I rented the original "Leprechaun" when it first came to video, and got lots of laughs- some of them intentional, many of them not. Who could forget the image of the evil Lep tearing ass in the go-cart, or what must be the only death scene in the history of cinema to involve a pogo-stick? The first sequel was god awful in just about every respect, but was made bearable by the Lep's rhyming one-liners. The third made decent use of its Vegas location and had some ok death scenes. I have never had the (dis)pleasure of seeing the fourth installment, which took place in space. That brings us to "Leprechaun in the Hood", which jumped off the shelf at me with its sharp cover art, hilarious title, and marquee value of Ice-T (ha). The flick unfolds just like the other sequels, with no explanation of how the Leprechaun got to his location, or even a reference to the other movies. The three lead characters are a trio of Compton rappers- Postmaster P, Stray Bullet, and Dutch, who are trying to avoid the gansta scene of hip-hop by preaching a positive message. Greed gives in when they loot the house of Mack Daddy Onassis (Ice T), the local crime lord/record mogul. They happen to swipe the lep's stolen magical flute, and before they know it are being stalked separately by Mack Daddy and the now awakened Lep. Along the way we see the Lep smoke weed ("What a curious aroma"), go to bed with a drag queen, and make a few pop culture references ("Come hand me gold you thieving hoods, You've got more loot than Tiger Woods!!"). Sadly the death scenes are lame, with a few victims just being strangled, some even killed off screen. Effects wise, glowing green eyes and dry ice seems to be the extent of what the low budget would allow, but the movie is always entertaining with its campiness. For every bad effect we get a good line like "From the depths of the neverworld, I summon my zombie fly girls") A worthy rental, especially on DVD- it has the trailers for Lep 1 and 2.
