Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999)

I love this movie. it is quite underrated in a number of ways. Sure, the overall plot and subject matter is rather silly,this is definitely not Saving Private Ryan or Schindler's List; but for what it is, this movie offers a lot of subtle surprises. By far, Divoff's performance drives this movie, and as somebody who has admittedly watched this about 30 times, the subtleties he brings to the role are quite underrated and absolutely hilarious. He's the perfect combination of good-natured evil, unintentionally creepy,but yet subtly hilarious and in many ways innocent. His facial expressions and growling noises are always perfectly timed and ridiculously funny. The acting in general might be goofy at times, but in many cases quite good...in a way, they are aware that the film is kind of silly, but within that they take that silliness seriously and it shows.This movie deserves to be a cult classic, but in a positive light (not in a so-bad- its-good sense); it's acceptance of its own silliness and Divoff's skillful and hilarious performance make it so much fun.

Wishmaster 2 (1999) ** (out of 4)Morgana (Holly Fields) and a couple friends are robbing an antique location when they accidentally let loose the Djinn (Andrew Divoff). Pretty soon Morgana is trying to figure out exactly what she's done and hopefully stop the Djinn before he can collect a thousand souls.WISHMASTER is best remembered today because of how many horror icons it featured. It wasn't the greatest movie ever made but it was a slightly entertaining horror picture that had some terrific actors as well as some great gore scenes. As was the case with many horror films, the direct-to-video market is where the sequels would end up.WISHMASTER 2 certainly isn't a great movie but for the most part I found it to be slightly entertaining. I think the movie starts off pretty good and especially the scenes where the Djinn goes to jail and then prison. I actually thought these scenes were fairly funny and especially one brutally gory scene where an inmate makes the wrong decision and tries to go after the Djinn. The scenes inside the prison were funny just because of Divoff's performance in his human form going against your typical prison thugs.The one thing this film is really lacking are the gore scenes. Outside of one in the jail cell, the gore effects aren't very memorable and some of the CGI effects look really bad. For the most part both Fields and Divoff are entertaining in their roles and they're at least good enough to help keep you entertained in what's going on.WISHMASTER 2 eventually runs out of gas around the hour mark and it limps to the conclusion. The film certainly runs a tad bit too long and there's just nothing new or fresh done with the material. Still, for a direct-to-video sequel, it's not too bad and provides a little entertainment.

"WANTED: An actor who has mastered the evil-smirk method, to play Satan without ever changing his facial expression. We're making a B-movie, so will 500 bucks do? That's approximately $2 per smirk. You need to have a distinctly silly face which we will try to pass off as evil. Also wanted is a writer: preferably unemployed, i.e. with low financial expectations, and with a penchant for very cheap word-play. You see, our Wishmaster grants wishes, but he always twists the wish semantically to screw over the person whose soul he is taking. Neat idea, huh? We don't expect this turd to go the big screen, but we should get a few dozen viewers on various retarded cable channels."W2:END is a horrible Z-grade piece of crap worthy of an MST3000 treatment every step of the way. The actor playing Satan grins like an imbecile in every scene, making one wonder whether Hell has more to do with low IQs rather than low morality. Perhaps this movie suggests that the dumb end up in Hell... Marilyn Monroe? Gregory Peck? Lady Di? It kinda wouldn't be fair; after all, they didn't ask to be born that way.The Wishmaster, who for some reason refuses to be called by his Christian name "Satan", looks about as scary as South Park's gay Devil. The movie uses the age-old cliché of a wish being twisted around so as to not fulfill the wisher's intention. I have no idea if this was supposed to be funny. It was brutally lame. I'll tell you what was funny, though: Damsel In Distress: "Tell me how to stop you!" Satan aka Wishmaster: "Now you're p***ing me off!" Our female hero can't figure out a way to semantically screw over the Devil, so in a moment of uninspired panic she screams at him hysterically for an answer! One would think that the Wishmaster would find this amusing, especially since he's basically not more than a third-rate comedian here, but instead he gets upset at her - like a little girl. This extremely silly verbal exchange is right up (or down) there with Plan 9's precious "Your stupid stupid minds!" cinema moment.Included in the movie is also a young Catholic priest who is not only heterosexual, but takes off women's bras with suspiciously expert ease and speed. Somehow that actor looks more like someone they fished out from a neighbouring porn set, than an actual celibate minister. The world it is going' a-down, and yet these two have the energy and the interest to "get it on".More nonsense comes in form a rather tiresome rule that Satan has to fulfill 1001 wishes in order to accomplish his mission. Who makes these rules, anyway? 1001? Was it Scheherazade? Ali Baba? Our Horned bad guy eventually realizes that getting 1001 morons to make a wish is actually very hard work, and he gets frustrated, finally coming up with a cunning plan involving a Las Vegas casino. All silly hell breaks loose there, which is when we get some truly bad special effects, such as a woman craping several kilos of coins. People's faces melt, there is mutilation and carnage left and right, and yet all of it seemed about as scary as watching Heidi walk her sheep through the Alps.I'll you tell what IS scary: that there are people out there who actually enjoyed W2:END for its horror "value".The movie ends with the damsel chanting "nib shugaroth baheem". Is that "this was not a smart career move for me"...? I have no idea what this catchy word-salad means, or whether sugar has anything to do with Satan's demise, but something tells me that "abracadabra" would have been just as good - and easier to pronounce. Perhaps "nib shugaroth baheem" means "we've run out of funds hence have to end this dumb movie abruptly", in some obscure Asian language. The Devil may be hell-bent on conquering Earth, but even he knows that you can't finish a movie if the bank refuses to pay out the entire agreed-upon sum...Perhaps the current financial crisis will prevent many similar wishmasterian cinematic turds from being produced in the near future? I think that would be a good thing, in spite of the fact it would mean even higher levels of unemployment among actors who specialize in the "smirk/grin method".

I know "Wishmaster" was never really that popular with the horror fans, but I think it's a guilty pleasure for some, and you have to got to admit that these were the deadliest wishes ever! I loved seeing how the Djin twisted the wishes and loved all the gory scenes, they were just great. I have to say that the actor who played Nathanal, his face must've hurt that entire movie. :) I think if you liked the first Wishmaster, you would get a kick out of this one.Basically, a group of thieves take art from a gallery, including the Djin stone, when a girl, Morgana, is stopped by a security guard, he shoots her and she shoots back killing him, but the bullet that hit her was stopped by the stone, releasing the Djin. The boyfriend of Morgana tells her to run, she does so, and the Djin takes the rap for the gang going to prison granting wishes upon wishes. He has to gather 1,000 souls and grant 3 wishes to Morgana before his hell will reign on Earth! I thought the wishes were extremely cool, I think my favorite one was with the lawyer and how he "did" himself, it was very funny in a sick way, you've got to admit that it was original. I think horror fans will get a slight kick out of the second Wishmaster and I'm looking forward for the next sequel.4/10