Tuesday 4 February 2014

Scooby Doo (2002)



It doesn't matter how bad a movie he's in, Matthew Lillard makes everything better.

Not that this is actually an utterly terrible movie. It's not great, by any stretch of the imagination, but it has excellent casting in all four of the key roles and some fun set pieces in the script. Also a fight scene that's straight out of a professional wrestling match, for which I can forgive a lot.

We open with Mystery Inc solving their latest case, and Fred taking all the credit. Velma (who is tired of being pushed aside) and Daphne (who is tired of being kidnapped) quit the team. And so does Fred, because he's a bit of a douche. Only Shaggy and Scooby stick together, because 'friends don't quit'. Two years later, all five are summoned to holiday destination 'Spooky Island' to solve a mystery. Initially, each attempts to do so alone, but you know that sooner or later, they'll end up teaming up to beat the bad guy and rip off his latex mask.

I think the movie missteps in trying to be a subversion/deconstruction of the old TV show, but doing so in the most obvious and banal of ways. Playing with the formula is a tactic much more cleverly employed by the current Scooby Doo, Mystery Incorporated cartoon - which also benefits from Matthew Lillard's talents.

So yeah, go watch the new cartoon. This is not terrible (and the sequel, as I recall, was actually pretty good - I'll watch it soon and let you know). But Scooby Doo, Mystery Incorporated is excellent.

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