Goosebumps (2015)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

A Masterpiece!

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Without exaggeration, Goosebumps is one of the best comedy movies I've seen in a while. The humor works almost perfectly. Specially, as all the characters are so likable, even Champ who is this kind of dumb characters that are often turn out to be very annoying in many other movies like this. Honestly, sometimes Champ went too far, and some of his jokes fall flat, but that didn't make this character annoying, not in the slightest! I can't believe how many times I laughed out loud! Almost every single joke hits the mark. This movie also is as heartwarming as it is funny. Also, it has some very clever twists and turns that surprised me.Jack Black is so funny, even more funnier than he was in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, IMO. Dylan Minnette is very good and adorable as always, but if you really want to see him acting, watch Don't Breathe or Netflix's series 13 Reasons Why. Odya Rush also is good, and Jillian Bell is hilarious as aunt Lorraine.Unfortunately, although I was engaged and very entrained in very second in this movie, I didn't really care, or rather worry about the characters. I didn't feel they were in danger. So this movie absolutely doesn't work as a thriller. As a PG-rated horror movie, this movie, of course, doesn't have to scare me. But the problem is that it becomes a bit tedious and lukewarm almost every time it tries to be scary. The visual effects could have been better, but it really don't have to be. Actually, I prefer to see the CGI in this quality, because it fits the campiness and the charming silliness of the movie, just like the original Jumanji. I can't believe how much I liked Goosebumps. I kept putting off watching it, and I thoroughly regret. I can't wait to watch the sequel!(7.5/10)

The small town of Madison, Delaware is over-run by monsters that escape from the manuscripts of children's horror author R.L. Stine (Jack Black), and it is up to teenagers Zach (Dylan Minnette), Champ (Ryan Lee) and Hannah (Odeya Rush) to try and save the day.Whilst nothing spectacular or original in terms of story (see Jumanji and The Twilight Zone episode 'A World of His Own' for similar ideas done decades earlier), Goosebumps will no doubt please its intended audience - youngsters - and may very well appeal to older viewers who, like me, still embrace their inner child (I was born about twenty years too soon to enjoy Goosebumps for nostalgic reasons, but as old as I am now, I've never grown out of my love for movie monsters).With diminutive animated garden gnomes and a colossal preying mantis, and everything in between, there's more than enough creepy creature fun in this fantasy adventure to keep one entertained for the duration. Some of the CGI special effects are far from perfect (the Abominable Snowman and the wolfman are pretty ropey) and Jack Black teeters on annoying (nothing new there), but the fast pace and likeable teenage characters ensure that boredom never sets in.

Even though I read my share of Goosebumps books as a kid, I still didn't run out to see Goosebumps. I don't remember the specific characters except the most famous ones (e.g. Slappy the dummy). The other reason is because even though I like Jack Black, his really good movies are few and far between. I checked this out on-demand and I'm honestly happy I did. This movie ended up being a lot better than I thought it would be. It knows how to celebrate the spirit of R.L. Stine's work, there's some surprisingly solid acting from the cast and they put some work into the relationships between the characters that would normally make my eyes roll.*Minor Spoilers Ahead* It's a beautiful day as Zach (Dylan Minnette) and his mom Gale (Amy Ryan) move into their new house in Madison, Delaware. They've decided to try and get a fresh start after a tragedy strikes their family and moving from New York City to a small town seems like just the ticket. Zach is less than thrilled about it and reluctantly carries in boxes from the truck. He's trying to wrap his head around the transition and his kooky Aunt Lorraine (Jillain Bell) when he unexpectedly makes contact with his neighbour Hannah (Odeya Rush). She seems to get him immediately but before their conversation gets too far, her dad Stine (Jack Black) yells at her to get back in the house.Movies geared towards families often lack the bite to appeal to adults. This isn't news and if you're looking for some dark horror here, my first question is why? Knowing the source material is the key (as is watching any of the material in the marketing). I think the movie hit the right counterbalance between soft-balling it in and pushing the envelope too far. There are some monsters here that would be pretty scary for the younger kids but as an adult, there's nothing frightening here. It's about right for the audience it's intended for, they wring some laughs out of what's supposed to be some of the scarier scenes. The monsters and villains from the Goosebumps novels are pictured on the screen in imaginative ways that are fun to watch, even when they're trying to stab, eat or maim our heroes.The concept of Stine's books coming to life might seem lame but it reminded me of classic movies that had a lot of imagination. They don't give the audience a concrete explanations on why is this is possible? How could this happen? (it made me think of BIG with Tom Hanks, he grew up all of a sudden because... magic?). But it grew on me as the movie went on. The creative team introduces the concept and then they largely play by their own rules. You never get a chance to ask too many questions because the movie does move along at a decent clip when stuff starts falling apart in Madison, Delaware.Another area this movie could have fumbled the ball is dealing with the characters. You've got a lot of your cliché plot-lines for a coming-of-age tale: the strained relationship between the parent and their kid, the teenage romance where the new kid in town falls in love with the shut-in etc. But this movie was refreshing in how they decided to deal with those well-worn stories. Instead of the typical "you don't get me" stuff, Gale and Zach still have a loving relationship, even though it has it's problems. They joke and deal with their difficulties together and I appreciated that. Another example is how the relationship between R.L. Stine and Slappy is explained. We grow to learn that Slappy is just a shadowy reflection of Stine (authors draw from what they know) and he represents Stine's inability to connect with people and how that's frustrated him even to this day. Not every subplot avoids pitfalls, Zach and Hannah's budding romance has been done over and over again in other movies. But the movie does a good job on not concentrating on it too long and they keep it moving by adding a few jokes or throwing a new twist in to avoid stagnation.I was also impressed by the cast in Goosebumps. You would think Jack Black would mug his way through this material but he's more nuanced and funny in this than the marketing lets on. He carries certain scenes in this movie easily and it's easy to forget how good he is if he's cast in the right role. Dylan Minnette and Odeya Rush were decent as Zach and Hannah. The fact that they were teenage leads falling in love would normally be enough to lose my interest but they worked well together and apart. I thought Ryan Lee was funny but he was really over-doing it in certain bits. Jillian Bell was also solid in her small role, I'm liking her more and more. Amy Ryan also hit the right notes for her character to be effective.Lastly and maybe most importantly, the movie is pretty funny when it wants to be. The script seems to know when it's okay to wink at the audience. It doesn't hurt that you have guys like Jack Black delivering the dialogue but with all the rapid-fire jokes being fired at you, the hit-miss ratio was notably higher than I expected (minus some pretty awful puns by Slappy).Goosebumps could have been really awful. It could have been just an attempt to boost the sales of the books and the studio could have just done the bare-minimum to turn a profit. It wasn't though and I can see why it ended up being a minor hit. They put their own spin on some well-travelled concepts and they made a good decision to couple it with some quickly paced humour and some appropriate to the source material horror. Goosebumps turned out to be some decent entertainment after all.

A teenager teams up with the daughter of young adult horror author R. L. Stine (Jack Black) after the writer's imaginary demons are set free on the town of Madison, Delaware.Let us be perfectly frank about this film, and the fact it is not quite a perfect movie. The biggest problem, by far, is the use of CGI. The Abominable Snowman is a bit rough, and the Werewolf is absolutely horrible. Why they chose to draw a werewolf rather than put a guy in a suit is beyond me, but it is the biggest mistake.That being said, the film is an excellent love letter to R. L. Stine. He was never my favorite, but I did read a couple of his books, and I am sure many of my generation read quite a few. Somebody bought those 400 million copies... although geared towards teenagers or young adults, I almost feel like people aged 30-35 might appreciate the movie more, or at least in a different way.