Child's Play (4 Stars)

I've decided to watch the Chucky films again. A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook that she never watches a film twice. She says that if she already knows what will happen she can't enjoy it. It's all about your attitude towards films. I don't just watch films for casual enjoyment. I like to analyse them. Often I don't notice details about a film until the second or third time I watch it. If I already know a film well after repeated viewings, I'm able to put myself into the state of not having seen it before. It's a simple mental exercise that I've mastered over the years. I do it every time I watch "Donnie Darko" and "The Truman Show", to name two examples. In addition, whenever I watch "The Truman Show" I imagine that the year is 1998, when it was made, because the film's premise is dated and wouldn't be possible today.

Incidentally, my personal definition of a good film is that it's a film I want to watch at least three times. That's not necessarily a film that I've watched three times. There are some excellent films that I've only watched once, because I haven't got round to a second viewing. So many films, so little time.

As far as I remember, this is the fourth time I've watched "Child's Play", the first film in the series about the killer doll Chucky. It's the third time since I started my blog – check my alphabetical list of posts! – and I remember watching it once while I lived in Mansel Road (2002-2008). Those were the ancient days before I owned a flatscreen television. They existed back then, but they were far too expensive. Prices have dropped, thankfully.

The film's main character (apart from Chucky himself) is six-year-old Andy Barclay. The film begins on his birthday. He's a fan of the Good Guy TV series, and his greatest wish is to have a life size Good Guy doll. His mother can't afford one, because it costs $100, a small fortune for a single mother in the 1980's. She manages to buy a doll which a tramp has stolen for only $30. He's happy beyond words. He goes to bed with the doll, even wearing the same outfit.

What he doesn't know is that the doll is possessed. A murderer called Charles Lee Ray was shot by a police officer in a toy store. With his dying breath he spoke a voodoo incantation that transferred his consciousness into a Good Guy doll. This is the doll that was stolen. Maybe it was just taken from the trash, because it couldn't be sold after being smeared with blood.

Now the doll, which calls itself Chucky, wants revenge on his former criminal associates and the police detective who shot him. Andy and his family are caught in the middle.

This morning I made a post about changes to Google's blogger software. I decided to delete the post afterwards, because it was too emotional. I threatened to stop including images with my posts because of Google's new format. That's not necessary. I still think that the new format is a mess. Instead of a file name, the photo is inserted as a 192-character tag. If you want to see what the difference is, compare the filename of the photo above (a newly uploaded photo) with the photo below (a photo from an old post).

Do you see what I mean? It's a mess. I guess I'll have to put up with it from now on.

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