Twitter Plot Summary: An innocent man is shot by police and is resurrected in an African tribal doll to seek revenge.
Genre: Comedy/Fantasy/Horror
Director: Charles Band
Key Cast: Karen Black, Gregory Blair, Ciarra Carter, Stacy Keach, Gregory Niebel, Siri, Charles Hutchins, Dallas James, Kyle Quesnoy, Wade F Wilson
Five Point Summary:
1. Worst. Acting. Ever.
2. So apparently all us white folks are racist.
3. She’s just been raped – I would expect for her to be upset at least. Nope, nothing.
4. Random topless woman. No reason for it either.
5. Justice is served. Finally. We can all go home now.
The trailer made it seem like Ooga Booga was going to be massive amounts of fun, a tale of a man killed whilst harmlessly shopping in a local convenience store and resurrected in the form of a six inch tall voodoo doll to seek revenge. Yes, I realise that sounds silly, but that was where the enjoyment was supposedly going to come from. As it happens the trailer was the only worthwhile aspect of the whole endeavour. It’s linked at the end of this review, take a look and don’t be tempted to watch any more than that. Why? Well let me list the reasons.
First is an obvious one. Apparently, according to this film at least, all white people are racists, constantly putting down anybody of any other ethnicity, and in some cases shooting them dead because they are assumed to be the robber and not an innocent bystander. Devin is shot down by the white cops for being at the scene of the crime – without being threatening in the slightest. Yes, so clearly this gentile man is the killer. Of course. There’s also one scene where Devin’s girlfriend is raped by a group of the villains, and then in the very next scene goes on with her life as if nothing has happened. Indeed, it’s not mentioned again and the story moves on as if the rape was a culled plot idea that they didn’t actually cull. Instead she just vows to help Devin get revenge on those who killed him – no emotional scars whatsoever.
Then there’s Stacy Keach. The man deserves far better than this, and I can only assume he took the job because he needed a break from doing voiceovers from the Twilight Zone radio series. Karen Black also makes an appearance in one of her last film roles, and she only seems to be present in order to pay homage to her role in 1975’s Trilogy of Terror where she was terrorised by an African tribal doll. Everybody else involved in this production are not noteworthy, suffice to say every other role is badly acted and contains no subtlety or nuance. The same goes for the script, why use subtlety when you can slap the audience in the face over and over again?
So we end up back where we started. The trailer. The Ooga Booga doll and his revenge quest are the only things worth seeing in this horrible, horrible movie. It’s one ignominy piled on top of another. If there was more of Ooga Booga and less of everything else – and I literally mean everything else – then it perhaps would be tolerable. Racism, bad acting, a bad script and a lack of coherence all stand against it. Thus, seeing as almost all of Ooga Booga’s moments are in the trailer, just stick with that and don’t make yourself sit through the full movie. Trust me, despite the fun implied by the trailer it really isn’t worth any more of your time.
Favourite scene: Ooga Booga gets revenge on Judge Marks
Quote: “What are you, some sort of niglet hatchling?”
Silly Moment: A woman gets raped, then doesn’t seem to care about it mere moments later?
Score: 0.5/5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTUjmBpmjW8
