Dancing With the Sawyers

Title:  Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

Actors/Director/Anything Worth Mentioning Right Away:  Tobe Hooper returns to direct, while Bill Moseley plays perhaps the role of his lifetime.

Introduction:  I got this DVD as part of a sale from Games Plus.  I honestly never thought that Tobe Hooper did any of the movies in this series after the first one for some reason.    When I found out that Tobe Hooper did still direct this one, it peaked my interest.

Location:   In Texas somewhere, and then in a creepy underground hobbit cave.

Plot:  Team Leatherface returns to kill those who, well, live and then he and his family are going to eat them.   The story here centers around a cop named Lefty (played by Dennis Hopper) who is looking for these murderers because they killed his family.  It’s kind of like what The Devil’s Rejects is to House of 1000 Corpses.   Lefty partners up with a DJ named Stretch who is… wait for it… a woman with the worst possible nickname that is never fully explained.    This movie is basically a point by point move of the duo trying to catch these killers, but it sort of turns itself around them as the hunters become the hunted.

Acting:  The acting is really good, except for maybe the lady who plays Stretch.   She has a good scream but seems to be holding that over her ability to read her lines and not sound like she’s reading them.   Bill Moseley is quite possibly in his best role ever as Chop Top, brother of Bubba “Leatherface” Sawyer.

Production:   This was probably in theaters and it looks to be of that quality.   Many people said that they were disappointed in this movie because it didn’t use that minimal gore experience that the original had.    Granted this has a lot more special effects and just looks, overall, like a bigger budget movie, but I still think it really works.

Sex/Nudity:   Nope, not really.   The only thing close is when Leatherface on

puts the white cowboy hat and face (Yes, you read that right, his FACE) of LG, Stretch’s radio station co-worker, on Stretch herself.   Then they dance around together in what I can only imagine is one of the best episodes of Dancing With the Stars ever.  Later, Chop Top has a great scene where he pokes fun at Leatherface, telling him “Leatherface has a girlfriend!!  Leatherface has a girlfriend!!”   I want to make that my new ringtone.

Special Effects:  In what is one of the first scenes of violence with Leatherface, a kid (whilst driving a car) has the top of his head sawed off.   As always, brutal but cool.   There is also a really cool scene where Chop Top bashes LG’s head with a hammer.

Overall Verdict:    Several things about this movie bother me, and they all revolve around the same scene.  While at the radio station, Leatherface tries to get to Stretch who is locked in some kind of unexplained mystery vault that all radio stations have (the contents of which include Shiner beer and Big Red soda).    First, when Leatherface runs up to the bank-vault-like door, he does this little shimmy with his neck, shoulders and arms, which are above his head holding the chainsaw.   That cracks me up every time I see it, but makes Leatherface look less intimidating and more like a character in a Michael Jackson video.    Okay, maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad to me if moments before Leatherface hadn’t been taken down by a… fire extinguisher?   I’m not even talking about him being hit with it either; he just had the cold stuff sprayed on him.   That’s really ruining his rep as a badass.    The last thing that bothered me, which is not that big of a deal was Leatherface trying to saw into the steel door.   When he couldn’t do it, he eventually moved a ways around the corner and just sawed through the very cheap walls which were probably made of cardboard and gingerbread knowing LG.   My question is why waste so much time sawing at something you know you can’t get through, when you could just step two feet to the right and go through a wall that rats can chew through?  Maybe Leatherface doesn’t have a high IQ and I’m just over thinking this, but you know, those were the only parts of the movies I didn’t get.   Otherwise, I really liked it.