Charles Band... what a guy. If you are familiar with Full Moon Pictures you are familiar with Charlie and some of the stories surrounding him and his movie studio. From successful and now classic horror films like Re-Animator and From Beyond to his successful and cult Puppetmaster series to the abysmal films that make up the majority of his filmography that only a sadomasochist would enjoy, the man has been a part of hundreds of movies. Love him or hate him he gets his movies made and distributed. The GINGERDEAD MAN series may never reach the status of genre classic but they have been entertaining.
GINGERDEAD MAN 2: PASSION OF THE CRUST is a sequel to 2005's original which was directed by Charles Band, 3 years later came this equally as silly movie which was directed by Silvia St. Croix, which is an Alan Smithee type deal. Alan Smithee was a name directors were credited as when they didn't want their name attached to a film. Whoever the director was, they did a decent job making a Full Moon movie. GINGERDEAD MAN 2 has the all of the expected fare and follies. There is plenty of laughs both intentional and not, and plenty of drag in the story during a movie with an extremely modest runtime. 72 minutes of movie is closer to a single hour once the backstory of the original and end credits are accounted for.
The movie follows the titled character, a killer gingerbread cookie possessed by the soul of a murderer. After transferring his soul to another character and being baked back into a cookie in the first entry to the series the cookie is transported to the set of Cheatum Studios' newest picture in a bakery box. Needing a body to transport his soul to the killer cookie finds a spell in one of the movie studio's prop books which begins his rampage of terror. It is up to an aging movie star who is sick and tired of working for a movie studio that makes crappy movies to save anyone that hasn't already fallen victim to THE GINGERDEAD MAN.
Where do I even begin? From a film making standpoint this movie (like most Full Moon movies) is awful. The thing is, that is the point of these movies. Charles Band knows exactly the type of movies he makes. They're silly, over the top and certainly not for everyone. The majority are truly painful to sit through, but occasionally he makes one that is really fun to watch. GINGERDEAD MAN 2 falls somewhere in the middle. It starts out with a corny yet oddly silly fairy tale opening, a song about the cookie to the tune of Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation", and then spends the duration between corny humor, over the top kills and slooooooooow parts. It does have a certain charm about it similar to the first film, that puts it among the better Full Moon movies of recent years.
Is this movie for everyone? Certainly not. You'll know if it is even worth checking out by reading the plot. Some people like this nonsense, most hate it. I gave it a chance with a few drinks and had some good laughs and a decent time. If they could just get someone that could write a solid 70 minutes instead of a solid 35 minutes they'd have a recipe for success (get it?).
5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment