- written January 2004
Leprechaun 5: In the Hood (2000)
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Ye olde Leprechaun is in a building in the 1970's holding onto his gold, when 2 pimps drop by and steel his magic flute. But Macdaddy gets away with the flute and manages to freeze our Irish buddy into stone via the magic necklace. Turn ahead 20 years as Macdaddy is looking to promote some new rap groups and happens to piss off 3 young rappers who don’t take criticism lightly. Their revenge is to steal the flute, which they think is just gold. But the act of stealing causes the necklace to fall off our Irish Buddy and causes him to awaken. Now Macdaddy must find the flute to save his life but the 3 young rappers are off to Vegas to win a contest. The Leprechaun and Macdaddy and all the forces of Oblivion are out to destroy hip-hop and all of the goodness in the world.
Overall: There are a few things one must know about horror film series. Some films are chronological (Friday the 13th), some try to be but fail (Puppet Master) and others are totally independent of one another. This film falls into the last category. None of the prior 4 films make any difference with this film. This film basically survives independent of the rest. The problems with the film are the constant change with how to stop and/or kill the Leprechaun as well as the appearance or lack thereof Lep’s need to shine shoes. In this film, they’ve dropped the shoe characteristic. What works in this film compared to the first 4 movies, is we have new ideas. They’ve brought in “The Ghetto” and have tried to broaden the horizons of their audience. The rap trio doing a rap rendition of “Jesus Loves Me” during a church service was amusing as well as the finale of the film with the Leprechaun doing a full rap video about his situation. The films having been trying various ways to introduce the plot vein of how to learn how to defend against an evil Leprechaun and so they introduce a book called “Leprechauns for Dummies.” And I gotta admit, the idea to put 4 leaf clovers into the weed so the Lep can smoke it, was amusing. The film suffers though by stereotyping the black community by basically have the 3 young rappers turn to violence and law-breaking the moment something doesn’t go their way. Instead of reacting in a calm, civil manner, one bad review and they are robbing and thieving. And in prior films, the 4 leaf clovers have different impacts on the Lep than in this film. As funny as the “Clover Weed” is, it still alters the meaning in the entire scheme of the series. And the ending just didn’t work at all...it almost was like “90 minutes and this is how you end this?” Comparison: Menace 2 Society meets Willow |
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