LEPRECHAUN: BACK 2 THA HOOD

MYTHOLOGY: No magic flute. Not a lot of crazy powers. Just gold, near-invincibility, and super-strength (for his size anyway). This is a stripped down Leprechaun, and I appreciated the change from the last film.

Also, we get a little explanation about the other leprechauns. Apparently, this guy is the last of his kind. Which is for the best, apparently.

BEST DEATH SCENE: Someone gets stabbed by a bong. Bong water turns red with blood. How come no other movie has thought of this before?

VERDICT: This is perhaps the most inept movie in the series, and it’s no surprise that they stopped with this one, but holy crap is it more fun than the previous installment. It adds some necessary physical comedy (pot-related, of course), and the main characters actually have some real-world issues besides “I want to be a rapper, maybe.” I think this installment definitely gets a bad rap. But it’s soundtrack is filled with bad rap, so I guess it’s fitting.

LEPRECHAUN IN THE HOOD

MYTHOLOGY: The magic necklace that turns the Leprechaun into stone is back. (Last seen in part 3.) The Leprechaun now has a magic flute. He is also stronger than in previous installments, controlling people’s minds and making their hearts explode.

WORST DEATH SCENE: Anything involving the transsexual character is mean-spirited and depressing. Not cool, Leprechaun. Not cool.

BEST SONG: This movie ends on a serious high note as the surprisingly victorious title character raps. Lep in the hood come to do no good! It’s not exactly Tupac, but whatever.

VERDICT: My least favorite installment in the series. I didn’t enjoy watching this movie, even if individual scenes are fun and clever. The acting was passible, and the Coolio cameo was the most random thing to ever happen in this series, but the trouble-making, anarchic vibe of the previous installments in mostly lacking.

Then again, the rap number…

LEPRECHAUN IN THE HOOD

STATS:

Leprechaun in the Hood

2000

Director: Rob Spera

Writer: William Wells, Alan Reynolds, Rob Spera, Doug Hall, John Hoffman (and based on characters by Mark Jones)

(With this many writers, it must be good!)

Starring: Warwick Davis, Ice T

WHA’ HAPPENED?

The Leprechaun is frozen as a statue until three bungling rapper/thieves accidentally resurrect him and steal his magic flute. They use the flute to get better at rapping. Both the Leprechaun and shady music producer Ice T chase after them to get the flute back. In the process, the Leprechaun gets high, creates an army of zombie fly-girls, and kills a bunch of people.

I believe it was inspired by the Bard.

WHAT YOU SAY?

Rather than list off the most quotable lines (which this movie has its fair share of), I’ve decided to post a video that combines Leprechaun with my second favorite Disney movie.

You guessed it: The Great Mouse Detective.

ISN’T THAT SPECIAL?

This is the penultimate chapter of the Leprechaun sextilogy. I’ve sat through the previous four. Why stop now?

Um… because you sat through Leprechaun in Space?

SHIRTS AND SKINS:

None that I can remember. We see a lot of zombie women in short skirts gyrating away to the Leprechaun’s ill rhymes, but nothing else of notice. Nothing gay, anyway.

BLOOD AND GUTS:

This film certainly doesn’t scrimp on gore. We have two exploding hearts, some mutilations, and strangulations galore. Background characters pop up in a scene just to be dispatched soon afterward… which is as it should be.

Oh? Is that a nameless pedestrian? He’s screwed.

PLOT HOLES AND CRAZINESS:

Continuity isn’t this series’ strong point, but where the heck did this magic flute come from?

If the Leprechaun can explode hearts from several feet away, why doesn’t he do that within the film’s first five minutes? Bing bang boom. It’s over. That would leave us enough time for lots more rapping.

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

All horror movies should have a minimum of one 1970s flashback. And all flashbacks should have a minimum of two jokes about hiding comically large objects in afros.

On second thought, no. That’s a horrible idea.

OK. IS IT GAY?

For an installment of the anything-goes, fun-loving Leprechaun saga, this entry is surprisingly homophobic. Sure, it’s set in the rap world, which isn’t known for being a bastion of gay visibility.

No homo, foo.

Or female empowerment.

No caption needed.

Even so, the film includes a cross-dressing character that everyone else finds disgusting. To make matters worse, he dies in a sexually demeaning way.

In addition, the wise grandmother mocks one of the other main characters for possibly being gay.

A different homophobic grandmother.

Later in the film, two separate characters are killed on two separate occasions because they were coming on to the Leprechaun disguised as a woman. “WHAT? You’re a man? WHAT? You’re killing me?” This could be interpreted as an indictment of chauvinism, but… nah. It seemed much too mean-spirited.

During the climax, our two heroes infiltrate the leprechaun’s lair dressed as call girls. This only muddles the gender politics further. Are they supposed to feel shame for how low they’re stooping? Do they suddenly have an insight into how they previously treated the deceased female impersonator? I don’t know. Jury’s still out.

All this comes down to a film that is surprisingly unfriendly to gay viewers (and women). It pains me to say this, because the Leprechaun is usually such a jolly fellow, but I’m giving this film a Pat Robertson.