Shameless Self Expression

Buddi dolls are the latest craze, a mixture of Cabbage Patch Doll and a computerised personal assistant, ala Amazon’s Alexa. Single mother Aubrey Plaza buys a Buddi for her young son Andy (Gabriel Bateman). Unfortunately, this Buddi (named Chucky, and voiced by Mark Hamill) has been sabotaged by a disgruntled fired employee of the manufacturer, who has taken out all of the doll’s safety precautions. The result? A malevolent little killing machine (literally) who starts offing anyone who dares cross little Andy, who is helpless to stop the carnage. In fact, everyone starts to suspect that it’s Andy behind all the mayhem. Brian Tyree Henry plays a neighbour cop, Tim Matheson plays the company CEO.   They remade my favourite horror movie “The Omen” and it didn’t turn out too bad, and now comes this 2019 remake of my second favourite horror film of all-time, Tom Holland’s 1988 killer doll/voodoo-practising serial killer flick “Child’s Play” . Directed by Lars Klevberg (whose bac...

Set in early 60s Bronx area, and focussing mostly on the title street gang of Italian-American teen hoodlums led by Ken Wahl’s likeable Richie. They’re mostly a genial group of kids, and the film deals with a slice of their life, and especially their encounters with the other gangs in the area (mostly racially-based). Their chief adversaries are the menacing Baldies, led by the hulking Terror, whose gal pal is the diminutive, smart-mouthed Pee-Wee (Linda Manz). A young and barely recognisable Alan Rosenberg plays Turkey, a former Wanderer now aligning himself with The Baldies, to much ridicule. Karen Young and Toni Kalem play girls of very differing personality, whom members of The Wanderers attempt to pick up. Val Avery is a useless civics teacher, William Andrews is an alcoholic bully parent, and Dolph Sweet a bullying elder member of The Bronx neighbourhood the action takes place in.   Take the same year’s “The Warriors” and mix in a little of “The Outsiders” and you’ll ...