In 1979 Jimmy Bones was the numbers runner for, and respected protector of, his hood, until he was murdered.
In the 22 years since, the hood has become a ghetto.
A bunch of kids wanting to make good for themselves, and region aye the area, buy a property to convert into a club. Unbeknownst to them, the property is Jimmy's old place, and the stray dog they find in the building and adopt is the key to Bones' return... Those who wronged him in life had better look out, and God help anyone who gets in between Bones and his victims.
This nod to the blaxploitation flicks of the '70s stars Snoop Dogg, as the titular gangsta turned undead avenger, and icon of the genre Pam Grier, as Perl, occult expert and Bones' former love interest.
It's a delight to see Pam Grier in a giant afro, looking not all that different to how she readdly did look two decades ago in the 1979 flashbacks; although it's a shame that her role in those segments isn't as strong as the ass-kicking characters she was famous for. These segments, although filmed for a modern eye, still capture the feel of their blaxploitation roots, and it would have been great to see more of them, especially in the movies first half.
The 70's sequences aren't the movies only strengths that should have been given more room to breath. Snoop Dogg is woefully underused, with Bones not being resurrected until the one hour mark. I get the impression that the producers bottled, and didn't want to risk having him carry the movie, which is a mistake in a role so clearly written for him; Snoop may lack range, but within his narrow scope he can act, as witnessed in 'Hood of Horror', and indeed while interacting with the holographic 2-Pac at Coachella 1992, and it would have been great to see Bones get more screen time in his own movie.
Sadly, though, most of the screen time is given over to the decidedly average modern day story.
4 friends manage to strike a good deal on Bones' old house (which no one seems to notice looks like a giant skull) to turn in into a club.
There are all kinds of dark and dire threats made by the adults in the movie as to why they shouldn't build the club, ranging from "its a bad neighbourhood" to "the veil between worlds is thin there" - the latter coming from Perl, who has spent 21 years going from big 'fro sporting gangsta's bitch, to dreads sporting psychic medium (I can't help but thing that journey hides a better movie).
In record time, and on an unexplained infinite budget, they manage to compleat the club, and opening night just happens to be when Bones finally gets enough energy to make his big return.... Then he operates under some non-defined rules about what he can do and the influence he has over reality, before devolving into frankly a bit of a mess as the movie gets wrapped up in its own supernatural mythology.
The story turns out to hinge on a rule about blood, which isn't mentioned until five minutes before it become critical.
It's a shame, because with a couple of re-writes, I think this could have been a pretty good movie, or even a franchise.
Disclaimer:
If you look through the archives, you'll see that I've been using "Bought from Poundland" as a tag since at least 2011.
At the end of October 2013 I decided that all of my 2014 movies would be purchased from Poundland, and began buying up horror movies, to ensure I would have enough come October 2014.
In March 2014 I took a part time job at Poundland.
In accordance with the companies social media policy, in September 2014 I contacted Poundland's social media team to check that I would be okay to carry on with my plan to use the "bought from Poundland" tag.
I have been given the go-ahead on condition that I make the following clear:
All the reviews on this blog are entirely the opinion of Will Tingle, the reviews are not endorsed by Poundland in any way and (as should be obvious from some of the more scathing ones) are certainly not reviews I have been paid to write.
In short: The views expressed in this blog are mine alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Poundland or it's owners, shareholders, or management.
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