So I was excited when this movie came out. I'm not a big fan of the Goosebumps books, I think I read one once that was a choose your own adventure book, and I didn't know it was a choose your own adventure book at the time and I was confused by it. Plus I was afraid of everything as a kid, so it would have scared the pants off of me. Anyway the movie looked good so I wanted to see it.
And overall its a good movie... it isn't fantastic though and there are a lot of reasons why. It started off really really slow. It felt like it took forever to get to the goosebumps books getting out... they could have cut some scenes out just to make it go a little bit faster. I would have rather seen more of the monster stuff than the exposition. They did a good job with the exposition and the set and everything, but they really took their time with it and I could have done with a little less of that.
Another thing that I felt was a little weird were the jokes at the beginning. I liked it because the main character was really sarcastic and that made a lot of sense for his character and it worked well with the dynamic of the movie.. but some of the first lines of the movie were "Wasn't anywhere else looking for an assistant principal? Guantanamo Bay? North Korea?" Weird political humor for a family friendly movie right? And thats how a lot of the jokes were its like "okay, this is weird and I'm a little uncomfortable." It didn't have many solid jokes in it... they were funny, everyone in it was funny but its not like Hocus Pocus where you can laugh at any age, no matter how many times you've seen it. Jillian Bell from Workaholics was in it and she was good. Wasn't expecting her in this movie though, sometimes when they throw her in a movie... it feels a little out of place. This was kind of one of those things but it kind of worked a little just because she was funny and the movie needed a few more laughs.
I thought the monsters were all really well done. They looked just like the ones on the covers of the book and they were really scary. It didn't look fake or cheesy, they just did a really great job with all of that. And I thought it was smart the way that Slappy was sort of the main focus of all the villains because he is of corse the scariest one. If you haven't read Goosebumps since you were a kid, or haven't read any at all... you remember Slappy the dummy for sure. And I thought it was smart that he was voiced by Jack Black because he is a representation of R.L Stein himself... so that was cool.
The whole cast was really good too. Jack Black was great, I can't picture anyone else in that role, and everyone else pretty much played it to perfection also. They had great chemistry together and they really did a good job.
Also if you're really nit-picky there were some things that were kind of trying to move the plot forward but it held it back. I can't really review this part without too many spoilers, but some scenes were there just so you could see more of the monsters and didn't really work that great with the rest of the plot and it didn't make sense that the characters were doing this in that situation.
Overall, is this movie worth seeing. Yes! It wasn't the best movie ever, but it was still pretty good. Definitely a lot of fun, if you have kids and you want to take them to see something kinda scary for halloween, but you don't want them to see a horror movie... this is a great one to see. It isn't as good as Hocus Pocus or anything like that... and I thought it had potential to be the next Hocus Pocus. It isn't quite that but it is a lot of fun and I think its fun that you can enjoy at any age.
There is also a cameo from R.L Stein and I thought that was a really clever cameo. It was just a line... but a clever line that I thought was better than some other cameo appearances.
I'd give it a B-.I don't think I'd buy the DVD but I'd watch it when its on TV.
I hope the Ermagerd girl sees this movie and does her own review.
Byeee!
-Shannon
And overall its a good movie... it isn't fantastic though and there are a lot of reasons why. It started off really really slow. It felt like it took forever to get to the goosebumps books getting out... they could have cut some scenes out just to make it go a little bit faster. I would have rather seen more of the monster stuff than the exposition. They did a good job with the exposition and the set and everything, but they really took their time with it and I could have done with a little less of that.
Another thing that I felt was a little weird were the jokes at the beginning. I liked it because the main character was really sarcastic and that made a lot of sense for his character and it worked well with the dynamic of the movie.. but some of the first lines of the movie were "Wasn't anywhere else looking for an assistant principal? Guantanamo Bay? North Korea?" Weird political humor for a family friendly movie right? And thats how a lot of the jokes were its like "okay, this is weird and I'm a little uncomfortable." It didn't have many solid jokes in it... they were funny, everyone in it was funny but its not like Hocus Pocus where you can laugh at any age, no matter how many times you've seen it. Jillian Bell from Workaholics was in it and she was good. Wasn't expecting her in this movie though, sometimes when they throw her in a movie... it feels a little out of place. This was kind of one of those things but it kind of worked a little just because she was funny and the movie needed a few more laughs.
I thought the monsters were all really well done. They looked just like the ones on the covers of the book and they were really scary. It didn't look fake or cheesy, they just did a really great job with all of that. And I thought it was smart the way that Slappy was sort of the main focus of all the villains because he is of corse the scariest one. If you haven't read Goosebumps since you were a kid, or haven't read any at all... you remember Slappy the dummy for sure. And I thought it was smart that he was voiced by Jack Black because he is a representation of R.L Stein himself... so that was cool.
The whole cast was really good too. Jack Black was great, I can't picture anyone else in that role, and everyone else pretty much played it to perfection also. They had great chemistry together and they really did a good job.
Also if you're really nit-picky there were some things that were kind of trying to move the plot forward but it held it back. I can't really review this part without too many spoilers, but some scenes were there just so you could see more of the monsters and didn't really work that great with the rest of the plot and it didn't make sense that the characters were doing this in that situation.
Overall, is this movie worth seeing. Yes! It wasn't the best movie ever, but it was still pretty good. Definitely a lot of fun, if you have kids and you want to take them to see something kinda scary for halloween, but you don't want them to see a horror movie... this is a great one to see. It isn't as good as Hocus Pocus or anything like that... and I thought it had potential to be the next Hocus Pocus. It isn't quite that but it is a lot of fun and I think its fun that you can enjoy at any age.
There is also a cameo from R.L Stein and I thought that was a really clever cameo. It was just a line... but a clever line that I thought was better than some other cameo appearances.
I'd give it a B-.I don't think I'd buy the DVD but I'd watch it when its on TV.
I hope the Ermagerd girl sees this movie and does her own review.
Byeee!
-Shannon
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