Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust

Wow!--A MUST SEE! Make way for the new cult film of the millennium. This little fan-film is a hilarious outrage for anyone who has ever seen a Charles Band production.

I saw the Full Moon screening and was blown away.

Up there on the screen was a painfully accurate parody of Charles Band himself! A low budget film about a low budget film producer who makes bad puppet movies!!! The dialog and effects are over the top and unforgettable.

The casting was dead on and perfect.

And the Cameos were amazing! The producers of the film got a bunch of horror film directors to play, horror film directors, --Dave DeCotau, played himself, John Beuchler, played himself, Adam Green, played a bum... Okay so Adam Green ain't a bum, but he's funny as hell! -- Michelle Bauer played an aging eighties scream queen, and Kenneth J. Hall played a really bad self obsessed actor...

The movie will have you whooping with laughter as you are introduced to a new batch of bad puppet creations called the "Tiny Terrors" including Sh*t For Brains, Haunted Dildo, Treasure Chest, Knob Goblin..

And the old Ginger Dead guy is hysterical as the killer cookie on a rampage.

See this film!

The sequel nobody asked for, from Full Moon. Despite the lack of Gary Busey I felt this one was a slight improvement over its predecessor, although that really isn't saying much. There's a certain amount of self-referentiality to the production which sees the titular menace turning up at the shoot of a low budget B-movie and proceeding to wreak havoc among the cast and crew. It's inane and cheesy throughout, with cheap gore effects and absolutely horrendous acting: par for the course for Full Moon, then. Incredibly, a further sequel followed before a collaboration with the similar stoner comedy EVIL BONG series.

The Gingerdead Man (sadly no longer voiced by Gary Busey) returns, here he ends up at the fictional Cheathum Studios in Hollywood, who specialise in B-movie horror, science fiction , etc. He goes on another killing spree, however part 2 has more main characters than the original, such as a disgruntled film critic and Gingy is often sidelined in favour of the subplots. I don't use the word "meta" in my reviews but this could be a meta movie: made by Full Moon Entertainment they might be parodying themselves with Cheathum, and the movie critic talks about horror movie tropes etc. I didn't think that this particular Gingerdead Man was as good as the original (which isn't saying much) but I loved Scream Queen Michelle Bauer playing Polly, a sex mad 1980's Scream Queen! Full Moon are known for puppet horror and here we are treated to some good new ones, plus an abundance of horror props. There are plenty of gooey special effects and a cheesy Satanic ritual. However the running time is a mere 73 minutes yet they still padded that out with a recap on the first film and long credits. Even though I preferred the Gingerdead character from the first film I actually think that overall this movie is slightly better.

No pun intended - this sequel may be the best in the ... well trilogy of this series that exists (I am not counting the crossover movie where the Gingerdead man meets the Evil bong ... especially because I have not watched it yet) ... this even has a flashback and a "what happened so far" intro to the movie.

So we are all up to date, when the movie begins. It is all wink wink - fully aware of what it is and way more on the fun side than the first movie, that tried to be quite serious. It even has a few cameos that work really nice. People that you may know if you are a horror movie fan. Nicotero, Buchler to name just two.

So while this isn't amazing or anything of that sort ... it still is quite fun to watch - no pun intended here either ... plus better effects (bit more budget I assume).

Ever since this title was announced way back, I had been waiting patiently for a chance to watch it, granted the first one was one big pile of drivel, I had always maintained a certain level of hope for an improvement with the follow up.

Sadly to say, and not for the first time, 'Gingerdead Man 2' - The Passion Of The Crust, although at it's festering heart contained a serious good idea, I found my patience beginning to wear very thin as I was treated to a ten minute recap from the original.

Having spent the vast majority of my teenage years viewing every movie that Charles Band had produced, jumping on board with Empire Pictures, and then holding on for dear life with Full Moon Pictures, I have pretty much witnessed the good, the bad and the downright ugly! No matter how bad the proceedings, I will always give over my time for a movie produced by the man himself, but dear oh dear, the last couple of outings have left a lot to be desired, 'Doll Graveyard', 'Dangerous Worry Dolls'.

Now the notion of a movie within a movie has always been an intriguing idea, one such movie that comes to mind was Fred Olen Ray's 'Bad Girls From Mars' starring Edy Williams.

Granted that film was any great shakes, the only thing that kept it afloat was the odd flash of nudity to keep the movie trucking along! with 'Gingerdead Man 2' it was good to see such legends from the low budget film world strut their stuff in front of the camera, make-up maestro John Carl Buechler showed his acting chops as the beleaguered director Orson Biggs! It was also pretty cool to see scream queen icon Michelle Bauer steal some screen time as one time scream starlet Polly Bunderhoof, even twenty something years on, Miss Bauer still looks pretty stunning! At the film's core, was the idea that this low budget film company, Cheatum Studios, you have to love that name have been struggling for some time to make any sort of entertaining movie, and of course through William Butler's screen story, this idea in itself is a thinly veiled mickey take on the financial ups and downs of Charles Band himself.

I guess therein lay the problem for myself, I wanted to enjoy the movie, but it just kept on dragging on and on, getting involved with a myriad of ideas that mainly led the movie nowhere, such is the case with the Full Moon ideas being produced.

A quirky movie at best, and although I know Part Three will fast approach at some point, depending on the budget of course, I really do wish Charles Band would think outside the box and give the Full Moon fans something decent to watch.

My rating is 1 because the Cookie Has Crumbled!