Wishmaster 4: The Prophecy Fulfilled (2002)
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The Djinn is back again and this time he’s been set free by Lisa, a struggling entrepreneur who’s relationship with her man is been rocky for a few years. Once the Djinn takes over the body of a young lawyer who is pursuing damages on behalf of Lisa’s boyfriend for a motorcycle accident, he lets her make her 3 wishes. And she does fairly quickly but the 3rd wish is the test. Will the Djinn allow the 3rd wish to be granted or will he forego the wish and try to make Lisa love him for who he is.
Overall: Ok, so the movie isn’t as cheesy as I typed it out above but the film finally takes the next step from the first 3 films. Lisa makes her 3 wishes but the 3rd one is a trick, almost by accident, and for the Djinn to fulfill the wish, he’s got to make Lisa love him, for who he is, not who he is dressed up as. The idea is pretty decent and finally they ignore the idea of the wish-holder from even knowing they have the wishes. What made the first film good was the same that held the next 2 from being decent: the heroine knows she has 3 wishes and realizes after the first one, she can’t use the other 2 up. So you spend 90 minutes with the heroine running around trying to not make wishes while the Djinn tortures and kills everyone. Here we jump in with both feet and have the Djinn play more of a role and have to deal with his quest for dominance and his abiding of the rules. The other problem with the first 3 films is that the wish statements are “gay.” “Do you wish it?” the Djinn asks but basically in the 1990’s and new millennium no one really used the phrase “I wish” anymore and certainly if some strange guy comes up to you on the street and asks u to wish for something, you’re gonna walk away. But this film finally has some good writing and pokes fun at the prior films cheesy writing and lets the wish victims actually use 2002 slang to get the job done. The effects are basically decent with a few cheesy events here and there and the film overall is much better than part 3. Part 1 has a damn good story with cheesy acting, part 2 had a great performance with Andrew Divoff with a crappy story and part 3 sucked from start to finish with absolutely nothing redeemable. I think the films should have kept Divoff and the more you watch John Novak, the more you see how much Divoff is missed. Novak is good, Divoff is better. Comparison: Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion meets Aladdin |
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