Leprechaun 2

Top o’ the morning to ye!

This is where the sanity and logic start to drain out of the Leprechaun series. Given that part 1 wasn’t exactly brim-full of those 2 attributes, I think you can sense the acceleration into craziness that’s coming. The European title of “One wedding and lots of funerals” lets you know what they were thinking.

To begin with (setting up the MO of the rest of the series), they make the wise decision to just kick that strumpet continuity out of the bed, as if she were little more than a horribly abused one night stand. They don’t even think about it, and completely jettison the entire first film. So this is now a completely different Leprechaun, with different hopes and dreams, not to mention different powers and weaknesses. This time around the filthy little pervert just wants to get his hole, and he’s developed an alcohol problem. They also, unfortunately for them, but hilariously for the viewer, kick mathematics out of the window as well.

The film opens with the Leprechaun stalking an Irish wench, who will fall under his spell when she sneezes three times. This will condemn her to an eternity of vile screwings, and eventual death giving birth to multiple Leprechaun-lets. Unfortunately for him things go tits up and he has to wait another 1000 years for the chance to have another go- because for some reason best not thought about, the Leprechaun can only get his dick wet on his birthday every thousand years. There’s fat bastards that get laid more often than that.

Here’s where reason and logic say “fuck this for a game of soldiers” and come out waving a little white flag. There have been only 10 generations of the Leprechaun’s chosen’s family. My maths is shit, but even I can work out that as in this instance only 10 generations have been born it means that each woman gives birth when she’s 100. I don’t think so. Come on, dudes, would it really have been that hard to write “30″ instead of “10″? Really?

Anyhow, he travels to America, gets revived by a bottle of whiskey, and pursues his bride- who is now a hot teenager with a douchey boyfriend and con man uncle.

Cue shenanigans, bloody murder and eventual defeat of the Leprechaun.

There’s a lot to like about this one. It’s much messier than the original, there’s the first flash of boob in the series, and Warwick is starting to get into his str (see what I did there) as the Leprechaun. This isn’t his craziest Leprechaun, but it’s one of his best, and it certainly has the best couplets of any of them:

Drink all you want, Drink all you can, You’ll never beat me, I’m the Leprechaun

I love the terrible poetry in these films. It really never fails to make me laugh- I even like it when other characters start to take the piss out of the Leprechaun and recite bad poetry themselves- viz(paraphrasing as I can’t remember it exactly):

You think you are smart but I’ll tell you shorty, You’ve got to get up early to outfox old Morty

It’s also got one of the funniest scenes of the series- the drinking battle between the Lep and Morty in a bar, surrounded by midgets who think he’s just in costume for St. Patrick’s day. These aren’t ordinary runts either- you may recognise some of them from other films.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot to hate in it as well- the pacing is all fucked up, to begin with. They spend far too much time with Cody and Morty and I just don’t care about them, and nowhere near enough time with the Leprechaun. To be fair, every time we do spend time with the Leprechaun something hilarious happens (the hangover scene, or the guy that tries to bury his face between an imaginary woman’s boobs with disastrous consequences, or robbing a tramps gold teeth), but I’d rather have more Lep and less douchebag.

Secondly, there’s a funny disjointed feel to the film- it hops around all over the place cutting back and forth between scenes with nary a damn for narrative. The acting in this film, with the obvious exception of Warwick and the less obvious exception of Sandy Baron as Morty, is uniformly crap.

What I don’t understand about this film, and I really don’t get it, is that whereas the original cost $900,000 and you can see it on screen, this cost $2m and you can’t honestly say it looks better than the first film. Which sort of tool gives someone intending to make a Leprechaun film $2m?

Overall, I do heartily recommend this one, the series is starting to accelerate into insanity, and it’s a hugely entertaining slice of schlock- while not being as good as the next few entries. Gross and funny, this is the Leprechaun films developing and coming of age.

Next up: Lep in Vegas.

To be continued,

Jarv

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