Bride of Chucky

Sporting, for juvenile me, the year's best theatrical tag line ("Chucky Gets Lucky"), this fourth film incarnation opens with the world's most malevolent doll being brought back to life by his girlfriend Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly, who--and I quote the press release here--"brings her ample talents to the role"). Literally stitching her beau (voiced by Brad Dourif) back together, the vampy Tiffany mutters an incantation out of Voodoo for Dummies and voila! she's saddled with the same old jerk for a boyfriend. Realizing her error, she throws Chucky into an improvised play pen lock-up and goes about her business until the boy toy breaks out and--what a cad--knocks a plugged-in TV into her bath water, thereby sending her soul to Jesus. Well, not exactly: Tiffany actually winds up inside an animatronically-correct female doll and the plastic fantastic lovers hit the road for New Jersey in a quest for a powerful amulet which will transform them into--what else?--beautiful young teens. Towards that end, the duo manage to finagle a ride with two eloping teenagers (Katherine Heigl and Nick Stabile, a pair of young actors who redefine "blandness"), who believe they are driving Miss Tiffany and her rather ugly companion to New Jersey for a handsome fee (I realize this sounds convoluted; trust me, in the movie it's as utterly transparent as only truly contrived plot devices can be). Along the way, Tiff and Chucky are given multiple occasions to scratch their murderous itch, so to speak, and the teen lovers on the run are naturally the key suspects in these crimes. Director Ronny Yu (Warriors of Virtue) wisely decides to play the material for campy laughs rather than chills (how terrifying can a two-foot high doll really be?) and audiences expecting little will be handsomely rewarded. Utterly lacking in socially redeeming value, sporting cheesy jokes, and featuring an--admittedly--tasteful scene of dolls in lustful abandon, Bride of Chucky is, of course, a strong, optional purchase. (R. Pitman)