Review of Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018) by Joseph D — 12 Oct 2018

VIEWER BEWARE! JACK BLACK MADE ANOTHER MOVIE!

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween.

I'm a Goosebumps fan from back in the day, so for me, the 1st film had to deliver a lot, & it mostly did; now all we need is for lightning to strike twice.....fingers crossed.

Here's the good, bad, & ugly.

The good: the effects, acting, & big finish were pretty decent. The young cast felt like they came out've a goosebumps tv show ep, but they still felt human, Jack Black once again had a field day hamming it up as R.L. Stein & Slappy, adding his personal I-don't-know-what to each character, the peripheral characters were entertaining & contributed to the plot, everyone did well. The effects were outta this world. Practical sets, props, costumes, & some of the best CGI I've seen since, well, the last time I gushed over good CGI! The big finish was a CGI extravaganza, but it was done in a way that I think could've been done in a Universal classic, which contributed to my overall enjoyment. The music was mostly orchestral, which made the film feel like something made for tv, but in a good way.

The bad: at 90 minuets, it felt longer than it was, it really dragged during the first two thirds of the movie, with bits of plot sewn in here & there. If this film had been broken into 30 minuet episodes of the show, I'd tell ya to skip parts 1 & 2, & just look at the recap before watching part 3.

The ugly: ....actually, there was no ugly. It was a very cliche based-on-goosebumps film, but I felt this one was more self-aware & purposely tongue-in-cheek, reveling in the cliche, with obvious references & in-jokes slappin' you in the face. Some folks might find it tedious, I found it amusing.

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween was geared toward kids aged 5 to 11, & it shows. It wasn't garbage, but it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. The weaknesses drag down the strengths, but it balances out to a mostly respectable 3 stars out've 5. Let's hope Mr Black gets one more chance to give us Goosebumps, 'cause we all he could've done better than this one.

Happy Halloween.