Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha’ Hood (2003) Lionsgate/Comedy-Horror RT: 90 minutes Rated R (violence, pervasive language, drug use, some sexuality) Director: Steven Ayromlooi Screenplay: Steven Ayromlooi Music: Michael Whittaker Cinematography: David Daniel Release date: December 30, 2003 (US) Cast: Warwick Davis, Tangi Miller, Laz Alonso, Page Kennedy, Sherrie Jackson, Donzaleigh Abernathy, Sheik Mahmud-Bey, Sticky Fingaz, Keesha Sharp, Sonya Eddy, Beau Billingslea, Chris Murray, Vickilyn Reynolds, Willie C. Carpenter. Box Office: N/A
Rating: *
I guess there was nowhere else for Leprechaun to go after Leprechaun in the Hood so he went back to hood in Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha’ Hood. The second visit isn’t as fun as the first. In fact, it pretty much sucks.
The sixth installment of the series is the last to star Warwick Davis (Willow) in the title role. I’m guessing he finally had enough of the makeup, prosthetics and dopey dialogue spoken in an Irish brogue. I say he did one too many. I didn’t even see it when it came out on video/DVD in late 2003. I realize how shocking it is to hear Movie Guy wasn’t all over this one, but I just couldn’t summon up any interest. I didn’t even bother with it when it played on cable. I don’t even know when it came on cable. I simply had no interest in it.
Written and directed by some cat named Steven Ayromlooi (the rom-com My Girlfriend’s Back), Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha’ Hood is NOT a sequel to the previous entry even though it takes place somewhere in urban L.A. (NOT Compton!). It has no connection at all to any of the other movies, but that’s the way it’s been with all of them. The only commonality is Leprechaun, an evil little bugger forever on the warpath because somebody’s always trying to steal his Lucky Charms. Oops, wrong leprechaun. I mean his pot of gold.
We open with some nonsense about an ancient king summoning leprechauns to protect his gold. When he dies, they return from whence they came, all but one. Guess which one? Cut to present day L.A. with a pastor (Carpenter, Hard Target) going at it with Leprechaun over his bag of gold. The holy man wants to use it to fund a youth center; Leprechaun isn’t having any of it. The pastor manages to banish his adversary to the bowels of hell using holy water laced with clovers, but at the expense of his own life. The location of the hiding place of the gold dies with him.
One year later, the youth center project has stalled due to lack of funds. Community indifference appears to be a factor as well. However, that is NOT the focus of Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha’ Hood. Ayromlooi instead centers the story on four young black people- Emily (Miller, Felicity), her drug-dealing ex Rory (Alonso, Miracle at St. Anna), her bestie Lisa (Jackson) and goofball pothead Jamie (Kennedy, The Meg 1 & 2)- trying to survive a bleak existence in the crime-ridden, economically depressed hood. The girls visit a fortune teller (civil rights activist Abernathy) who warns them the great wealth they’re about to attain comes at a high price.
While picnicking at the youth center site, Emily falls through a hole in the ground. Guess what she finds? Yep, Leprechaun’s gold. The friends split it four ways and start spending it. In doing this, they release Leprechaun back in the mortal world where he proceeds to go after the crooks who have his property. A malevolent mythological being isn’t their only worry. Rival drug dealer Watson (Bey, Night Falls on Manhattan) and his gang are after Rory for the usual reasons. Also, there’s a pair of racist cops, Thompson (Billingslea, Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later) and Whitaker (Murray, The Pelican Brief), dogging them. It’s a safe bet that they’ll all encounter Leprechaun before the end credits roll.
I’ve been very lenient with the Leprechaun movies. They’re junk, to be sure, but I enjoyed them. I even liked the one…. IN SPACE!!! [Still funny] I did not like Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha’ Hood. It didn’t find it fun or funny. I found it belabored. Even Warwick seems bored with the whole killer leprechaun thing. And I might as well get this out of the way now. The acting is terrible all around. Nobody seems to be having fun for real. It all feels forced.
That’s not to say I disliked everything about Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha’ Hood. It has a few okay things in it. Some of the kill scenes are decent. Somebody gets their heart ripped out. There’s a bloody punch to the gut. Another victim gets stabbed with a billy club. Leprechaun tears a guy’s leg off and puts it to good use later when driving a car. A woman has her lower jaw torn off. The topper has to be the stoner who gets impaled with a bong. As a former pothead, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
The other thing I liked was the hollow point bullets laced with clover. Rory comes up with the idea. He uses this ammo in the final standoff with Leprechaun. Why didn’t anybody think of this before? Doesn’t clover grow in North Dakota? I know you can’t find it…. IN SPACE!!! [I know, I need to stop]
There are two more Leprechaun movies in the series, the reboot Leprechaun: Origins (2014) and the retcon sequel Leprechaun Returns (2018). I don’t plan on watching them. They don’t have Warwick Davis and I’m sure they’re all CGI. I don’t want to soil my good memories of the earlier ones from the 90s with their great cheap practical effects. For me, the series ends with Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha’ Hood. I just wish it was a high note.
