Bones

Bones (2001)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Ernest Dickerson

Starring: Snoop Dogg, Pam Grier, Clifton Powell, Ricky Harris, Michael T. Weiss

From: New Line Cinema

Yep, another movie I am revisiting for the first time in many years. Read what I thought of this below: 

As sometimes happen, the inspiration to see this random movie came from a messageboard discussion. In this particular case, some people were talking about this and I remarked that I watched it in full on VHS... soon after it came out but that was it and I honestly did not remember a damn thing about the movie besides it starring Snoop Dogg and Pam Grier. I was surprised when I saw the name of cult favorite Katharine Isabelle in the opening credits.

A fellow Letterboxd member described this as “a blaxploitation Hellraiser movie” and that did make me laugh. One plot element is definitely “borrowed” from the original Pinhead movie. Snoop Dogg is Jimmy Bones, who is a “numbers runner” (but he's also a drug dealer & it's basically played like he's a pimp, because of course) in 1979; he is murdered and his brownstone home becomes a tomb where his spirit is trapped. In 2001, a group of of young people (three of them are brothers and white step-sister) buy that place and (again, because of course) they want to turn it into a nightclub, even though the neighborhood is now a really bad, barren ghetto. There's also a black dog that's a manifestation of Bones. Not to spoil anything, but I'll just mention that Jimmy Bones does return, and his fashion sense is “cosplay of The Undertaker.”

I wish I could rate this at higher than average, but it takes awhile to get going, there are some dopey moments, some of the acting is not great and a character or two is annoying. Let's not even talk about how poorly much of the CGI has aged. It's regrettable as “urban horror” should always be more of a thing and the general idea of someone coming back to life looking for revenge on those that wronged him is clearly a good one, and that was the best part of this movie. The movie is flashy and it is pretty stylish; at times it's real colorful (almost as if it's a giallo) and there are interesting ideas present. I just wish the bones of the story (I know, I know) would have been more solid.

As is, it's an intriguing film which doesn't quite work but because of the presence of director Ernest Dickerson (who has directed good films and also various music videos) this is at least average which makes it better than many of the genre pictures you can find on services such as Netflix Instant and when you narrow it down to just “urban horror”, this might as well be The Exorcist in comparison to some of the travesties you find there.