Leprechaun Retrospective, part 6: Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood (2003)

Today on Movie Russian Roulette, Alex finds insult added to injury.

why?

Overview: The movie opens with a neat little animation sequence telling us yet another backstory for the Leprechaun, stating he was one of many of the wee folk who were summoned by a rich king as guardians against evil. However, only our Leprechaun remained and became evil. Take a guess how relevant this is to the movie. The answer is after the break!





If you answered "not even remotely," then congratulations! Your B movie plot instincts are very finely honed.

that swagger cannot be denied, though

Meanwhile in the actual plot, some twentysomethings in the hood in (INSERT TOWN HERE BECAUSE THE MOVIE DOESN'T) find the Leprechaun's gold after he's been sealed away yet again. Murders ensue. Once again, the movie barely even tries. At this point, I'm just holding out hope for the reboot to be good so I can finish this retrospective on a triumphant note.

Notable moments/quotes: Leprechaun, to priest who stole his gold: "Even if you steal for God, ya still have to pay the Devil."

While one of the interchangeable characters with no personality was buying weed, a white guy in a suit appears. He drops an N-bomb. A car's brakes screech, and he quickly flees, murmuring "Oh God, oh God, oh God..."

At a party, someone smoking weed assumes the Leprechaun is a hallucination. The Lep smokes with him, then kills him by stabbing the bong through his stomach.

The Leprechaun's chest (not pot) of gold refills itself every time it's closed and reopened. This is never adequately explained.

Rory, the drug dealer of the four friends that compose the main cast, at first is in favor of keeping the gold and running from the pint-sized threat. After a few seconds of staring at a picture of his girlfriend who was just killed, he solemnly agrees they must return the gold. Five seconds later, and he takes off with the gold. Another couple of minutes pass, and he returns with the gold to run over the Leprechaun with his motorcycle. His bipolar series of decisions is never adequately explained or even questioned by the other characters.

Woman moments before being murdered: "Leprechaun. Goddamn crackers, always breakin' in to niggers' houses."

Late in the movie, when our "heroes" are on the run, the cops pull them over. The Leprechaun finds them, and it doesn't go so well for the law.

The cop's reaction, while hopping on one foot: "Give... it... back!"

After dispatching the cops, the Leprechaun steals the cop car, only to find he can't reach the pedal. This marked the second time all movie (the first being the cop scene screenshotted above) I had so much as chuckled. The movie was well over half done with its running time at this point.

Our jolly serial killer, after getting beaten up by a side character who I'm pretty sure didn't have a name: "You hit like a weak lass."

Wise gypsy woman who warned the main characters to not spend the Leprechaun's gold: "Why should I help you?" One of the main characters slowly places a $100 bill on the table. We then cut to the gypsy delivering exposition about the Leprechaun.

Stoner character: "What about a crucifix?"
Gypsy: "This creature predates Christianity."
Dumbass: "What about garlic? Will that work?"
Best character in the movie who only appears for like five minutes: "If he's hungry."

In a shocking display of cleverness for this movie, our drug dealin' hero Rory loads his hollow-point bullets with four-leaf clovers.

Rory: "Say hello to St. Patrick for me, bitch."

My thoughts: It's bad.

This movie makes even the previous one look good in comparison, but by this point I care so little about these two movies that I can hardly muster the energy. However, a few points deserve expounding upon.

First and foremost, this movie carries on treating the Leprechaun as more of a serious bad guy. His design even looks a little more sinister, rather than cartoony.

FATALITY

I still have no idea why they thought this was a good idea. This is a movie about a killer Leprechaun. No matter how hard you try, he's not going to be that scary. The inherent goofiness can and will clash with any attempts to make this more like a regular creature feature or slasher film. Part of this effort was not having the Leprechaun rhyme, but clearly those people had never seen Leprechaun 4. He didn't rhyme in that film, and that one reached maximum wackiness very, very quickly. Actually, I would have rather they literally just remake Leprechaun 4 twice in a row. That would have had more creative integrity and entertainment value than this movie and In Da Hood.

The Leprechaun is also treated a little more... plausibly in this movie. He still is basically immortal, shrugs off bullet wounds, and the like, but whenever anyone punches him, he goes flying. Having his head caved in slows him for a while. Ordinary police officers are able to go toe-to-toe with him for several seconds in fisticuffs. I can only assume this was also to make the movie more realistic, but... you're making a movie about a killer leprechaun, for gods' sake!

In then end, I just have to repeat myself and say this movie is bad. Not even fun-bad. Just bad. Basically, just re-read my previous review and you've got the gist for this soul-sucking cinematic garbage. Courage, though: next week, we bring an end to all this.

hopefully it gives me more ammo to work with. Me versus this movie was like me picking a fight with an asthmatic six-year-old.

I give this movie a Nic Cage Reconnects with an Old Friend out of five. Facebook. Patreon. Adventure.