster(back in the day).

I'm feeling really generous today. Ordinarily I'd rate this movie at 2/10 or less. Ordinarily I may not have even finished watching this movie, but today I'm feeling magnanimous.

The tritely named "Ragdoll" is about... well, it's about a ragdoll, but there's more to it than that. Kwame (Russell Richardson) is the lead vocalist of a New Orleans rap group called KT Bounce and they are hot. So hot in fact that a local Suge Knight-type joker named Pere (pronounced pear) wants to sign them and he won't take no for an answer. When Kwame et al do say no in a rather public and disrespectful fashion, Pere has his two nephews attack Kwame's grandmother whom he affectionately calls Gran (Freda Payne).

After Gran is hospitalized, Kwame goes home to do some "conjuring" and makes a deal with the Shadow Man (Fredrick D. Tucker) to have Pere and co. dealt with. This Faustian bargain has an unstated price, but you know that whatever the price, it's going to be hefty. The price ended up being a life for a life: whatever adversarial life the Shadow Man took via the vicious ragdoll, he took the life of one of Kwame's friends.

The movie's biggest issue was the ragdoll. It was terribly unbelievable. Not that I'd believe in an animated ragdoll anyway, but it would help if the ragdoll actually moved. The ragdoll would suddenly appear places and through the magic of cinematography (cutting from scene to scene) it would have a weapon or it would be "attacking" someone. It was a joke. But, I'm sure if they had a bigger budget they could've solved that problem. In fact, a bigger budget would've solved a lot of problems: the lighting, the sound, the set, and the ragdoll. The plot and the acting were decent. In fact, they kept me tuned in. Everything else, however, was a turn off.