“Kiss me, I’m Irish!”

Justin’s rating: The UK title to this is One Marriage and Lots of Funerals, which I completely love.

Justin’s review: Warwick Davis is an absolute legend who doesn’t get talked about enough. He’s been in three incredible franchises — Star Wars, Willow, and Harry Potter — and also headlined an impressive six Leprechaun movies. Don’t judge this guy by his size!

I’ve been meaning to get back to his iconic horror series at some point, having only seen Leprechaun 4: In Space a looooong time ago because of the scifi angle. So let’s fill in the pint-sized Irish gap on this website by checking out the follow-up to 1993’s surprise hit.*

Jennifer Aniston was invited to reprise her role, but she took a look at her Friends paycheck and said, “Thanks but no thanks.” So instead, Davis’ Leprechaun embarks on a new quest, this time to secure himself a bride on St. Patrick’s Day. He targets a girl named Bridget for unholy matrimony, but her boyfriend Cody snags one of his magical gold coins, so there’s a bit of a standoff between sides.

While Garth Algar might be frightened by the Leprechaun, I guarantee you that pretty much nobody else was. He’s not really your traditional scary slasher, but rather a darkly comic trickster with magical abilities and a penchant for rhyming his threats. He also likes to kill people in vaguely Irish ways, which isn’t “get drunk and punch people in the head” but more “materialize a pot of gold inside someone’s torso.”

When Bridget is victim of a Leprechaunapping, Cody has to travel to the creature’s maze-like underground tree base. But will he get to her in time before the Leprechaun makes Bridget into a bride? And what will he do when Cody realizes that possessing the gold coin makes him invincible?

Our non-fantasy main characters are extremely dull, no matter how ’90s their hairstyles, but at least Davis is giving it his all in a demented turn of Irish folklore. I guess it’s a reminder that there was a time that we kind of rooted for the horror movie villain, especially if he/she/it was quippy and entertaining. Does that make us the baddies?

I will give mild applause to the fact that this is set on St. Patrick’s Day, which I think is the only time this franchise does that. We don’t have an abundance of St. Patty’s Day movies, and if the Lucky Charms mascot taught us anything, there’s endless possibilities for riffs on the holiday.

And there’s some funny bits here, including a drinking contest (which the Leprechaun loses? Kind of?), a deadly tricked-out go-kart, and a wish-granting session that goes all kinds of bad for the humans.

Leprechaun 2 is passably entertaining and funny if not that imaginative nor that gory (the death scenes are often obscured). You can kind of see this as a run-up to director Rodman Flender’s Idle Hands, which he made five years later.

*Oddly enough, there’s a second official sequel to Leprechaun, which is 2018’s Leprechaun Returns. This didn’t feature Warwick Davis — he passed on it — but claims to be a direct follow-up to the first film.

Intermission!

• They needed to hire a better doodler for the opening credits
• Oh hey, Clint Howard cameo
• I wouldn’t mind being driven around tourist areas in the back of a hearse
• “Is there gonna be a bathroom stop?”
• Leprechauns don’t like drinking Blended Canadian
• Leprechauns make horrible dentists
• DogCam was a nice fake-out
• “Finger lickin’ good!” And yes, he licks the finger.
• Don’t make out with a running lawnmower
• DEADLY TELEPHONE CORD ATTACK!
• “A little family reunion… you have his cheekbones!”
• There’s an awful lot of spending time in this particular bar bathroom
• OK I laughed at the fake leprechaun
• “Have I mentioned that I want me gold?”
• Leprechauns are always down for a drinking contest
• A Leprechaun walked into an espresso bar…
• Even with your hands nailed to a bar, you CAN duck down to avoid steam, you know.
• “I’ve had 60 hours of combat training.” “Should’ve had 65!”
• You can live for an incredibly long time with a giant pot of gold in your belly
• DEATH GO-KART!
• “You had your iron today?”
• Skeleton attack!