Childâs Play 3
Rushed into production and onto theater screens a mere 9 months(!) after the previous entry, this is clearly the biggest failure of the series, failing to even make Chucky entertaining with foul-mouthed wisecracks that come off as tired rather than clever, as even Brad Dourif doing the voice seems off his game. Set eight years after Part 2, Chucky is revived due to poor maintenance at the toy factory, as some of his âbloodâ leaks into the latex tub used to make the dolls, leading to a new doll body and a new lease on life as he tracks Andy to a military school he now attends, but not before strangling the head of the toy company (after disabling him with marbles and darts). Sadly, since Andy is now a teen, Alex Vincent is pushed aside in favor of casting a new actor (Justin Whalin) who bears a striking resemblance to Natalie Portman (and is almost as pretty) and who shares her penchant for robotic, monotone acting as well. How someone like him is able to last a day at a military school is beyond me (not to mention his female love interest comes up short in the looks department), but then again this has to be the most undisciplined military school in cinematic history, with nearly half the student body seemingly sneaking around late at night. Overall, the acting is pretty abysmal, with the exception of Travis Fine, bringing a Niedermayer-esque quality to the asshole prick lead cadet. As for the others, we get Chuckyâs ânewâ targeted victim, an infantile black kid played by Jeremy Sylvers, who seems to be heavily coddled in the hardass environment but whose acting resembles an idiot child reading off cue cards while pretending to get scared even by dummies in a fun house late in the film; Perrey Reeves as the aforementioned love interest is flat as a board in the acting department while playing a character said to be âafraid of nothingâ yet is reduced to a quivering lump after encountering the killer dolly; the very Jewish-looking Dean Jacobson as the misfit cadet who befriends Andy gets to see Chucky early on (thus proving Andy is right) but spends the rest of the movie curled up in a fetal position instead of saying something; Andrew âScorpio Killerâ Robinson is wasted in an extended cameo as the military barber who takes his job too seriously; and Dakin Matthews as the fat old Colonel who runs the school clichĂ©s his way through the film before falling to a fatal heart attack at the mere sight of Chucky. The writing and story structure by franchise scribe Don Mancini is full of holes you can drive a mack truck through (as the writer claims he wasnât given enough time to come up with new ideas) such as when Chucky switches the paintball pellets for a training exercise with live ammo (as if trained soldiers donât always check their ammo on principal when they get a weapon). It all ends with a showdown at an amusement park seemingly in the middle of nowhere (âI had forgotten there were places like these where people go to have fun.â) and Andy swinging off of bars on a roller coaster in a fashion that would make Mitch Gaylord proud in order to stop Chucky. Add to that a bare minimum of gore and overall, you have one of the lamest horror sequels of all timeâŠ
3/10