Sunday, May 29, 2016

Goosebumps Movie Review

Goosebumps (2015)

Rent Goosebumps on Amazon Video (paid link) // Buy the books (paid link) 
Written by: Darren Lemke (screenplay), Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski (story), R.L. Stine ("Goosebumps" books) 
Directed by: Rob Letterman
Starring: Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush
Rated: PG
Watch the trailer

Plot
R.L. Stine's books come to life and it's up to Stine (Jack Black) and a couple of kids to save the town.

Verdict
It's light entertainment that's pretty family friendly. You'll enjoy it more if you're familiar with the books. While it's in no way constrained to reality, even still the logic is lacking.
It depends.

Review
It's a serviceable story as it's main point is to showcase Stine monsters and make jokes about Stine and Stephen King.
It even starts like a Goosebumps book, with a family moving into a new town next to an odd neighbor. It's not bad, as long as you know this is very light entertainment. Think about anything in this movie for longer than two seconds and it won't make sense. The amusement park in the woods has so many things wrong with the logic, when it easily could have been just an abandoned amusement park with a logical explanation. For some reason the writers went out of their way to make sure no part of it made sense. It doesn't help that it's obviously a set. Maybe this is a joke at  on Stine's expense on his books, but that's being generous.

Like any good Goosebumps book it includes an otherworldly romance, though nobody disappears.
 
Even in a movie where R.L. Stine willed monsters into existence through sheer mental power, this movie still lacks in logic. It's better if you don't ask any questions. Jack Black does a nice job as R.L. Stine, with a great monologue extolling his virtues over Stephen King.

I wonder who the audience is for this.The story is at a young child level, though the people who first read these books are now adults.

Dylan Minnette, Jack Black, Odeya Rush in Goosebumps
Goosebumps - Don't ask questions, and don't look down.
As you'll probably guess, the only way to stop the monsters from escaping the books is to write a new story.
Somehow Stine's manuscripts have power. If you open them, the monsters jump out. That's why all of his manuscripts are locked, with the key in plain sight just two feet away.
So how does he print his manuscripts? Does the power only happen once the book is completely finished? Obviously I'm getting technical on a movie that's anything but. I just don't understand how he ever printed the books in the first place.

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