Goosebumps

Starring:Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Ryan Lee, Amy Ryan, Jillian Bell, Halston Sage, Amanda Lund, Timothy Simons, Ken Marino
Directed by: Rob Letterman
Rating: PG
Genre: Adventure, Comedy
2015

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A new kid (Dylan Minnette) gets caught up in supernatural dealings when he befriends the girl next door (Odeya Rush).

Review:

Tim: I loved the Goosebumps books as a kid- I read every one, until R.L. Stine stole one of my stories. Seriously. While I've tried to get past that in the last few decades, it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I was able to compartmentalize that while watching this film. Goosebumps is a very interesting take- rather than expanding on one of Stine's stories, he is a central character in this film. His monsters escape from their books and our protagonists have to get them back on the page. It's a clever take, although it still results in only a decent movie.

I guess I liked the approach the film took, for the most part. Everyone knows about the Goosebumps books, so it makes sense to acknowledge their existence and their creator. The twist is that Stine writes the books to capture the creatures and lock them up. Of course, they break free and wreck havoc, causing our heroes to spring into action. It's a clever premise. There are a few problems with this, though. One, the film tries too hard to be a commercial for the Goosebumps books. They're good, but they aren't that good. Secondly, the whole premise requires a massive suspension of disbelief. Stine says that for it to work, the books have to be written well, in the style of Goosebumps. This felt a bit weird. What if he wrote a book that wasn't very good? Would the monster still get trapped? Where do you draw that line? The idea of monsters being trapped in books was fine, but the idea of the locks felt a bit flimsy. One of the books happens to click open, for no apparent reason. I guess the writers don't know how locks work. While this idea had some logical gaps and drawbacks, the positive side is that it allowed the film to feature the full gamut of characters from the different Goosebumps books. It was legitimately exciting to see so many of the iconic characters all in the same place. It was a great idea for the main protagonist to be Slappy. "Night of the Living Dummy" was one of the most memorable Stein stories. He felt like a worthwhile adversary to be pulling all the strings (ha!) of the other monsters.

I liked the idea of Jack Black playing R.L. Stine more than I liked the actual performance. It just felt weird to me. I'm not sure what Black was trying to do with his voice, but it just felt odd and disorienting. I kept wanting him to stop being weird and just play the role. I like Dylan Minnette, but his acting was occasionally forced and ineffective. I hate to say that because I like the kid, but his performance wasn't great. He seemed uncomfortable as opposed to natural in the role. Odeya Rush was one of the better parts of the film. While she occasionally got too wooden in her performance (mostly when playing off Minnette), for the most part, she was effective. Ryan Lee was okay as Champ, although his performance was too over-the-top. The cast as a whole was fine. No one gave a truly great performance, but they didn't actively detract from the film.

The movie does feature a huge amount of monsters. It was fun seeing so many different ones crammed into one film. The downside is that you don't get to spend as much time with some of the cool ones. That was mildly disappointing, but I understand. The film did feature a few nice twists and unexpected moments, although ultimately, this is a film aimed at kids.

In the end, Goosebumps did a few things right and a few things wrong. The film had a bit too many flaws for me to consider it a good movie, but it was at least decent. It was mostly entertaining and will appeal to the demographic it's aiming to hit. Older viewers will find themselves rolling their eyes a bit too much. Still, this was an ambitious attempt to crack the story and I appreciate that.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5


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