Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 21 June 2019
Look out, Buzz. There's another good toy movie out

By MARK KENNEDY things. (Bring a strong stom-
Associated Press ach.)
There are two movies open- The reviews for "Toy Story
ing this weekend that fea- 4" are pretty good and
ture iconic anthropomor- you might be surprised to
phic dolls. Be very careful find that the "Child's Play
which one you choose. " reboot is actually pretty
"Toy Story 4" has the usual solid, too. It's a winking, self-
gang of lovable toys led aware horror movie that
by Woody and Buzz. (Bring will make you laugh even
tissues.) Then there's the when things are drenched
remake of "Child's Play," in blood.
which has Chucky, the The original "Child's Play"
freckle-faced homicidal came out in 1988 and fea-
doll who likes stabbing tured the nightmare-creat-

This image released by Orion Pictures shows the character Chucky from the horror film, "Child's
Play."
Associated Press

ing concept of your dolls "You're my best friend," says ominous is happening. The
coming to life and harming Chucky when he's taken final climactic fight scene
you. It was a fairly straight- out of the box. To which his happens in a dark base-
ahead horror flick with a new owner naturally says: ment sporting industrial
dash of commentary on "It's kind of creepy." spinning fans with light and
consumerism. But the fran- This time, Chucky is creat- smoke pouring out of them.
chise — six sequels — grad- ed by the nefarious Kaslan At one point, there's a "Star
ually grew camp, most re- Corporation, which has a Wars" joke that is extra fun-
cently with "Cult of Chucky" range of interconnected ny because Mark Hamill is
in 2017. products. A sweatshop voicing Chucky.
The reboot this summer has worker in Vietnam tasked There's so much tongue-
sidestepped Chuck's real with assembling the dolls in-cheek humor that even
dad — the writer and di- disconnects one of its se- though the body count
rector Don Mancini — and curity protocols in a fit of mounts — and some in the
freshened the concept pique. It ends up in the audience may be surprised
for 2019: Chucky is no lon- hands of a single mother that death comes to ani-
ger possessed. Now he's (Aubrey Plaza) and her mals and beloved figures
a cloud-connected, self- lonely son, Andy (Gabriel alike — there's really no
learning AI doll with wide Bateman). Chucky tries to dread. Somehow, despite
powers: He controls the understand human behav- "Silence of the Lambs"-lev-
lights, TVs, Roomba, cars ior but stumbles at subtle- el carnage, the gore level
and other electronic devic- ty. He's imprinted to Andy doesn't shock, inoculated
es. Underneath the gleeful and lashes out at anything as we are by being in on
horror is a commentary on that Andy dislikes, whether the joke. Riffing off that,
our dependence and the that's the family cat or his composer Bear McCreary
interconnectivity of our de- mom's new boyfriend. leans in on "Omen"-like, ev-
vices.Director Lars Klevberg The filmmakers have left er-building horror music.
and screenwriter Tyler Bur- little Easter eggs through- The film's tautness comes
ton Smith don't pretend the out the film, from refer- and goes, to be honest,
killer doll trope hasn't been ences to "The Texas Chain never really building to
done before. They fully dive Saw Massacre" to "Office edge-of-your-seat stuff.
into it, gently mocking the Space." They have a jokey And it could have had
genre as they exploit it and tendency to use old-school more glee messing with
signal to the audience all lightning whenever they our love of digital conve-
along what they're doing. want to signal something nience. q