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Monday, April 11, 2016

Munchie

Watched January 12, 2016

1992
Starring: Loni Anderson, Andrew Stevens, Jamie McEnnan, Jennifer Love Hewitt

I'm sure I said this when I watched Nukie, but I have a hard time with kid's creature movies, especially the really bad ones. Even while making fun of them I find little to enjoy because it has to be family friendly.

This is a super weird sequel to Munchies, a movie I haven't seen but seems like a Gremlins rip off. The original munchies don't seem to look like the Munchie in this movie, so a fair amount of artistic license seems to have been taken. This is such a weird kids movie

In the 1970s, a man throws Munchie locked in a trunk down a bottomless pit, I guess Munchie is the worst. Jump to the early 1990s, Gage (Jamie McEnnan) is a strange little kid, with an active imagination but not many friends. His mom (Loni Anderson) is dating a guy he hates, Dr. Elliot Carlisle (Andrew Stevens.) So Gage is having a rough time of life, he does have one friend Professor Cruikshank (Arte Johnson) who seems to be an archeologist. Since Gage doesn't have friends, he spends a lot of time alone, while wandering around he finds an abandoned mine. There he finds a locked trunk and out pops Munchie! (Voiced by Don Delouise!)

Munchie is instantly Gage's friend and he tries to help Gage make more friends. Munchie has some random weird powers, like the ability to make a pizza fly from the shop to Gage's room. Munchie embarasses Gage's principal, I guess because the principal has been hard on Gage. After some other random events, Munchie throws a party for Gage. Gage is about 10 years old, but this party would have been more appropriate for a teen or older because the only kid that is invited is Gage's crush Andrea (Jennifer Love Hewitt.) Everyone else at the party is an adult, some are dressed in costumes, but there is a keg of beer and a live band. Gage's mom comes back early from her date with Dr. Carlisle to find the party. Dr. Carlisle discovers Munchie and wants to do experiments on him. Gage gets Professor Cruikshank and together the save Munchie from Dr. Carlisle, then Munchie decides to join Prof. Cruikshank on his next archeological adventure. 

To be honest I couldn't remember most of the plot, so I had to look up some other people's summaries to jog my memory. It all just seemed like a blur of Munchie changing outfits and making life terrible for Gage. I don't see why is Loni Anderson appealing as the mom, the future step dad, Dr. Carlisle is the worst too. The motors that work Munchie's face don't seem to work, he should have been a puppet that actually looked like he's talking instead of crazy servos going nuts. Munchie is pretty hard to look at and unbearable as a character, he doesn't seem to help Gage at all, and Gage is pretty unappealing too. But I guess they made a sequel to this sequel, which I will not be watching.