Child's Play 3

Wouldn't it be great if every new film was a sequel of something previous? Yeah, right…. In this third installment in the popular “Doll From Hell” Series, beleaguered youth Andy Barclay (Whalin), now 16-years-old and bearing a downright uncanny resemblance to Wil Wheaton, finds that evil doll Chucky has once again managed to reconstitute himself and resume his murderous spree. In what appears to be a semi-desperate effort to imbue the storyline with a bit of originality, screenwriter Don Mancini has placed his post-pubescent hero within the confines of the Kent Military School, so what we're getting here is like some warped Taps/Twilight Zone hybrid without the chutzpah. Director Bender has fashioned a film without any surprises, though after the first two films, anyone would be hard-pressed to make audience members jump. As per the rules, Chucky once again pops up in dark corners with knife in hand and malice in heart to maim and kill all who stand in the way of his goal -- mainly, to transfer his soul into the body of a young human and/or reap boffo box office receipts. Haven't we seen all this before? Of course, in everything from Halloween to A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Cannonball Run to Shaolin Monks of Doom. Sequels sell tickets without having to live up to the (often-) superior nature of their previous incarnations. It's a lesson Hollywood has learned too well and taken to its heart just a little too much. It's time it stopped, but there seems to be as much chance at that as there is for world peace in this New World Order of ours. See it and weep.