Must see this movie. Must.

Leprechaun 4 is magically delicious

SIMON MANGIARACINA
STAFF WRITER

After spending a semester in Italy, watching way too much Italian television, I have happily returned to review some of the best direct-to-video films that Video Galaxy has to offer. While Italian TV was fascinating, I have missed feature-length films such as Femalien, Killer Tongue, and even Killer Eye.
During the summer I considered changing the format of this column a bit. At first I wanted to cover a terrific program on Italian television that I watched with some frequency, titled Colpo Grosso, which loosely translates to Blow Fat. The program is a game-show of sorts, which involves contestants stripping for money, and also a regular cast of talented female co-hosts who also strip when contestants answer questions correctly. While I never fully understood the rules of the show, I found myself consistently captivated.
Another direction I considered taking the column was more towards the seedier side of the video market, namely pornographic films, and their relationship to popular film in the more mainstream market. For instance, I could review the role of male/ female relationships in Disney’s popular animated release Pocahontas, as compared to Vivid’s less well known Poke-a-hot-ass. Or, I could compare the revolutionary visuals in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey with those in the softcore classic 2069: A Sex Odyssey. And how about plot-development in Pokemon: The First Movie versus Shut Up and Blow Me Part 4. Well, maybe that last one doesn’t work quite so well, but I think you get the idea. After much consideration, I realized that in order to do a column such as this, I would have to watch quite a bit of porn. While that may be well and good, I would have to frequent the adult section of Video Galaxy on a weekly basis; and let’s face it, I’m way too shy for that.
So by default, it’s back to the same old grind. For those of you who are not familiar with my column, each and every week I will review a new direct-to-video film. These movies are so innovative and ahead of their time, that a wide release in theaters would not make financial sense, since only a small audience is sophisticated enough to fully appreciate them. This week I am reviewing the fifth installment of the ever-popular Leprechaun series, Leprechaun in the Hood, starring Ice-T. After success as a solo rap-artist, his band’s controversial classic single Cop-killer, and the lead role as an under-cover police officer in the influential film New Jack City, it is only natural that Ice-T would choose to move on to more avant-guard work such as Leprechaun in the Hood. While Leprechaun 4: Leprechaun in Space was a telling and introspective spoof on the sci-fi genre of film, it’s successor takes on a more serious tone. Leprechaun in the Hood is a revealing study of three up-and-coming rap artists from the streets of Compton struggling to make their way to success, and one bad-ass leprechaun who gets in their way.
Three young rap-artists, Butch, Stray-Bullet, and Postmaster P, need some funding to enter themselves in a rap contest which could send them to the finals in Vegas and win them a record deal. But when the local pimp/record-producer Mac Daddy (Ice-T) turns them down, our down-on-their-luck rappers decide to break into the big man’s office and steal his gold. A flash-back sequence reveals the secret to Mac’s success: years ago he stole his wealth and a magic flute from a leprechaun who had been turned to stone. Our boys botch the heist, and awaken the wrath of the leprechaun, sending the little man after them, as well as one grumpy Mac Daddy. The remainder of the movie is spent in chaotic violence as both Mac Daddy and the leprechaun hunt for the three rappers. The leprechaun spends his time chillin’ with his zombie fly-girls, and smoking the chronic. “A friend with weed is a friend indeed”, the stoned ghetto leprechaun rhymes. When he’s not smoking a blunt, he’s seducing women with his new urban-flava of seduction, “Come closer, come closer my lass, let me get a look at you before I tap your ass.” The leprechaun even has a sexual encounter with a transvestite male prostitute. As the little green bad-boy hunts down Butch, Stray Bullet, and Postmaster P, he kills a lot of people. He cuts their fingers off, dismembers them and pickles the body parts in separate jars, blows holes clear through their chests, and impales someone with his arm. But our three heroes don’t leave the leprechaun unscathed. They yell insults at him like, “Yo shorty, you ain’t even as big as my dick!” They set fire to him, and with a little help from the book Leprechauns for Dummies they get him stoned off some weed mixed with four-leaf clovers. With a cameo appearance by Coolio, a bumpin’ leprechaun rap sequence at the end, and lines like “Man, bitches and hoes ain’t all the man knows,” Leprechaun in the Hood is one of the finest films I have ever had the pleasure of watching. A++!