CHILD’S PLAY
★★★★★
(15) THIS week’s other film about a talking toy with a life of its own is a suitably self-aware and semi-satirical slasher comedy, and a remake and reboot of the 1988 horror which has previously spawned six sequels.
Potty-mouthed Chucky is one of a new generation of motorised dolls whose artificial intelligence is programmed to learn, but when he’s inadvertently fed a diet of classic video nasties it leads to gleeful, bloodsplattering violence. (15)
Drawing on his experience of voicing Batman villain The Joker in the long-running animated TV series, Mark ‘Luke Skywalker’ Hamill provides Chucky with a plaintive, comic and hostile neediness.
He almost makes us feel sorry for the toy, who just wants to be the special friend of the lonely young teen, Andy.
Releasing this today is a mischievous act of trolling, and will entertain anyone who’s daft enough to believe they are now too old and cool to enjoy the adventures of Woody and Buzz. and strength, and decides he wasn’t put on Earth to pursue truth, justice and the American way.
Instead he’s possessed of an unthinking sense of predatory entitlement as he begins a toxic campaign of terror against the town’s womenfolk, making for a challenging change of tone for Pitch Perfect star Elizabeth Banks, who plays his mother.
With references to vampires and the eyeball-slicing antics of early cinema, the smart staging of the strong script delivers excellent character work, social commentary, biblical torment and knucklebiting gory thrills.