Customer Reviews

Leprechaun In the Hood

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS***
It has been said the good movies are merely entertaining, whereas great ones alter the way we think and feel about things. Leprechaun 'N the Hood is a great movie. Writer Doug Hall had a message he wanted to convey, and thankfully he came into contact with a director the caliber of Rob Spera to help him bring it to the masses. Spera was able to relay Hall's vision in a manner that was both entertaining and touching. The reason this film resonates with the audience is due to the characters and how they develop throughout the story. The plot revolves around three aspiring rappers and their dreams of fame and fortune as their ambition leads them down a road of pain and despair. As part of their Machiavellian plot for stardom, they are reduced to robbing a famous rap producer and end up stealing a magic flute that guarantees their success in the rap world. At the same time, they also inadvertently awaken the vile leprechaun. Our first impression is that the leprechaun is an abject and detestable creature, and perhaps he is. By the end of the movie however, the viewer can't help being moved to anything but compassion for him. It isn't so much that the leprechaun evolves during the movie, it is more that the viewer evolves as the story progresses. As Leprechaun 'N the Hood unfolds, we come to accept that the deplorable leprechaun resides within all of us. We realize that everyone has a leprechaun within, it is only a matter of how well we contain it and what events could lead it to manifest itself. In the case of Postmaster P., it is his greed and ambition that unleash the Leprechaun, and we all see the horrific results. Unlike ridiculous Hollywood fodder such as "It's a Wonderful Life" this movie will have a profound effect on viewers because the characters are realistic. They have real faults and weaknesses, and we can truly learn about others and ourselves by understanding them. This is a movie ideal for parents to watch with their children and then discuss afterwards. From the opening scene to the heart wrenching conclusion in which the leprechaun explains his plight in a poignant rap of his own, this movie will change the way you look at yourself and those around you. As the leprechaun explains in his song "I hate to resort so soon to magic, I haven't been la!d in so long it's tragic." Tragic indeed.

This is one of those movies, you will love it, or you will hate it. It's not in the least bit scary, but then again none of the Lep movies really are. You don't watch them to be scared, you watch them because deep down, you know you love to see people running and screaming from him. It's just fun to watch. Over the life span of the Leprachaun movies. We've seen him in the back woods, outerspace, now the hood! It might not be a logical step, but it makes for an oddly entertaining movie. I think the movie can be summed up by the beginning. Where the Lep is freed from frozen state and quotes "free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I'm free at last" with a laugh. There is a lot wrong with him quoting Martin Luther King, but it's funny! And there's quite a bit of humor people will find offensive, there are stereotypes played up, but remember it's all in fun. For a good part of this movie the lep isn't even in it. I think the 3 homies add much to it, and Ice Tee is a riot. But the Lep as always, takes the cake. We have him rapping, we have him smoking marajuana, and even a mack, with all his ladies. This is a flick you cannot take serious, and while it's humorus, it's more of an underlined offbeat humor. You'll either get it, or you'll think this is a waste of a movie. I personally love it. When it comes to cheesy movies you can't take seriously, this is a rare gem.

Until we learned that another "Leprechaun" film would explode onto the public's consciousness at the end of 2003, "Leprechaun in the Hood" a.k.a "Leprechaun 5" appeared to be the final installment in a series that had long worn out its welcome. The first three movies weren't all that bad in terms of entertainment value, with Warwick Davis developing his shtick against the backdrop of bad acting from unknown thespians, increasingly cheesy situations, lamer jokes and sight gags, and gorier killings. The amusement value of the "Leprechaun" franchise came to a screeching halt with the release of the fourth film, where the miniscule fairy turned up in a film set in space with disastrous results. Apparently scared by how bad a product they had turned out, the friendly folks at Trimark waited almost four years before returning to the land of the leprechauns. The result? Y2K's "Leprechaun in the Hood," an idea so outrageous, so full of pitfalls from the start that even trash cinema lovers stopped breathing for a heartbeat. Now we await the return of Davis in "Leprechaun: Back 2 Da Hood" and wonder where it all went wrong. Whatever it means, we are light years away from a fresh-faced Jennifer Aniston running from the malevolent monster back in the halcyon days of 1993. The phrase "You can never go home again" never resonated so strongly.

However pedestrian this film is, it is important to state that "Leprechaun 5" is vastly superior to its immediate predecessor. After watching the diminutive demon cackle his way through space, I didn't know what to expect from this film. I knew I would get some killings and see Davis deliver ham handed lines in a thick Irish brogue, but I swore I would toss my DVD player through the window before I endured a repeat of the fourth movie. Don't get me wrong: this movie still ranks as mediocrity incarnate, but it is at least watchable. Perhaps the appearance of Ice-T and the three actors who played the young rappers looking for a big break helped move this picture along. Even the guys who played the money grubbing minister and the cross dresser who has an unfortunate encounter with the leprechaun provided a few chuckles along the way. Overall, the performances here are head and shoulders above several entries in the series (look back to Bridget's wooden delivery in "Leprechaun 2" as a comparison).

The plot, such as it is, now finds the tiny terror once again turned to stone and vulnerable to thieving humans in search of gold. Enter Ice-T as Mack Daddy, a street thug with an Afro the size of a mountain who has heard that this statue hides some valuables. He especially wants to get his hands on a tiny golden flute that has the unique power to instantly spellbind anyone who hears it. In the course of securing the magical instrument, the leprechaun wakes up when Mack Daddy's accomplice takes a necklace off of the statue (shades of "Leprechaun 3"). After a pitched battle that sees the pimp taking weapons out of his afro (sigh), the little imp is re-imprisoned and we flash ahead about ten or twenty years to the present day. Mack is now a big shot record producer, always on the lookout to sign hot new gangsta rappers on his label. Around his wrist he wears that magic flute he stole so many years ago, and most people have no idea where his money or his talent come from. Postmaster P, Stray Bullet, and Butch, three kids who formed a group to sing songs with a positive message, certainly don't know about Mack's magical success story. When Mack Daddy gives the three a chance at stardom, Postmaster P turns him down because he doesn't want anything to do with the negativity of gangsta rap. Mack kicks the kids out, but the three come back at night to rob his house in order to get some money so they can afford to compete in a talent competition.

Regrettably, during the course of the robbery Mack Daddy takes a bullet and the leprechaun, sitting in a glass cage in the middle of Mack's office, is once again freed to maim and kill. It turns out that Mack Daddy didn't die, but the kids stole his flute and he wants it back. So does the leprechaun, who promptly kills anyone the three rappers encounter after the robbery. The rest of the movie is a series of ridiculous situations involving these characters as they try to stay one step ahead of the others. Throw in a cross dresser, a naughty rap song about Jesus at the local church, a funny black grandmother, fly girls from hell (sigh again), an ending so incredibly stupid that I slipped into a coma after I watched it, and you have all the elements of an incredibly cheesy production that plays more like a slapstick comedy than a horror film. "Leprechaun in the Hood" is definitely for diehard fans of the series only. Again, at least it is better than part four.

The DVD for this movie is the same as any other Trimark "Leprechaun" disc: some trailers and a good picture transfer. Again, there is no commentary for the movie from Warwick Davis. You have to admit that after watching a few of these movies, you would love to hear what the lead actor has to say about his character. As bad as some of these movies have been, I really don't blame Warwick Davis for reprising his role as the leprechaun. Parts for the permanently diminutive are scarce in Hollywood, to say the least, so beating this dead horse for yet another paycheck is something I would do in similar circumstances. "Leprechaun" cannot last forever, can it?

Meaningless National Holidays are the best, aren't they? We, Sid the Elf, certainly think so. They give us the chance to, among other things, watch a ton of B and consume a copious ammount of food. If there is a better combination, other than the trifecta, Sid has yet to find it. So, we decided to honor Christopher Columbus in the best way possible by double-dipping B and getting some unbelievable Italian take-out to honor the famous Italian explorer. The first selection was Leprechaun in the Hood. We can admit that we got suckered in by even the slightest possibility of seeing the leprechaaun(Sid's Irish cousin) chase Ice-T around with a pink turkey baster. Well, that didn't happen. So we were disappointed by that and by the film overall.

This film started with a scene set in the 70's. Ice-T's character Mack Daddy(lots of thought went into that one) and an equally fro'ed buddy went on a treasure hunt in the cave of the Irish elf. They take the necklace from around the leprechaun's neck which awakens him from his state of stone. The leprechaun procedes to stab Ice-T's buddy in the throat with a 'fro pick and he attempts to kill Ice-T, but honestly, who hasn't? Anyway, Ice manages to get the necklace back onto Irish Sid's neck and turn him back to stone after stealing the leprechaun's magical flute that mesmerizes anyone who hears it. Then we flash-forward to the present(2000) where Mack Daddy is a big-shot record producer, presumably due largely to his magical flute. One of the groups eager to catch Mack Daddy's eye and play his flute were three complete wackbags from Compton. Now, this flick took the early 90's Compton thing and tried to make it play in 2000. This probably wouldn't have worked even if the group in question here wasn't trying to convey a positive message using a "gangsta rap" style. Not surprisingly, Mack Daddy didn't sign the three cool cats. So, they decide to rob/trash Mack Daddy's house. In the course of the robbery, Mack Daddy takes a bullet and the leprechaun, who is in stone form sitting in a glass case in Mack Daddy's office is freed. Also, the rappers take Mack Daddy's flute. So these three now have Ice-T and the leprechaun chasing after them in order to get the flute back. The guys then decide to hide out with a drag queen, take a few pointers then cross-dress, themselves as Sid is quite sure they had previously done many times. They end up using the flute to proceed in the rap world and...ok we'll be honest, we started fast-forwarding at this point because even we couldn't take it anymore. We only stopped at two points in the rest of the movie. One was when we spotted Coolio(yep, he was available) and decided to throw some easy jokes his way. The other was undoubedly the highlight of this movie and probably all of the Leprechaun movies. The Leprechaun burned a unit. Really, just a holistic, watershed moment in Sid's B-watching life.

What we really don't understand is how this film went wrong. There was an elf as the main character with Surviving the Game alum Ice-T as a major focal point. Coolio even made an apperance which led to a ton of good cracks. Running the risk of sounding inarticulate, this movie was just plain stupid. The rappers were unbelievably unlikable and they reeked of "If this isn't my big break, I have 50 years of Mickey D'd ahead of me" desperation. The plot was ridiculous with the inexplicable cross-dressing/drag queens. And there wasn't enough leprechaun. Irish Sid was only in about a half of the film. We needed to see a lot more of that little mainiac running around offing people with a potato or a magic bottle of Jameson's or something. We grew tired of the rapping and internal strife within the rap group aspect really quickly. Just a terrible film all around. Take our word for it, if we couldn't even make it through the entire film, it's utterly awful. Don't waste your time. Well, unless you'd get a kick out of seeing Irish Sid puff. That was a phenomonal 10 seconds.

boy this sucker doesnt know when to die. I'm just questioning myself how the **ck does he do it, but this one along with Ice-T's bad performance and the story goes dead in the night and never comes back, it gets lost a lot of times.

Ok, after seeing this movie, i can honestly say it is the most horrid piece of media that I have ever experienced, even worse than, dare I say it, Battlefield Earth. But then again, I also had an incredibly fun time watching this pot of you know what - I mean, COME ON, it ends with the leprechaun rapping in a club...it was such an awkward scene I could barely contain my joy. Plus, it even has the rhyme master himself, ice-T.
This is essentially the plight of the good guy rapper Postmaster P, whose music is truly horrible...that is, until he steals the leprechaun's golden flute from Mack Daddy (Ice-T). But this leprechaun wants his flute back...and he's rapping the whole way (with a little backup vocals by the "zombie fly girls").
This movie was also obviously made for TV, as the transitions clearly reminisce of commercial breaks.
If youre a fan of ice-T AND the leprechaun, this movie was made for you...enjoy!

OK, it wasn't that bad, I just really wanted to get to use that line for once (my friend who went to see Lep 1 in the theater yelled it out during the movie and got a huge ovation).

My same friend also made a good point about watching the Lep series in general: you know exactly what you're getting up front. It's not like after the movie you're going to say to yourself, surprised, "well, THAT was a total piece of (bad word rhyming with "hit")". You can't really be mad at yourself. It's not like going to see, say, Whipped or 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag where you think you might actually laugh once or twice at something or enjoy the movie at some points, but end up wanting to punch everyone involved in the face (even Joe Pesci). No-one tricked you into it.

Anyway, this one was better than part 4 (In Space), but of course that's not saying much. The best one of the series (I can't believe I'm saying that-I should say "the least painful to sit through" instead) was the one set in Vegas. This one I rented mainly because I heard it was mildly amusing, better than part 4, but mainly I wanted to see Ice-T in a 70's pimp outfit sporting a big 'fro. I think the whole budget went towards paying his salary and they didn't have much left over for costumes, special effects, sets, etc. Oh well, it still beat 'Play it to the Bone'.

This one had at least some entertainment value because it didn't take itself too seriously. A couple of things happened I didn't expect. Of course, couple things also happened that I didn't WANT to happen but had a horrible premonition that they were going to, such as the Leprechaun smoking a blunt and rapping (though not at the same time, Thank God). They were a few times I was surprised to burst out laughing at stuff that I think was supposed to intentionally be funny. There was one particularly funny moment when the heroes are hiding from the Leprechaun that was worth the money I paid to rent it, because it was exactly like a scene from Scooby-Doo (in fact, I think it WAS a scene they stole from Scooby-Doo, but at least they stole from something amusing). I thought at first it was just because I had the flu at the time I watched it and had lots of Nyquil, but then my husband laughed at it too. There's another scene where two characters are having a very serious discussion about how to go after the Lep -- this is after a tragic event occurs, so I figured the movie was going to stop trying to be funny-- and you see that one of them is holding "Leprechauns For Dummies". For some reason (maybe this time it was the Nyquil) that also struck me as pretty amusing.

I bet some overly politically correct people would be really offended by this movie. For instance, you could easily have a Leprechaun 5: In the Hood Drinking Game with your friends (hey, you could use Nyquil! It's even green) during the movie just by drinking every time a character says, "a'ight", "yo", "homie", or "that (same bad word as before) is WHACKED, man!". So, while on the negative side, we have the fact that the movie is completely stupid and mindless, with little gore, and really cheap production values, we do have the positives of a few good laughs and the fact that it would anger the overly PC. I've seen a lot of horror movies WAY worse and more insulting to viewer's intelligence, so I didn't really want my money back after I rented it.

What seems like a fun idea on paper can often be a disaster when played out. Such is the case with this monstrosity of a sequel. How can you go wrong with The Leprechaun going to the hood and trading one-liners with Ice-T? Well, this movie is so packed with awful ideas and poor sterotypes that you wonder who would ever allow it to go into production? Clearly, whoever wrote it is not a fan of hip-hop nor has ever actually been to any type of urban area because they come up with ideas that members of either community would find insulting.

Ice-T is a rap mogul/gangsta with the highly original name "Mack Daddy" who steals the Leprechaun's flute and uses it to succeed in the rap world. Don't ask me how! A trio of lame rappers named Butch, Postmaster P, and Stray Bullet steal the flute and end up unleashing the Leprechaun. They spend most of the movie hiding out in either the church or with some goofy "drag queen". For some reason, the writers find quite a bit of humor in grown men dressing like woman as for reasons that make no sense, the bumbling rappers dress up like broads and go back to find Mack Daddy. If you manage to sit through this hour and a half of trash, you get rewarded with a Leprechaun rap. Doesn't that make it all worth it?

If you're a big fan of cross-dressing or some rather racist humor (Leprechaun even pokes fun at Martin Luther King), this one will blow your hair back. This has to go down as one of the dumbest horror franchise entries that I have ever seen.

... what have they done to this series! The Leprechaun series remained excellent until part 4, which wasnt as bad as some say, I actually thought that was quite good. But this is utter ...! wasnt even good for a few cheap low budget film thrills!! I give it one star for the makeup on the Lep, the girls, the few jokes, and the ok gore scenes. If youre looking for a good continuation of the series, skip this one! Its not even suitable for a follow-up to 4!! To horrible to describe it any further! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!...

I have now seen everything..Irishmen and lovers of Gangsta Rap/ghetto movies now have something in common..'A Lep in Da Hood, the true O.G'..wow!! From the movie title and the fact that the Original Gangsta himself, Ice-T, stars in it, you should already realise that this is not going to be a good movie, if you expect anything else, then maybe you should cut down on that medication.
Anywhoos back to the movie, it has everything you could ask for from a low budget extravaganza, terrible acting, crass racial stereotypes, nausea inducing rapping and even worse rhyming from Da Lep. For the 'icing on the cake' you have a preposterous 'plot', which in no shape or form makes any sense whatsoever. In short this movie is atrocious, so bad that you can't help but enjoy yourself. The director is from the 1980's Sam Raimi school of movie making i.e. 'we'd like to make a scary movie, but we have a seriously low budget, so we are going to just settle for taking the piss' etc. It is hilariously bad, even more so in the rare scenes when it supposed to be serious. Thank God, there are still directors out there, who don't take themselves or their work seriously. What a great world we live in!
If you are looking for a good scare, look elsewhere, but if you consider yourself as I do, a connoisseur of bad movies, then you are in for a treat. If you, also like myself, posses a `cringe inducing' DVD collection, the kind that you are even afraid to show to your closest relations because it is so bad, then you must buy this, otherwise your life will not be complete.