Goosebumps is back with a brand new live action film directed by Rob Letterman and it stars Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Ryan Lee and Amy Ryan. Goosebumps is an adventure/comedy film with some horror elements aimed at kids. It’s based on the very popular Goosebumps books which were practically everywhere during the 1990’s until the Goosebumps craze kind of just disappeared.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chNd8KGW6Cc
Being one of the people that had purchased and read through quite a lot of Goosebumps books back when I was younger in the 1990’s, I had some interest in this film for nostalgia reasons and was curious about what they were going to do with all the characters shown in the trailers. Watching Goosebumps again brought back quite a lot of memories of characters I once read about all the time and new really well and it was good fun seeing them all again.
The film isn’t the usual Goosebumps story though, it’s all about a kid named Zach (Dylan Minnette) who moves next door to the Goosebumps writer/creator R.L. Stine (Jack Black) and his daughter Hannah (Odeya Rush), who he befriends rather quickly. A disaster soon occurs though when Zach ventures into Hannah’s house one night and opens one of the original Goosebumps books, text flies up into the air and out of the book, releasing the monsters from the stories we all read and loved many years ago. How will they get all the monsters back in the books where they belong and not running around the town though?
It sounds like a silly plot but it really isn’t , the film is strangely a lot of fun. Jack Black actually made me chuckle a few times in this and the young cast are all great, both Odeya Rush and Dylan Minnette put in a solid performance each. Some characters are fairly annoying though, in particular Ryan Lee’s character, Champ, who I just couldn’t stand at all for some reason.
Looking at the directing from Rob Letterman I’d say it’s good for a live action kids film, although the budget does show at times when looking at the special effects. The effects are well done but aren’t the best out there at the moment and won’t blow anyone away, but for a kids film over the holidays it’s enough to get it over the line, but only just.
The main draw factor I can see for going in to see this film comes down to really just two things. The first being, going along to see it for nostalgia reasons so you can take a look at the characters you might of once loved long ago and this film does deliver on that quite well. The second factor is that this is one of the few live action family/kids films currently in the cinema and if you’re looking for a bit of change when taking your kids to the cinema, by all means go along and see this if you’re bored of all those animations currently out there.
In no way is Goosebumps the best family film to release in recent times, but it’s still fairly good. It doesn’t take things too seriously and really it’s quite silly but it’s a lot of fun and I can see a lot of kids enjoying this one as well. Jack Black brings some laughs and the young cast do well to entertain you throughout as well. If you’re looking to take the kids to see something that isn’t animated, this isn’t such a bad choice and you may just enjoy it yourself as well.
