Goosebumps (2015)

Goosebumps (2015)

6/10

Starring

Jack Black

Dylan Minnette

Odeya Rush

Amy Ryan

Directed by Rob Letterman

The movie script or storyline is everywhere, with plot holes and loose strings hanging around everywhere. The pace so fast it can lose you even the watcher, who is meant to see all and know all, but thanks to the occasional monster appearing to keep everything in check, this movie would have been hard to watch and enjoy.

Based on the children's book series of the same name by R. L. Stine, who is played in this movie by Jack Black and is the lead in the movie, Goosebumps 2015 pays homage to its franchise by keeping things simple, fun and family content.

The movie is directed by Rob Letterman whose last attempt in directing a movie was when he worked with the same Jack Black on Gulliver’s Travel (2010) which was a total crap of a movie. This will be Letterman and Jack Black’s 3^rd time (their other collaboration was in the animation Shark Tale (2009)) working together and 2^nd time working together on a live action flick and their second attempt is far better than their first.

The movie plot starts with a teenage boy named Zach moving to a new neighborhood with his mother. His neighbor's daughter Hannah whom he met when he was moving in is pretty and welcoming, but her dad was not and didn't want Zach anywhere near his daughter or his house.

While spying on his neighbor Zach witnessed what looked like a domestic disturbance and he later couldn't find Hannah. Calling his new and only friend in the neighborhood Champ, they break into Stine’s house and discovered Hannah to be safe and sound. But the duo unintentionally opened one of R.L. Stine's books, and the Abominable Snowman crawls out of the manuscripts.

This led to a frenzy in the house which also released from a manuscript another of Stine’s monster, Slappy the Living Dummy.

Slappy is the main antagonist in the movie and was angry with his creator Hannah's father who is R. L. Stine (Jack Black), who writes the Goosebumps stories. Stine's monsters come to life when he writes them, so he keeps them locked in his manuscript on a shelf. Slappy steals all the manuscripts and releases all the monsters with one intent, kill Stine. Now Zach, Hannah, Stine and Champ must team up to put the ghosts and monsters back where they came from before they overrun the town and harm people

The movie is fun and nice and a good flashback for those of us who saw the old series in the mid-90s or read the books. It is something to own where your family can sit and enjoy a nice movie with monsters on the loose.