Bones

The name Jimmy Bones strikes fear into the hearts of all who hear it. Back in 1979 he ruled the street, now after his death, over twenty years later Jimmy Bones is still in charge. After a group of teens buy Jimmy's building and turn it into a dance club, his sprit is released and he goes on a bloody rampage, seeking revenge on his killers. Sounds like a horror movie doesn't it? It even looks and feels like a horror movie. But if it's a horror movie your expecting you may be in for a little disappointment. We spend the entire film switching back and forth from 1979 to the present day. The 1979 scenes seem to be knocking on blacksplotion flicks. The present day scenes are a parody of new age fright flicks. Between the two settings everything seems to be played for laughs and it works wonderfully well. Back in 1979 there is everything you would expect to see in a blacksplotion flick, the afros, the sideburns, the stylish clothes and they even use phrases like "kracker Saturday mourning special" and you know what? It's pretty darn funny. Now we move to the present day. Seems like everyone in the film knows that they are ripping off House on Haunted Hill, there is even a reference to Vincent Price in there somewhere. You can also see all of your favourite old school horror cliches, projectile vomit made of maggots, the pipes that bleed, the severed head that still talk even after they have been decapitated, the pool table that bleeds after it is cut and the perfect silhouettes of blood that splatter on the wall. But what makes it so enjoyable is not the fact that we have seen it all before, it is how we get the feeling that film makers don't want us to take the film seriously, they just want us to sit back and enjoy. The film has a very "fun" atmosphere surrounding it and that is something that you don't find often in horror flicks today. The script is so clever you almost have to let out a chuckle because everything that happens is so predictable. What do you think will happen when a turn table group called the Resurrection Brothers enter a haunted house or when you find a dog with glowing red eyes that attacks you and you keep him and call it Bones? It's almost like the fact that everything is so stupid and cliched that it comes off as being smart. Now I'm not saying that everything is all fun and games. Director Ernest R. Dickerson throws in some very distorted camera angles and creepy imagery to keep the horror fans please and the meek on the edge of their seats and it comes off rather effective. Snoop Dogg is wilding over the top and entertaining as Jimmy Bones who could very well have been making the next Crow film right here without anyone knowing and blacksplotion queen Pam Grier can also be seen as Bones' girl. The special effects are very enjoyable whether they are serious (the night club explosion) or amusing (the talking head) or even just plain bad (the fake looking blood) and not to mention there is never an absence of gore through out. If I didn't know any better I would have to say that this is a feel good movie. So if you are looking for an entertaining nod to the old school that doesn't require and thinking or logic than you are in for one of the summers best horror flicks, it not you'd better just pass this one by.

With a growing trend of rappers starring in their own movies, Snoop Dogg joins the pack with 'Bones'. Snoop plays Jimmy Bones, a 70s hustler, who is betrayed and murdered by some of his closest associates. Since the time of the murder, Jimmy's corpse is buried in the basement of an abandoned house in Bones' now seedy neighborhood. When a group of empty-headed teenagers buy the abandoned house, they unsurprisingly wake up Jimmy's spirit, resulting in Bones going on a bloody rampage for revenge.

What the heck are we to do with a movie like 'Bones'. Are we supposed to take it seriously as a horror movie. Or laugh at its silliness and Snoop's attempt at becoming a real-life 'Doggfather'. Whatever its intentions are, this movie doesn't have the feel of a horror movie. Rather, it feels more like one of Snoop's pot induced fantasies.

Rating: 5/10 or (2 stars)

Yeah, like pretty much every other horror movie that hits the theaters, this one took a pretty heavy trashing both, from the critics and from the audiences who didn't understand it. However, I found "Bones" to be a highly enjoyable, entertaining, and (at times) creepy horror flick that I hope, is the birth of a new franchise. It's very refreshing to see a horror flick that can take a standard premise and make it seem fresh again. Also, I enjoyed the killer being a someone who we can sympathize with. Let me break it down a little bit.

Back in 1979, Jimmy Bones was the man of his neighborhood. Just what all he was into is never fully explained, but we do know that he runs a pretty classy little nightclub and loves to dress in full-pimp get-up. Basically, Bones is a good guy. All he wants to do is run his business and take care of his people. However, when he is propositioned to bring in crack, he refuses and is double-crossed then murdered by people he thought he could trust.

Jump twenty years into the future and we get a group of twenty-somethings who have just bought the building where Bones was murdered. Hoping to turn the place into a club, they ignore all warnings of the place's evil and pretty soon, they mess around and wake the dead. Now that Bones is back, he's upset, understandably, and wants revenge on the people who did him wrong.

That's it. Kinda sounds like Nightmare On Elm Street right? Well, it's a lot like it and a lot of others you may have seen. What set this one apart for me was the lead. Casting Snoop Dog as Jimmy Bones was perfect. I've never been a big fan of his acting, but here, he pulls it off great giving us a villain that we can sympathize with, care about, and root for. We know where he's coming from and watching him take his revenge on the dispicable villains was fun fun fun. I also enjoyed the romantic angle brought to the film by the chemistry between Snoop and Pam Grier. I don't think that it would have gone down near as well had there been a different set of actors, but it gave a real soft side to Bones and made me like him that much more.

I really loved the cinematography and having the blood look intentionally fake, was also a nice touch. Unlike some others, I really enjoyed the shifting in tones. The first 2/3 of the picture had a really dark and gothic tone to it while the latter third had a little bit of comic relief thrown in. Yes, it went WAY over the top (the severed heads, that whole "world of the dead" bit) but, for me, that added to the overall joy of the film and made it that much more. It also made it VERY hard to take it serious. It's pretty hard to find a good horror flick these days (and a mainstream one, at that) and I'm sure that I'll be adding this one to my dvd collection pretty soon. Oh, (I don't think I'm giving too much away here) the door is left open for a whole slew of sequels. I can't wait.

Man this film is da Shizzy! Scary as! and da dogg is running wild, man, at the start he even is a dog! Genius! Basically the plot is that some dudes went and whacked Jimmy Bones back in the day but they never bet on him coming back from the dead. Then business starts to pick up! I liked this film cuz it was pretty moral, with Snoop givin gangstas what they deserve but at the same times you could tell he understood that sometimes people make you do bad and it ain't really yo' fault. Pam Grier is back to doin' what she does best after the blip that was Jackie Brown. My only gripe was the gratuitious nudity but other than that 11 out of 10!!! Roll on the sequel.

I don't know why people bitch so much about this film. Even though I didn't find it scary (nothing after The Others is anyway), I thought it was great entertaining. Sure the movie is full of plot holes, sometimes the acting is pedestrian, and the special effects can be laughable, but I don't think the makers set out to make something as scary as The Shining. This is supossed to be funny people, after all Snoop Dogg is there. Check it out lightly