Munchie

I really have to lay into this movie. The acting is terrible, the lines are awful, nobody sounds like a kid for one, secondly the adults are written like kids, it's atrocious. The film has no depth or emotion to it, just a series of pointless gags, including tripping on a banana skin.... The special effects are bad, the magical friend is very gratting and the ending is incredibly lazy. Children deserve better than this and I feel sympathy for the young cast who do their best with a poor piece of writing. Again and again with bad movies it comes back to the writing. If this was meant to be a comedy then at least put in some funny jokes for us.

Munchie (1992) is a movie that my daughter and I watched together on Tubi. The storyline follows a young man who gets bullied at school and struggles to fit in. He finds a mysterious box with a Munchie inside that agrees to grant his every wish. The young man is about to get his life flipped upside down.

This movie is directed by Jim Wynorski (The Lost Empire) and stars Loni Anderson (WKRP in Cincinnati), Andrew Stevens (10 to Midnight), Dom DeLuise (Blazing Saddles) and Jennifer Love Hewitt (I Know What You Did Last Summer).

This movie has a way better cast than it should. Loni Anderson looks amazing as the mother and Dom DeLuise was a tremendous choice as the voice of the Munchie. The next thing I must say is this movie is bad...but there are some scenes that will make you smile. The pizza scene with the chef with the meat clever was a lot of fun. The funeral dream cracked me up and is something all kids do. They also did a great job creating the various Munchie outfits. The ending is predictable but the mom's boyfriend is so annoying it's still fun to see it happen.

Overall, this movie is more fun than it should be...but still bad. I'd score this a 4/10 and recommend seeing it once.

I learned of Jim Wynorski when I happened to rent his "Chopping Mall" from my neighborhood video store in summer 2001 (the people who only knew Blockbuster have no idea what they missed by not going to neighborhood video stores). I saw a number of his other movies over the years, and have now seen his utterly bizarre "Munchie", about a boy who befriends a doglike being who has unlimited powers and delights in mischief.

For the most part, it was an "E. T." ripoff, complete with a divorced mom. I will say that unlike the beyond-atrocious "Mac and Me", this one at least wasn't a giant commercial, and had some authentically funny scenes (Munchie's gag in the principal's office, and then the party). For the most part, it was nothing that I hadn't seen before.

Well guess what? "Mystery Science Theater 3000" riffed it. This was definitely a movie that set itself up to get mocked. Among the famous people whom Jonah and the 'bots mentioned were Wallace Shawn and Judy Tenuta. They also said that Dom DeLuise voiced Munchie because Don Bluth wasn't making a movie at the time, and that Loni Anderson (as the mom) must've gotten this movie in her divorce from Burt Reynolds.

The rest of the cast includes Andrew Stevens (Stella's son), Arte Johnson and Jennifer Love Hewitt in her debut.

Bobhoperocks is right that this is not a sequel...but it does state on the cover box that Munchie is a sequel to Munchies. And if you liked Munchies, you won't like Munchie because it sucks. Plain and simple. The two have nothing to do with each other. I know I'm repeating myself here, but come on...I mean, come on...!!

While the film Munchie is on it's surface a below average practical effects driven family comedy and allegory for acceptance and overcoming the challenges of puberty, below one veil lies a heart of darkness, and an interesting dissertation on the esoteric. Trying to stab at this moving target with one pithy summation is difficult, but as a reviewer, it is my duty. Essentially the bizarre and repulsive "Munchie" shows us the true meaning of 'monstrous.' Rather than recognize his freakishness and retreat in to some dark faery land of seclusion, Munchie parades himself about, attempting to use a thin layer of humor as a social lubricant. More grotesquely still, Munchie seeks the company of children.

How sinister this practice is lies in the viewpoint of the err... viewer. My personal take, is that highlighting how 'ugly' society is using his own ugliness is Munchie's attempt at destroying the juvenile leads' innocence. This psychic affront disturbs me more than any banal, physical transgressions that are / were to occur, being that we are all blinded gray whales crashing about in the pitch seas of the cosmos.

Munchie really likes pizza. ;-)