LEPRECHAUN

Warwick Davis

LEPRECHAUN (1993). Director: Mark Jones.

Tory Reding (Jennifer Aniston) has gone on vacation with her father (John Sanderford) in North Dakota, and is appalled by the filthy house they are occupying with its dust, cobwebs, and tarantulas. Where is the pool and the shopping mall? she wonders. Little does she know that there are worse problems, such as the fact that a leprechaun (Warwick Davis) is imprisoned in a crate in the basement. This nasty little fellow is after gold that was stolen from him twenty years before, and he attacks and even kills anyone who gets in his way. If even one coin is missing, this leprechaun will take revenge on anyone who may have stolen it. With a massive ad campaign that helped generate a profit, Leprechaun emerged a successful film and has so far spawned six sequels, some of which went direct to DVD. While one can't say it's a particularly good movie -- in fact, it's kind of ridiculous --  in its own strange way it's somewhat entertaining, and Davis offers a showy and charismatic performance as the evil leprechaun. The other characters include slow, chubby Ozzie (Mark Holton); his smart little brother Alex (Robert Hy Gorman) and Nathan (Ken Olandt), who has a kind of romance with Tory. There's some gore and violence, and the tone throughout is strictly black comedy as opposed to out and out horror. Some scenes have a little suspense and excitement, not to mention laughs, and the characters and actors are not without appeal.

Verdict: If we must have a movie about a killer leprechaun, this could be worse. **1/4. 

FROM MOTHER AND DAUGHTER TO FRIENDS

FROM MOTHER AND DAUGHTER TO FRIENDS. Nancy Aniston. Prometheus; 1999.

As I have little interest in the TV show Friends and its star, Jennifer Aniston, it may seem odd that I chose this tome to read. I think I have always been curious about how it really feels for someone in show biz to essentially have a non-career while their child goes on to great success and fame. From Mother to Daughter does not really explore that, as Nancy Aniston -- if we're to believe her -- seemed more interested in her actor husband's success than her own, and encouraged her daughter in her acting pursuits. She doesn't come off like a stereotypical "stage mom," either. Nancy did her best to get husband John Aniston on his feet and make a living when his acting career stalled for years. He later became a successful soap opera actor and, typically, discarded the wife who'd been there for him, although Nancy is charitable and suggests that what she saw as encouragement he only interpreted as nagging. All Nancy could get her husband to say was "I am not committed to this marriage" -- she subsequently learned he had a girlfriend (one of his co-stars). After daughter Jennifer's success on Friends, Nancy made the innocent mistake of talking to a tabloid show (ostensibly about a special school she felt was doing good work) and an over-reacting Jennifer stopped speaking to her mother. (This book did little to close the gap but after a few years -- when Jennifer broke up with Brad Pitt -- she reached out to her mother once again.) But forget about Jennifer, Friends, and Brat Pitt, From Mother and Daughter works because it is a very well-written memoir that frankly explores painful moments such as the death of Nancy's baby sister; her mother walking out on the family (and the mother's subsequent death); the rejection from her husband and their divorce, and watching as her children grew up to lead their own lives in which she may not necessarily have played as large a part. Some of this must be taken with a grain of salt, as the book presents only one side of the story, and there are hints that Nancy could be a mite priggish, but her writing about how women -- especially cast-off wives -- need to empower themselves is admirable. If her account is accurate, however, Jennifer should probably have stopped talking to her father, not her mother. In any case, Nancy Aniston passed away a few weeks ago, and one hopes that she and her daughter reconciled long before then.

Verdict: Affecting and often moving memoir. ***1/2.