Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust

The first Gingerdead man film from 2005 wasn't a good movie. With elements that were barely passable, it was hard to like anything about it. The acting wasn't believable, the special effects were cheap and the villain was wasted. Plus, the only main attraction for watching the movie was to see Gary Busey act as himself and voice the chunky funny gingerdead cookie man. But apparently, either there was a small fan base that demanded a sequel or the release of the 60-minute film gained enough money to render a sequel. Not sure which is the case but here we are the next installment - and it doesn't improve much at all.

This next chapter of the wisecracking serial killer cookie brings us to a troubled film studio that can't cut a break in problems. Its whole crew is a bunch of misfits that don't cooperate and could care less who they're working with. Leading this poor operation is director Kelvin Cheatum (Kevan Moezzi), who smiles like he's never heard of bankruptcy being a bad thing. However, it's not until a package of baked goods come on set and inside lies the dangerous gingerdead man. So my question is, how did he come back to life? How did he get all the way to this set? It was clear to why the gingerdead man needed victims, but why was it necessary to get his victims from this specific studio set? Viewers won't understand.

As for acting goes, Moezzi isn't a good actor at all and perhaps that's how his character was supposed to be written, but I found the first movie better because at least the actors tried to make their characters seem real. And they knew fear when problems arose, but here Kelvin is just a grinning emotionless shell of a character. The new voice actor behind the gingerdead man is okay but Gary Busey at least would've still been more appreciated. However, viewers may enjoy Joseph Porter's performance as Tommy. He gives his character a unique spin that even I was not expecting. That is one plus.

And the last two pluses are the special effects and violence. Considering the first film had bad special effects and a very small amount of violence, the improvement is noticed and it looks better to be honest. Sadly this doesn't help improve its overall score. The overall writing isn't good either. In fact, the title to the film only ties into the story at the very end. It's cheap, lazy and insulting to think that's how a story is told. There has to be a lead up to this kind of result, but instead it's just inserted last minute to stay true to the title. Not even the music helped this time around. Just another cash in is all it is.

This sequel has extremely loose continuity and bad acting. Even with improved special and practical effects, the character development is feeble and its plot is hardly even there.

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.

I basically love any and all movies Full Moon releases, so yea I liked this movie. I like that it was set on at a movie studio - obviously one just like Full Moon.

This was campy fun, with some gore, and a nice stupid twist right at the end. Oh, and it also had a dose of Satanism! Which, for me, anyway is something that is near and dear to my heart. In a way, this whole movie is kind of a spoof of Full Moon productions. It also touches a lot on the whole internet driven movie fandom as well as what its like to run a low-budget movie house. Oh, did I mention there is a crazy gingerbread man running around killing people? That alone makes this 100% of awesome.

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).