Cinema Connoisseur: Luck of the Irish strikes again in Leprechaun 2

Leprechaun 2 (1994)

In honour of St. Patrick's Day, this week's review will focus on the story of a devious and peculiar little man who uses deception and sorcery to trick a beautiful woman into being his bride.

No, this week's film is not a television movie detailing the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes relationship. Instead it is the second installment of the most critically acclaimed and financially successful movie series of all-time. I am of course referring to Leprechaun 2.

In Leprechaun 2, everyone's favourite homicidal Irishman is back, and this time he's looking for love. Fear not, as this film bears little resemblance to other romantic love stories such as When Harry Met Sally and The Notebook. I mean does The Notebook have a scene where Ryan Gosling rips someone's finger off of their hand? No really, I'm not asking rhetorically, does it? Well, Leprechaun 2 sure does.

Once he reaches his 1,000 birthday (on St. Patrick's Day), the leprechaun (portrayed by the legendary Warwick Davis) is able to force any woman to marry him if she sneezes three times, provided no one says “God bless you” afterwards. Not since Gesundheit: The Motion Picture has sneezing played such a prominent role in a movie.


Unfortunately for the leprechaun, the young lady he sets his target on happens to be the daughter of his slave. Knowing what an evil little man his master is, the slave offers up a “God bless you” after his daughter's third sneeze to put a kibosh on the wedding. The jilted leprechaun kills his slave, and waits patiently for his 2,000 birthday to come along. Wow, and people think George Clooney has been a bachelor for a long time!

So 1,000 years later, the leprechaun finds another young lady named Bridget, who, as luck would have it, is a descendant of the first woman he tried to marry. Bridget receives flowers from her boyfriend, which causes her to sneeze not once, not twice, but thrice. Her boyfriend Cody is unable to utter, “God bless you” before the leprechaun swoops in and takes her as his bride.

Before the leprechaun and Bridget can consummate their nuptials, the fact that he has lost one of his precious gold coins distracts the leprechaun. He may have 2,000 years of sexual frustration to unleash, but gold always is this fellow's top priority. The leprechaun figures out that Cody has the coin, and sets out to terrorize him and his drunken Uncle Morty. Interestingly enough, the actor who plays Uncle Morty also played a re-occurring character on “Seinfeld” called Uncle Morty.

The rest of the film is pure gold (pardon the pun), with such wacky situations being played out as a drinking competition between the leprechaun and Uncle Morty, and Morty's greediness getting the best of him, winding up with a pot of gold in his stomach. I won't ruin any more surprises for you, as I'm sure you are dialing up your local video store as you read this to try and reserve your copy.

I cannot recommend this film enough. Sure, you could go out drinking this St. Patrick's Day. You can line up outside some bar at 8 a.m. in the cold, maybe get in at noon, be drunk by 2 p.m., vomit on a bouncer, get tossed out into the gutter, and die of a combination of frostbite and alcohol poisoning. Or you could watch Leprechaun 2, which despite what some have said, will not cause those type of health problems. If you only watch one leprechaun themed movie this Monday (and I personally think that would be five too few), make it Leprechaun 2.