Leprechaun (R)
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So, this came out in 1993, but I didn't see it til 2013 (20 years later), on St. Patrick's Day. It's something I've been vaguely aware of for a long time, but I would've guessed came out in the 80s. Anyway, it's not something I ever particularly planned to watch, but now I have. The movie spawned five sequels. Which is kind of unbelievable. Um... I'm putting the review under "scary movies," but it seems at least as much a comedy or B-movie as it is horror. Seriously, the whole thing is super redonkulous... though I suppose if it happened in real life, it would be genuinely terrifying. Because, damn, that leprechaun just doesn't seem to give a shit who he hurts or kills, even if they haven't done anything to warrant his ire. In any event, I guess I'm glad Warwick Davis got some work, because I liked him in other things. It's also nice to see Jennifer Aniston before she got famous... I think she's meant to be a teenager in this, but she was actually in her 20s, and totally looks it. Anyway... her legs are probably the best thing about the movie. Though the redonkulousness is fun, too.

It begins with an Irish-American guy named Dan O'Grady coming home from a trip to Ireland, where apparently he had gone for his mother's funeral. While there, he had caught a leprechaun (Davis) and taken his bag of 100 gold coins. But the leprechaun seems to have stowed away in a suitcase, and wants his gold back. He kills Dan's wife, but Dan manages to seal him in a crate, on which he puts a four leaf clover, which deprives the leprechaun of his magic.

Flash forward 10 years, and some guy named J.D. (who is of no importance to the plot) moves into the old O'Grady house with his daughter, Tory (Aniston), who hates the place. I think it was just supposed to be a summer vacation from L.A., or whatever. There's no mention of her mom, but I get the impression she hasn't seen her dad in awhile. Anyway, the inside of the house is pretty much filled with cobwebs, and we saw at least one spider that was really big, so... as much as she kept saying she didn't want to stay there, there's no way in hell I would have stayed after seeing one of those spiders. But they're not important. Honestly, though, I don't know why the guy was planning on actually staying there before the place had been thoroughly cleaned (and there should have been an exterminator, too). But at least he apparently had hired some painters. One was a guy named Nathan, and when Tory first meets him, it seems like the sort of meet-cute where she hates him at first, but also is obviously attracted to him. But mainly she decides to stay in the house to prove to him that she's not scared. Anyway, Nathan works with a kid named Alex (his younger brother) and a somewhat mentally challenged guy named Ozzie, who believes in all kinds of magic stuff (for which Alex derides him).

Well, Ozzie is the first person to see the leprechaun, when he unwittingly releases him from the crate in the basement. Of course, no one believes him. But eventually they all see the leprechaun (well, except for J.D., who had by that point been sent to stay at the hospital after something bit him). So most of the rest of the movie is about the leprechaun terrorizing Tory, Nathan, Alex, and Ozzie. Though he also manages to find time to kill some random people who didn't do a damn thing to him (as I said earlier). Of course, he basically just wanted his gold back. And at some point, Alex and Ozzie found it and re-hid it (but that was before Alex believed in the leprechaun).

Um... not sure what else to say. As usual, I don't want to reveal how the movie ends. But I liked at one point seeing a box of "Lucky Clovers" cereal (an obvious "Lucky Charms" reference, which was kind of amusing). And it is nice to see a depiction of a leprechaun that's not just like Lucky from the cereal commercials. (Leprechauns really should be potentially menacing, though maybe not this menacing.) And... eh, there were vaguely scary and amusing things about the movie, and the friendship between Ozzie and Alex was actually sort of sweet, at times. Mostly, though, the movie was just ridiculous... which I guess is part of its charm?