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| Available at Amazon.com |
It has often been said that if you follow a rainbow to its very end, there will be a leprechaun waiting there with his pot of gold. Leprechauns are very short in stature and were mostly shoe shiners by trade, but held onto their earnings and therefore were very rich. People always have heard myths of leprechauns granting wishes or offering vast tales of knowledge if someone was to stumble upon them. Maybe what people know least about them is their incessant mischievous behavior. When a trick is played and no-one can figure out who did it, it might have been a leprechaun. When something goes missing and never to be found, it might have been a leprechaun. And when someone takes gold that doesn’t belong to them and others end up dead, it might just have been a leprechaun.
Leprechaun is started a series of, what I think is now up to six films. The cause for greed just happened to be too much for one man as he mistakenly let a Leprechaun out of his prison and also decided to steal some of his gold. Not being simply the mischievous little guy we’ve heard about in so many folklore tales, the Leprechaun follows the man and wants his gold back no matter what it takes. Luckily, the man is able to lock the Leprechaun in his basement and keep him there for years. Those years are over when Tory Reding and her father move into the house and accidentally let him free again. Once more looking to retrieve his stolen property, the Leprechaun goes on a killing spree and must be stopped at all costs.
Every one thousand years, the Leprechaun can take a bride of his choosing and thus be the plot of Leprechaun 2. Way back when, the Leprechaun had a slave named William O’Day that was told of the woman who the Leprechaun had chosen to be his wife. O’Day was horrified when he realized it was his own daughter and ends up losing his life to save her. But before he died, the Leprechaun advised O’Day that in one thousand years, he would marry a young girl in the O’Day lineage and she would be his wife forever. We move ahead to the current day, and young Bridget ends up being the gleam in the Leprechaun’s eye, but her boyfriend Cody won’t let this marriage happen. So Cody now must face off against the Leprechaun who is killing people left and right to get one of his gold coins back that was stolen from him, and also try to rescue Bridget from his tiny clutches.
The third film in this set is Leprechaun 3 and our green and evil little bastard is in the city of sin, Las Vegas. How he ended up in Vegas is an interesting story though as it was by way of a homeless guy who was missing a few appendages. Somehow the Leprechaun was turned into a statue thanks to the power of a magical amulet. The homeless guy wanted to make a few bucks and also slyly get rid of the horrible evil so he sells it to a pawn shop and let’s the owner experience first hand the trouble the statue could bring.
At the same time, a casino worker named Tammy is broken down on the side of the road and needs a lift to the (get this) Lucky Shamrock Casino. Scott is a college kid passing by and doesn’t even pause before offering her what she needs. Upon getting to the casino, Scott thinks he could win a few extra bucks, but ends up losing his full tuition thanks to a dirty roulette dealer. But Scott stumbles across a gold coin of the Leprechaun’s and finds out it is bringing him nothing but good luck at the tables now. The coin and a battle with our small green friend also is bringing upon him a curse that soon starts changing Scott into a leprechaun as well. Soon, the lucky gold coin finds its way around the entire casino and wishes are being granted around every corner. Sadly though, the lucky also find plenty of troubles for all their greed, and Scott must do what it takes to stop it all and his transformation.
What can honestly be said about the Leprechaun franchise except that you can’t help but watch them whenever they come on television. Seriously, they are horribly bad in plot, acting, script, and everything else that comes with shooting a film, but they’re like a bad car wreck. You just can’t look away. Warwick Davis (which many of you may remember from Willow) plays the Leprechaun and looks as if he is just having the time of his life. He gets to joke around, act lousy, see tons of hot women, and be evil as all living hell. Davis even gets to star with Jennifer Aniston in the first film which is I do believe her first ever starring role. It’s a full year before Friends even started people so that’s got to count for something.
You’re not going to get much out of any of these films including the three more not included in the set, but you will get plenty of laughs and some nice Irish limericks to tell people at drunken parties. These are the types of horror flicks that you want to watch during that “October-long scary movie watching marathon” you do leading up to Halloween. There’s some gore and blood and humor and small scares that make any of the Leprechaun films just right for a night of goofing off with friends and making a “cheesy movie night” out of. I will say that the studio did a good job of stopping at just these three in the set because the second trilogy of films is just horrible. Not that these are good, but at least they are watchable.
Leprechaun 4: In Space, Leprechaun In Tha Hood, and Leprechaun Back 2 Tha Hood…need I say more?
The first and third films are shown in Fullscreen format while the second is shown in Widescreen format. They all look decent enough, but don’t appear to have been touched up at all since they first were released.
The films are heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and all sound just as they always have too. All dialogue can be heard just fine along with the musical score, but don’t expect any awards for sound production. Many of firms or industry gives challenge coins as honorary award. They approach firms who have challenge coins for sale with best quality.
Trailers
Ok, so the films suck and there are no special features included at all. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pick up this set. From what I remember, there is actually a five disc set that came out some time ago including parts four and five. Don’t worry about that one at all, and get this one. If you look around, you can probably get it for $12-15 bucks anywhere, and that’s not the sale price. Trust me people, you’ll watch these DVDs over and over again which is no lie. They’re lewd, crude, disgusting, stupid, barely scary, corny, cheesy, and just downright retarded…but they’re fun as can be and need to be a part of everyone’s collection. Come on man…three films for less then the price of one brand new release. That’s one awesome deal and probably a lot more fun then half the garbage being released nowadays anyway. And just remember, if you anger the leprechaun that old saying may just come true. “Try as they will, and try as they might, who steals me gold won’t live through the night.”
Ok, it’s not old, but it’s damn creepy hearing it come out of a four foot tall monster dressed in green.
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Lionsgate presents Leprechaun Triple Feature. Directed by: Mark Jones (Leprechaun), Rodman Flender (Leprechaun 2), Brian Trenchard-Smith (Leprechaun 3). Starring: Warwick Davis, Jennifer Aniston, Ken Olandt, John Gatins, Mark Holton, Robert Gorman. Written by: Mark Jones (Leprechaun), Turi Meyer & Al Septien (Leprechaun 2), David Dubos (Leprechaun 3). Running time: 269 minutes on 3 discs. Rating: R. Released on DVD: March 11, 2008. Available at Amazon.com
