
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 4, 1994                   TAG: 9406040030
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By DAVID KRONKE, The Hollywood Reporter
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`LEPRECHAUN 2' IS A LOSER

` Leprechaun 2` is stupid, misanthropic nonsense - what did anyone expect? It's about a killer leprechaun in modern-day Los Angeles living in a tree on Harry Houdini's old property and terrorizing a young blonde he plans to make his wife.

Expect a very short, so to speak, theatrical release before its video incarnation, where it'll make a modest pot of gold.

Warwick Davis reprises his title role from the surprise 1993 sleeper as a feisty little Irish mystic with a bad attitude and a propensity for worse rhymes. Director Rodman Flender shows little aptitude behind the camera, pointing it in any direction and at any angle but the most effective one (when the first shot of the movie has a klutzy zoom-out, you know you're in for a bumpy ride). Choppy editing awkwardly tries to circumnavigate the cheesy special effects.

Most annoying, however, is Turi Meyer and Al Septien's inept, illogical script. The movie opens with a prologue set in Ireland a thousand years back, offering a patch of rare exposition - it's not.

BPI Entertainment News Wire, April 11, 1994 that they feel like they have toexplain anything sensibly at any other point in the proceedings.

The film's R rating won't help the movie find its audience. Most of the violence boasts little imagination and occurs off-screen, making the mean-spiritedness seem almost chaste (hardcore fans of the genre will feel ripped off), yet the humor and the title character himself are clearly aimed at sub-adolescents, who can't see the movie unless an especially irresponsible adult takes them. Most distressing are the sequences in which the Leprechaun torments his prey (Shevonne Durkin), a rape-enslavement fantasy that could most charitably described as repugnant. Davis' slimy act gets tiresome; Durkin can't act, and that gets tiresome; the rest of the cast plods through the material with tepid enthusiasm. Luck - the Irish's or anyone else's - has nothing to do with this movie.

LEPRECHAUN 2 Trimark Pictures Director: Rodman Flender Script: Turi Meyer, Al Septien, based on characters by Mark Jones Starring: Warwick Davis, Shavonne Durkin, Charlie Heath Running time: 85 minutes. Rated: R

by CNB