Bones (Ernest R. Dickerson, 2001)

Man, Bones has gotten a lot of bad press over the years. I'm not terribly sure why, given how many films I've seen that are so, so much worse than this is.

Snoop Dogg (fresh off the best acting job of his career, as the paraplegic dealer in Training Day) is Jimmy Bones, a seventies numbers runner who was murdered in his home twenty years ago, and has haunted the place since. He wants revenge on the people who were involved in the murder. Problem is, his ghost is trapped in the house, and the conspirators won't come near it. Enter an enterprising group of youngsters who buy the place with the intention of turning it into a club. Well, what Bones needs in order to get himself a physical form (as anyone who's seen Hellraiser knows) is human blood. And one of the group (Sean Amsing, recently of Disturbing Behavior) does something stupid...

There are about a hundred good reasons to watch this film, and playing spot-the-influence is only one of them. (There's a particularly touching tribute to Suspiria, which isn't terribly surprising when you realize that between them, the Simon-and-Metcalfe team who penned this have been responsible for such flicks as Braindead, Carnosaur, Fright Night Part II, Kalifornia, and a number of others; these guys have taste.) Katharine Isabelle, the gorgeous redhead from the Ginger Snaps movies, is one of them, although her part seems to be partially to scream and partially to rile up the anti-miscegenation crowd. But any time Isabelle lights up a screen, it's a good thing. Snoop does some decent acting, though he does get a little melodramatic during the death-scene flashback. (Granted, so does everyone else.) Michael T. Weiss (Jeffrey) shows that he can not only play a bad guy, but chew scenery, just as well as Charlton Heston ever did.

But the acting is not the main reason to be here; the cinematography is. There's a piece of the main title scene that is absolutely disturbing; the filtering and shaking turn the shot into a really ugly peyote trip that's combining in your stomach with that burrito that you knew had something in it that was going to give you food poisoning. While the effect is used a couple more times in the film, it's not overused, and that is a very good thing. You probably haven't seen the name Flavio Labiano before-- he's mostly done direct-to-video action flicks-- but you'll see it again. Soon.

I think much of the reason the film's gotten so much bad press is that it's a lot closer to the extreme horror line than most American films, but it never crosses over into Takashi Miike or Hidshi Hino territory. Dickerson keeps a very light touch, making a number of the gore scenes humorous a la Miike, but Dickerson is not the director Miike is, and so the scenes come off a little limp; he never goes far enough to give Asian gore fans a real thrill, but is way, way over the Hollywood line. It's almost as if Dickerson wanted to go there, but got reined in by the studio, creating a result unsatisfying to pretty much everyone.

Still, there are some very good reasons to watch this movie. I mean, come on, you could be watching The Day After Tomorrow or something, instead. ** ½

this movie is not for people who get scared easy.it has alot of blood and gore.Besides that it is great.it has a gangsta twist.well snoop dogg iz in it.overall i reccomend it.

This movie was good, it would have got 5 stars but the ending was trash. The special effects are good and the story was good and the movie was tight up until the end, where it changed to garbage.

Imagine this scenario if you will: Shaft goes to investigate weird goings on in The House on Haunted Hill, goes inside and finds a beautiful girl sprawled out in the hall. he gets in, starts to be a sex machine to this particular chick, when it suddenly morphs and he finds himself delivering ten times out of ten to Freddy Kruger. nine months later, there is the pitter patter of tiny feet. and all four of them belong to BONES.

And, surprisingly, it is quite watchable. Snoop cuts a fine figure as the titular Jimmy Bones, the direction is great, with Bruce Dickerson playing games with the structure and imagery of the movie, and hearlding the return of one of the ghost movies biggest staples: maggots.

Such a shame then, that the script is a little patchy. first, delving into sub Elm Street mythology (Bones has his own song!), and throwing in some humour towards the end that changes the tone of the movie way too rapidly. the writers are going for an urban horror classic with this, but the lack of imagination in the original story drags it down to b movie territory. which is unfortunate because this is fun, unsettling and very watchable.

it won't quite fo'shizzle yo nizzle, but give this thizzle a vizzle and enjoy yo bad self. chuch.

Ok, let me just start of by saying that I hate rap, so you would think that I wouldn't be able to stand it. yet, some how this movie turned out to be good...except the ending was just dumb...not to mention incredibly gross! but other than that this movie is not what I expected...especial coming from snoop dogg! all in all, its a good movie for young'ens (despite the language) and adults!