Halloween: H20 Movie Review

In entertainment value, Halloween: H20 (Twenty Years Later) delivers four bones worth of fun; I was laughing for the last 35 minutes. Is this what Steve Miner et al had in mind? It raked in $55 million at the boxoffice within four months of its release, so maybe it is. Anyway, we're back with Laurie Strode at age 37 (inimitably played by Jamie Lee Curtis, 39). She's a wreck, especially when October 31st rolls around every year. She's faked her own death, she's changed her name to Keri Tate, she drinks, she takes pills, and she imagines she sees Michael Myers everywhere. She's going with Will, sort of a loser shrink (Adam Arkin), who tries to talk her out of her justifiable paranoia. Scratch one bone! Laurie/Keri also has a 17-year-old kid named John (Josh Hartnett) who has NO idea what she's been through and is therefore chomping at the bit for some independence. He's supposed to be camping at Yosemite with his class, but decides to stay at school with girlfriend Molly (Michelle Williams) and pals Charlie (Adam Hann-Byrd) and Sarah (Jodi Lynn O'Keefe). I'll say one thing for Michael Myers’ victims—they all put up one helluva fight. But you can't win against a guy who gets stabbed umpteen times, leaps off tall buildings with a sickening thud, crashes through windshields before getting run over by a car and falling off a cliff. And is he…? Yes, he is! Michael Myers is still ticking! It's got to be a fight to the bitter end for Laurie (what a woman) and Michael (Chris Durand). Scratch that! How about the next sequel? How can there be a sequel? Love and homicidal maniacs always find a way! Turn off the lights, lock the doors, look close for Janet Leigh's cameo as Norma, and check out Ronny, the invincible security guard played by L.L. Cool J. (what a man). Based on characters created by Debra Hill and John Carpenter. AKA: Halloween: H20 (Twenty Years Later); Halloween 7.

1998 (R) 86m/C Jamie Lee Curtis, Adam Arkin, Josh Hartnett, Michelle Williams, Adam Hann-Byrd, Jodi Lynn O'Keefe, Janet Leigh, L.L. Cool J., Joseph Gordon Levitt, Nancy Stephens, Branden Williams, Chris Durand; D: Steve Miner; W: Matt Greenberg, Robert Zappia; C: Daryn Okada; M: John Ottman, John Carpenter. VHS, LV, Closed Caption