Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust

If you haven't seen the first Gingerdead Man film (trust me you didn't miss much), you needn't worry the entire thing is recapped in the first few minutes or so of this one. Nope Gary Busey isn't in this one, but he isn't missed much as the Gingerbread man is pretty much a background character in this movie, most of the story is on the satire of the happenings of a Full Moon-esquire studio. Filled with in-jokes and b-movie mainstays both in front and beyond the camera sending themselves up, this film was indeed a cut above the previous one and my preferred film starring the Gingerbread Man of the three that he's been in (he made a cameo in "Evil Bong" as well)

My Grade: C+

DVD Extras: A promo for Full Moon website; Trailer for this movie; and trailers for "Dangerous worry dolls", "Evil Bong", & "Decadent Evil 2"

No pun intended - this sequel may be the best in the ... well trilogy of this series that exists (I am not counting the crossover movie where the Gingerdead man meets the Evil bong ... especially because I have not watched it yet) ... this even has a flashback and a "what happened so far" intro to the movie.

So we are all up to date, when the movie begins. It is all wink wink - fully aware of what it is and way more on the fun side than the first movie, that tried to be quite serious. It even has a few cameos that work really nice. People that you may know if you are a horror movie fan. Nicotero, Buchler to name just two.

So while this isn't amazing or anything of that sort ... it still is quite fun to watch - no pun intended here either ... plus better effects (bit more budget I assume).

Ever since this title was announced way back, I had been waiting patiently for a chance to watch it, granted the first one was one big pile of drivel, I had always maintained a certain level of hope for an improvement with the follow up.

Sadly to say, and not for the first time, 'Gingerdead Man 2' - The Passion Of The Crust, although at it's festering heart contained a serious good idea, I found my patience beginning to wear very thin as I was treated to a ten minute recap from the original.

Having spent the vast majority of my teenage years viewing every movie that Charles Band had produced, jumping on board with Empire Pictures, and then holding on for dear life with Full Moon Pictures, I have pretty much witnessed the good, the bad and the downright ugly! No matter how bad the proceedings, I will always give over my time for a movie produced by the man himself, but dear oh dear, the last couple of outings have left a lot to be desired, 'Doll Graveyard', 'Dangerous Worry Dolls'.

Now the notion of a movie within a movie has always been an intriguing idea, one such movie that comes to mind was Fred Olen Ray's 'Bad Girls From Mars' starring Edy Williams.

Granted that film was any great shakes, the only thing that kept it afloat was the odd flash of nudity to keep the movie trucking along! with 'Gingerdead Man 2' it was good to see such legends from the low budget film world strut their stuff in front of the camera, make-up maestro John Carl Buechler showed his acting chops as the beleaguered director Orson Biggs! It was also pretty cool to see scream queen icon Michelle Bauer steal some screen time as one time scream starlet Polly Bunderhoof, even twenty something years on, Miss Bauer still looks pretty stunning! At the film's core, was the idea that this low budget film company, Cheatum Studios, you have to love that name have been struggling for some time to make any sort of entertaining movie, and of course through William Butler's screen story, this idea in itself is a thinly veiled mickey take on the financial ups and downs of Charles Band himself.

I guess therein lay the problem for myself, I wanted to enjoy the movie, but it just kept on dragging on and on, getting involved with a myriad of ideas that mainly led the movie nowhere, such is the case with the Full Moon ideas being produced.

A quirky movie at best, and although I know Part Three will fast approach at some point, depending on the budget of course, I really do wish Charles Band would think outside the box and give the Full Moon fans something decent to watch.

My rating is 1 because the Cookie Has Crumbled!

The sequel nobody asked for, from Full Moon. Despite the lack of Gary Busey I felt this one was a slight improvement over its predecessor, although that really isn't saying much. There's a certain amount of self-referentiality to the production which sees the titular menace turning up at the shoot of a low budget B-movie and proceeding to wreak havoc among the cast and crew. It's inane and cheesy throughout, with cheap gore effects and absolutely horrendous acting: par for the course for Full Moon, then. Incredibly, a further sequel followed before a collaboration with the similar stoner comedy EVIL BONG series.

Regularly amusing and well made horror spoof with Charles Band and some Full Moon Productions buddies in ultimate 'taking the mickey' out of themselves mode. Stand-up comedian K-Von is suitably selfish as a kind of Charles Band head -of-studio who has inherited his father's love of low budget horror films and his studio (cue Albert Band's influence for his son). The Gingerdead Man accidentally finds his way to the studio and causes havoc as would be expected. It is difficult to say much about the film without giving the main jokes away, but for those familiar with Full Moon's output and Band's reputation then this is a hoot. Brother Richard Band provides a good score and some of the most talented Full Moon bunch are involved (think writer William Butler). I suspect that director Sylvia St. Croux is really Band himself and further testament to the sense that he knows how bad he can be (e.g. not paying staff). Ricardio Gill is great in a brief Phil Fondacaro spoof scene (clue: Phil swears about Band a lot). Older British actor Jacob Witkin is almost as good as the similar and great Pupper Master Guy Rolfe (Witkin was actually in 'Puppet Master Legacy'). Kelsey Sanders is an attractive female lead, one-to-watch.