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 If you've ever wondered what would happen if you put DVDs of "The Mangler", "The Lawnmower Man 2", "Mission Impossible", and "Bloody Murder" in the washing machine and added too much detergent, "Mangler 2" might be the result. Strangely enough, it has more in common with "Lawnmower Man 2" and "Bloody Murder" than its predecessor. The original stars a bloodthirsty laundry-folding machine, but in "Mangler 2", it appears for no more than a couple minutes and is not controlled by demons but rather an intelligent computer virus which eventually crosses cyberspace and becomes part-human (an unhealthy "Lawnmower Man 2" influence there). Another unfortunate reminder of "Lawnmower Man 2" is the cheezy computer generated images, but thankfully there aren't as many. The "Mission Impossible" influence can be seen in the beginning, where a hacker infilrates a high-security area and copies top-secret stuff from a computer, though the computer here is ridiculously noisy, making exaggerated sound effects for seemingly every little keystroke. On top of all this, "Mangler 2" has that "Bloody Murder" vibe--most notably in the sense that the nudity and gore have all been minimized, even though such gratuities would be needed to make up for the movie's shortcomings. However on the plus side, horror veteran Lance Henriksen rounds out the cast of novice actors. While it's hard to go wrong with Henriksen, his performance isn't nearly enough to get this movie off the ground. There's only so much you can do to help a predictable storyline ending with a laughable showdown where the protagonist marches right for the evil computer virus with her head jutting forward while some marginally angry music is playing in the background. The bottom line: "Mangler 2" is a washed-up horror movie, on a par with "Bloody Murder". |
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QUARTER BY QUARTER ANALYSIS OF MOVIE
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OVERALL RATING
** NOTE: The more dots, the better it is. 12 dots indicates a masterpiece while no dots means it's a "disasterpiece." ** |
    
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The Worm-Hole Reviews are written by Matt Barnes.