Goosebumps

Here we go folks, let’s try and squeeze what little juice is left out of a franchise before we ultimately kill it. Goosebumps fans be ready for disappointment as your book series haunts your dreams with terrible jokes, awkward and unnecessary romance and small appearances by characters that eventually do nothing.  This movie feels like a cash grab for the studio.

Follow our characters on what they want to call an “adventure” to find a typewriter that can make anything R.L. Stine writes come to life.  The cast isn’t much to speak of in this, the biggest star is Jack Black and the performance is forgettable. The performances all around in the film are not bad but nothing you will remember. The characters they pull out of the book will have readers of the series going “yeah, I remember that book”. And other times you will find yourself pulled out of the story just to try and figure out what Goosebumps book the creature is from.

The plot of this movie and overall concept are good and could be an interesting movie. However it’s a big swing and a miss. It felt like they were throwing all sorts of characters at you, just to say “remember this, and this and this!” I feel that they should have tried to narrow down the stories involved in order to give the monsters more of a background story and let them have their time to grow. If they had done this I think it could have been a great movie and maybe even set itself up for a series of films.

The positive of the movie is that the effects in the film are good, something nice to look at. Overall, Goosebumps feels like a failed attempt at the Jumanji formula. This isn’t worth the time at the theater and is only worth a glance on the television if there is nothing else on. You’re not going to miss anything if you do not see this film. Cinema Wise gives Goosebumps a 2 out of 5.

This review brought to you by Ryan.