By Geno McGahee
In 1993, LEPRECHAUN was released and it was not a good movie. It wasn’t a bad movie, but it wasn’t a strong foundation to build a series on. They elected to do it anyway. Warwick Davis was great in the role of the Leprechaun, playing it in a very fun and silly way and that was part of the appeal of the film series. In LEPRECHAUN 3, they pushed the silliness up a few notches and relied solely on the performance of Davis to float it.
Tammy (Lee Armstrong) is a magician’s assistance in Las Vegas to the great Fazio (John DeMita)…or the not so great Fazio. Her car breaks down and she meets Scott (John Gatins), a geeky guy that is immediately taken by her. He agrees to drive her to work at the casino and once he gets there, he gets the fever. He cashes in a 20 thousand dollar check and loses it quickly but he doesn’t lose it fairly. The roulette wheel was rigged. Loretta (Caroline Williams), the roulette operator, advises him to pawn his watch at the pawn shop across the street to try to win the money back and that is when the Leprechaun comes into play.
The pawn shop owner buys a leprechaun statue with a necklace and is warned to never remove it. Of course, he does, and the leprechaun comes to life and starts raising hell. He kills the owner but cannot find one of his gold coins. Scott discovers the dead body and the gold coin. When he returns to the casino, he beats the rigged wheel, and wins 100 thousand and it all is due to making a wish while holding the coin. Mitch (Michael Callan), the casino owner, is not happy and invites Scott to stay at his hotel and he accepts. Mitch is in financial ruin and cannot have Scott win. He’s got a couple of goons breathing down his neck for cash he owes and he cannot lose that 100 g’s.
Mitch is obsessed with Tammy and is desperately trying to get her in the sack. She has no interest in him and no love for Fazio either. She is stuck in Vegas without many options and she even notes to Scott that the city has a way of keeping people.
Loretta notices the connection between the gold coin and the winnings of Scott and has figured out that it grants wishes. She can now be the beauty she wants to be if she can get her hands on it, but she must first get it. Unfortunately, Mitch got his hands on the coin first and wished that Tammy would go for him. She immediately is taken by him and wants to have sex with him. They go up to one of the hotel rooms and she begins undressing to Mitch’s delight.
As she gets into him, Loretta steals the coin, and Tammy snaps out of it and knees Mitch in the nuts. He fires her immediately and all is lost, but things get better when he sees a girl on TV talking to him. She comes out of the TV and starts making out with him. She turns into a sex robot and kills him. OK… I don’t know what that scene is about but I’m guessing that they had a sex robot prop and really wanted to use it. I can’t imagine that this was an idea by the writer. Then again, the screenplay was so poor that perhaps it was. The Leprechaun bites Scott and he starts transforming into a leprechaun because of it. It turns into a leprechaun vs. leprechaun battle to the death at the end.
LEPRECHAUN 3 is a terrible film, but if you find the character amusing, you may like this. Warwick Davis does some funny stuff throughout and when he’s on the screen, it’s watchable. I was surprised to see that Lee Armstrong basically retired after this film. She was pretty funny in the role and special credit should be given to Caroline Williams. She was good in her role as well. There just wasn’t a lot to like about this movie. It looked cheap. As much as they showed the city, it was hard to believe that they were at a big casino in the city.
These movies live and die with Warwick Davis. He always does a great job, but not even he can save LEPRECHAUN 3.
Rating: 2/10
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