Leprechaun 5

I rented the original "Leprechaun" when it first came to video, and got lots of laughs- some of them intentional, many of them not. Who could forget the image of the evil Lep tearing ass in the go-cart, or what must be the only death scene in the history of cinema to involve a pogo-stick? The first sequel was god awful in just about every respect, but was made bearable by the Lep's rhyming one-liners. The third made decent use of its Vegas location and had some ok death scenes. I have never had the (dis)pleasure of seeing the fourth installment, which took place in space. That brings us to "Leprechaun in the Hood", which jumped off the shelf at me with its sharp cover art, hilarious title, and marquee value of Ice-T (ha). The flick unfolds just like the other sequels, with no explanation of how the Leprechaun got to his location, or even a reference to the other movies. The three lead characters are a trio of Compton rappers- Postmaster P, Stray Bullet, and Dutch, who are trying to avoid the gansta scene of hip-hop by preaching a positive message. Greed gives in when they loot the house of Mack Daddy Onassis (Ice T), the local crime lord/record mogul. They happen to swipe the lep's stolen magical flute, and before they know it are being stalked separately by Mack Daddy and the now awakened Lep. Along the way we see the Lep smoke weed ("What a curious aroma"), go to bed with a drag queen, and make a few pop culture references ("Come hand me gold you thieving hoods, You've got more loot than Tiger Woods!!"). Sadly the death scenes are lame, with a few victims just being strangled, some even killed off screen. Effects wise, glowing green eyes and dry ice seems to be the extent of what the low budget would allow, but the movie is always entertaining with its campiness. For every bad effect we get a good line like "From the depths of the neverworld, I summon my zombie fly girls") A worthy rental, especially on DVD- it has the trailers for Lep 1 and 2.

Leprechaun in the Hood (2000)

* (out of 4)

Another awful entry in an all-around awful series. This time out a pimp (Ice-T) steals the gold from the leprechaun (Warwick Davis) and manages to get the medallion around his neck turning him to stone. Flash-forward a couple decades an a rap trio decide to break into the pimp's home and steal some cash but end up taking the medallion and freeing the leprechaun. The only joke about LEPRECHAUN IN THE HOOD is the title itself. I'm sure this silly title was a hit among video renters and I'm sure this thing sold or rented millions of copies. I mean, we did eventually get a sequel to this thing. This fifth film in the series pretty much puts the horror elements on the back burner and instead we have the leprechaun getting into all sorts of situations. Now I'm sure there will be someone out there who witnesses these situations as nothing more than racial stereotypes but if you're taking a movie called LEPRECHAUN IN THE HOOD seriously then you have many more problems than could be dealt with in this movie. The entire joke is that the leprechaun finds himself in the hood and sadly there's just nothing funny about it. You know having the lep and Ice-T in the same movie that at some point the two would have to smoke some weed. When this scene happens it's just silly and certainly not funny. Other scenes has a Korean store owner who of course tries to rap. Another sequence has a cross-dressing hooker trying to pick up the lep. We even have an entire subplot dealing with the three rappers trying to get their business done so that they can appear at a rap contest in Las Vegas. What's so annoying about that is that us poor viewers have to sit through some of the worst rap songs I've ever heard. They're corny, poorly written and are just so annoying that you can't help but want to hit the fast forward button. The entire movie could have been exploitation gold but instead we just get a cheap mess of a film that has no scares or laughs. The movie isn't nearly as over-the-top as one would hope and what gore you do get just looks rather silly. The previous four films were pretty bad but at least Davis gave it his all and usually delivered a memorable performance. Even that's not the case here because he too just seems bored with the material.

Although not quite as good as "Leprechaun II", "Leprechaun 5: In The Hood" does an admirable job at capturing the essence of the humorous evil that only the Leprechaun can deliver. He's still just as mean, and twice as violent! I would rate this on a par with #3, where he goes to Las Vegas. Seeing him as a rap artist battling Ice - T is almost too much fun for one movie.

Seriously, this is the funniest movie I have ever seen. True, judging by the name alone you can tell it has to be pretty funny. If you haven't lost it by the end of the prologue, you have no sense of humor at all. I mean, the whole scene (not just the concealed items in the fro part) is very comically well done! The movie alone beats anything Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, or Chris Rock have ever done. This is the comedy that beats all comedies. It--- Huh? It's supposed to be a horror flick? Huh. You learn something new every day. Well, it's funny, and a fun way to spend a Friday Night with friends who do not take everything seriously.

OK, it wasn't that bad, I just really wanted to get to use that line for once (my friend who went to see Lep 1 in the theater yelled it out during the movie and got a standing ovation).

My same friend also made a good point about watching the Lep series in general: you know exactly what you're getting up front. It's not like after the movie you're going to say to yourself, surprised, "well, THAT was a total piece of sh--". You can't really be mad at yourself. It's not like going to see, say, Play It To the Bone or 8 Heads in a Duffle Bag where you think you might actually laugh once or twice at something or enjoy the movie at some points, but end up wanting to punch everyone involved in the face (even Joe Pesci). no-one tricked you into it.

Anyway, this one was better than part 4 (In Space), but of course that's not saying much. The best one of the series (I can't believe I'm saying that-I should say "the least painful to sit through" instead) was the one set in Vegas. This one I rented mainly because I heard it was mildly amusing, better than part 4, but mainly I wanted to see Ice-T in a 70's pimp outfit with a big 'fro. I think the whole budget went towards paying his salary and they didn't have much left over for costumes, special effects, sets, etc. Oh well, still beats The Haunting.

This one had at least some entertainment value because it didn't take itself too seriously. A couple of things happened I didn't expect. Of course, couple things also happened that I didn't WANT to happen but had a horrible premonition that they were going to, such as the Leprechaun smoking a blunt and rapping (though not at the same time, Thank God). They were a few times I was surprised to burst out laughing at stuff that I think was supposed to intentionally be funny. There was one particularly funny moment when the heroes are hiding from the Leprechaun that was worth the money I paid to rent it, because it was exactly like a scene from Scooby-Doo (in fact, I think it WAS a scene they stole from Scooby-Doo, but at least they stole from something amusing). I thought at first it was just because I had the flu at the time I watched it and had lots of Nyquil, but then my husband laughed at it too. There's another scene where two characters are having a very serious discussion about how to go after the Lep -- this is after a tragic event occurs, so I figured the movie was going to stop trying to be funny-- and you see that one of them is holding "Leprechauns For Dummies". For some reason (maybe this time it was the Nyquil) that also struck me as pretty amusing.

I bet Spike Lee would be really offended by this movie. For instance, you could easily have a Leprechaun 5: In the Hood Drinking Game with your friends (hey, you could use Nyquil! It's even green) during the movie just by drinking every time a character says, "a'ight", "yo", "homie", or "that sh*t is WACKED, man!". So, while on the negative side, we have the fact that the movie is completely stupid and mindless, with little gore, and really cheap production values, we do have the positives of a few good laughs and the fact that it would pi$$ off Spike Lee. I've seen a lot of horror movies WAY worse and more insulting to viewer's intelligence, so I didn't really want my money back after I rented it.