Director: Rob Letterman
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 103 minutes
Goosebumps (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Goosebumps was a children’s horror series in the nineties which was immensely popular. Nonetheless, when 2000 came around the corner, there were only traces left of its popularity and thus it actually faded into nothingness. While the series spawned a lot of merchandise as well, it seems that R. L. Stine, the author of the series, simply had enough of his own creation. Nonetheless, it seems that last year there was perhaps a shimmer of hope the series would be revived, albeit kick-started with a movie but so far, it’s only the movie that made its way to our doorstep. That being said, we hereby present you our review of the spooky-yet-not-so-scary Goosebumps movie.
When Zach (Dylan Minnette) and his mother Gale (Amy Ryan) move from the big city to Madison, Delaware, Zach isn’t all that convinced he is going to like this backwatered place, at least until he sees the beautiful girl that lives next door. There’s an immediate spark between Zach and Hannah (Odeya Rush) but when her father Mr. Stine (Jack Black) immediately intervenes and tells Zach to back off and mind his own business, things turn rather dull and bland again in Madison. To make things even worse, his mother will be the vice principal of the school he attends and thus another reason to be ashamed is added to an already long list. Nonetheless, Zach immediately befriends the school’s geek Champ (Ryan Lee) and manages to get through his first days of school. When suddenly Hannah pops up when Zach is taking out the trash, they head into the forest to mess around with an abandoned theme park, making it ever so clear that the two teens show a certain interest in one another. Sadly, upon their return, her father finds out and she runs inside of the house, and after Zach gets threatened again, Stine runs inside the house as well. When a fight can clearly be heard outside and Hannah starts screaming, Zach calls the police because he believes something is amiss. The police however doesn’t find anything and leaves it at that, even though Hannah is nowhere to be found.
The night of the school dance Zach calls Champ and asks him to break into Hannah’s house, in order to see if everything is alright. While breaking into the house proved to have its difficulties, they manage to reach the ground floor and they make the discovery that Stine is actually the author of the popular Goosebumps series, but the manuscripts of all his books are locked, which is quite odd. Forgetting completely about Hannah, Champ wants to unlock one of the books to see what is inside, and when doing so, Hannah suddenly barges in and asks if they unlocked any of the books. Zach admits and when picking up a book, the pages fall open and before they know it the abominable snowman of Pasadena is spawned from the book. Shocked and fairly dazed the trio of youngsters try to suck the being back into the book, but when it makes a run for it the beast runs into town making amok. Little did they know that when the snowman hit the shelves inside Stine’s home, it also hit the other books, unlocking the worst one of them all, namely the one that contained Slappy (Jack Black), an evil puppet with a clever mind. It’s his plan to unleash all of Stine’s monsters upon the world and thus it seems Madison isn’t a really boring place anymore.
Goosebumps has a rather pleasant, somewhat predictable, flow, albeit after a slightly lengthy introduction. When the monsters are out in the open, you’ll go from one action scene to another, where in reality the main cast members just try to outrun whatever is coming for them. Nonetheless, the pace is very enjoyable and before you know it the credits start rolling, meaning everything that just transpired wasn’t really too long, but in all honesty, this movie would not have been improved if it was lengthier. Everything is being handled properly and it’s just the right length.
Acting performances are quite decent, even though it’s clear that Dylan Minnette is a few years older than the age he’s supposed to be, which isn’t really bothersome but it just feels like the casting crew settled for the first man that came around the corner. Even though Odeya Rush’s acting performance is quite lovely and her dreamy demeanor will certainly charm a lot of boys watching the movie, it also feels as if they are trying to make her the new Mila Kunis, not only because of the resemblances with that said actress, but also because the way she had to act in the movie. Jack Black offers the viewers his typical antics, which are a love or hate kind of thing.
Outside of the typical deleted scenes, the gag reel and other standard extras, this Blu-ray release of Goosebumps has several original and fun special features. Not only will you see unedited scenes played out in front of a blue screen, there are also tutorials on how to make fake blood, a mummy and a survival guide in case you come across any of Stine’s monstrous creations. Of course, most of these last few features are meant for a younger audience, but they are fun nonetheless.
Conclusion
It has to be said that the creators of the movie did a fun job reviving Goosebumps and truth be told, we enjoyed it for the most part. While movies like this often have a rather predictable plot, Goosebumps had a few surprising twists along the way. If you like a fun family flick with some cool looking monsters, this one will amuse you.
All pictures © 2015 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., LSC Film Corporation and Village Roadshow Films Global Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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