Badmovies.org Forum

Just wondering if anybody else has seen this? I rented it yesterday, since I was apparently the only Canadian not watching the Olympic hockey match. Anyway, the Mangler name assured me it would be bad, but the box art sucked me in anyway. What can I say, I'm a sucker for movies with people turned into crude cyborgs. Still, this thing was even crappier than I had expected. Through the entire thing, I kept trying to imagine a Ken Begg review of it. It would take one of those in-depth Jabootu reviews to really document everything that is wrong.

We have the poor little rich girl/rebellious hacker with no respect for anyone. She gets all pouty because she's always being blamed for everything, never considering that it's her own fault, and takes revenge by infecting the newfangled security computer with the 'Mangler' virus, that she picks up from 'hackers-mall.com' of all places. Great, so an artifically intelligent computer that controls the building turns homicidal - not outside the realm of believability, at least for a horror flick. When the computer gains the ability to slam washing machine lids, cause bundles of wiring to crawl around killing people, and make boiling water come out of the fire sprinklers, that's another matter. What's more, we have a bunch of teenagers who break into the headmaster's office to cover up the hacker shenanigans, in full view of the obvious security cameras. Only when the computer starts killing people are the cameras to be avoided. Then the computer connects itself to Lance Henriksen, and gets beaten by a couple of clicheed old tricks, one of which was invented by Captain Kirk. This movie stole from everybody. I won't even try to list all the movies I saw ripped off.

Then it all ends without any consequences for our heroine, because she learned her lesson about caring for others (and stopped wearing black lipstick). She gets a hug from daddy and a trip to Europe. I mean, nobody even tried to blame her for what happened, even though they all knew she intentionally and maliciously messed with the computer. Sure, she didn't mean to kill anybody, but neither does the bankrobber who runs somebody down in his getaway car. Shouldn't she be thrown in jail for criminal negligence causing death or something?

Happens all the time. Ask Ken Begg. Its so common, it'd be easier to list the movies where there ARE consequences. Hummm....what would those be, now that i think about it? Man, i'm drawin' a blank!

 This movie had tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny specks of goodness sprinkled in it, like grains of sugar on a pile of crap. Here are a couple bits I liked:

1) The chef. "I hate American teenagers." I just enjoyed that line, I dunno why.

2) Watching that young lady bounce around and hoping she would show some skin (Yes, I am shallow) :)

3) The part in the bleachers when they were using the camera to see..that was interesting.

Aside from that I really can't see much, and I somehow doubt that that heroine of this film will join her sibling in stardom. (She's related to that other Swain, the Face/Off one).