Remember the two-foot-tall, serial-killing doll? Chucky first waddled
onto the big screen in "Child's Play" (1998) in which a toy doll's spirit was
overtaken by the evil, anger-filled soul of a psychopath. A cult villain, he's
now in his fifth incarnation and Don Mancini, creator of the Chucky franchise
and screenwriter on the previous movies, has taken over as director.
In the last installment, Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) took a bride,
Tiffany (voiced by Jennifer Tilly), and then they killed each other. But now
there's their orphaned doll, gentle Glen (voiced by "Lord of the Rings" star
Billy Boyd), who uses a magic amulet to bring his parents back from the dead in
order to make a movie. Immediately, they start to argue about whether
anatomically incorrect Glen is a Glen or a Glenda, referring to the
gender-blending "Ed Wood."
In addition to voicing Tiffany, Jennifer Tilly plays a has-been
Oscar-winner named Jennifer Tilly who whines about Julia Roberts' career since
she's been reduced to starring in this mess - which is all about the dolls'
plans to impregnate her with yucky Chucky's sperm - and sleeping with a
director, played by the hip-hop star Redman, who's producing a Biblical epic
about the Virgin Mary in which Tilly covets the plum part. "You have no
self-esteem," Tilly's assistant (Hannah Spearritt) observes. "No wonder your
career is in trouble." Ain't it the truth!
There's nothing scary about all of this - except the fact that it got
made in the first place - and most of the humor falls thuddingly flat. A car
carrying a Britney Spears look-alike goes off a cliff, and Santa Claus is
burned in a graveyard. That's funny? On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, I
grudgingly give "Seed of Chucky" a gross 1. It's so bad it shouldn't even be
rated.
Copyright © 2004 Susan Granger