He’s been in the country, the big city, Las Vegas and outer
space. Where else could the Leprechaun possibly go to wreak more havoc upon
civilization in the name of greed? Compton of course!
Leprechaun in the Hood
starts off with pimp/gangsta Mack Daddy (Ice-T) stealing a golden flute
from the Leprechaun back in the 70s. 20 years later the magical imp returns to
claim what’s his and get a little payback.
The concept of the Leprechaun being let loose in the ghetto
is a ripe with possibilities. The problem is that it’s never taken far enough
to be entertaining. This fifth film in the long running franchise is nearly as
boring at the original and quite a chore to sit through.
We are led to believe during the opening scene that Ice-T’s
Mack Daddy would be the main protagonist. It turns out to not be the case once
we are introduced to the rapping trio of Postmaster P (Anthony Montgomery from Star Trek: Enterprise), Stray Bullet
(Rashaan Nall) and Butch (Red Grant). These young hip-hop wannabes come to
Mack Daddy for a record contract and instead steal the golden flute, which when
played will hypnotize anyone within earshot, and unleash the Leprechaun upon
the hood. Mack Daddy ends up becoming the Leprechaun’s bitch and pretty much
disappears from most of the film. I think he’s in it a grand total of 10
minutes. Disappointing.
The trio of rappers are horribly written and acted by the
leads. Anthony Montgomery looks like he’s trying to act all “hard”, but is
unable to pull it off convincingly and acts more like a boy scout that flinches
whenever he is required to cuss. He also can’t rap to save his life. His
partners in crime are more successful, but only barely. Rashaan Nall is decent
as Stray Bullet, but Red Grant overdoes it as the derpy idiot in the group. Ice-T
gets a few decent lines and an extremely humorous introduction in the opening
scene (he has a huge afro and when the Leprechaun attacks him he pulls a
baseball bat out of it to defend himself). He doesn’t really have much to do in
the movie but smoke weed and say “muthafucka” a lot, so his involvement was for
advertisement purposes only.
As usual, Warwick Davis dominates everyone in the acting
department. Although this is the weakest writing the character has ever
received, he manages to eek out an entertaining performance regardless. The
limericks he recites, which are few and far between, are also pretty lame. He
gets a couple of doozies like “A friend with weed is a friend indeed!”, but for
the most part nothing of note really crosses his lips. Not even his goofy rap
over the end credits.
The kills are crappy as well. The Leprechaun stabs some 70s
dude in the throat with his hair pick, blows a couple of people’s chests open
with a flick of his wrist, sticks his hand through a fat guy, controls one guy
to make him shoot himself and that’s about it. I thought the inclusion of the
Leprechaun’s “zombie fly girls” would add some more gore and goofiness to the
proceedings, but it really is just added for some T&A value and an excuse
for the heroes to dress in drag to infiltrate the imp’s stronghold in the climax.
A truly anticlimactic finale, complete with four leaf clover
infused blunts and a minor shootout, round this flick out; the worst entry in
the entire series. Lots of missed opportunities mar the film on top of
everything else. The whole thing is just dripping with cheapness (you should
see the church set) and it’s not entertaining at all, not even in the “so bad
it’s good” way. It’s so bad its nearly unwatchable.
One more to go… I don’t know if I can make it! If you don’t
hear from me in two days send paramedics and a Shamrock Shake!
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