Movie Scene
At the Movies: 'Bones'

By Christy Lemire
AP Entertainment Writer

"Bones," a New Line Cinema release, is rated R for violence/gore, language, sexuality and drugs. Running time: 96 minutes.

Don't you worry, though. If you're looking for Halloween creeps, the movie still continues to be gross. Director Ernest Dickerson, a longtime Spike Lee collaborator, has an obvious affinity with maggots, which show up by the millions — spewing from people's mouths, dropping from the ceiling, floating in drinks, squirming on pizza.

But other effects look totally cheesy. The blood — of which there are copious amounts — looks like tomato soup. The visuals, combined with the unintentionally funny dialogue and the gangsta-smooth performance from rapper Snoop Dogg in his first starring role, should make "Bones" an instant camp classic.

Snoop stars as Jimmy Bones, who dresses and acts like a pimp, but is described in the production notes as "a legendary protector and patron of his thriving urban neighborhood."

He's murdered in 1979 by a bunch of guys he thinks are his friends, including a corrupt cop and drug dealer who want to introduce crack in the 'hood, which Jimmy rejects.

"I ain't interested, and if you're gonna sell it, don't sell it 'round here," he drawls before assuring them, "It's never business — it's always pleasure."

The movie flashes between the events surrounding Jimmy's murder and the present day, when a group of young people buy the Gothic brownstone where he was killed.

Patrick (Khalil Kain), his brother Bill (Merwin Mondesir), their stepsister Tia (Katharine Isabelle) and their friend Maurice (Sean Amsing) renovate the long-abandoned building and turn it into a dance club.

They're your typically clueless potential victims — you know they'll end up dead because they do stupid things like investigating the dark, spooky basement and creeping up creaky staircases, flashlights quivering in their trembling hands.

"This looks like a damn graveyard around here, bro," Bill says early on.

"Something about this place just drew me," Patrick responds, of course.

Pam Grier, as a raving, dreadlocked psychic and Jimmy's former lover, tries to warn them about the evil spirits in the building. "Some holes can't be filled and some hungers can't be satisfied," she warns them breathlessly.

Patrick and Bill's father, Jeremiah (Clifton Powell), also opposes their plan because he doesn't want them hanging around that part of town, where he grew up, which is now a ghetto.

As they clean up the building, they disturb Jimmy's spirit. He takes out his revenge on his killers, one by one, in brutal fashion, then turns his attention on the young people who've been pumping hip-hop music all night long in his crib.

But the most ridiculous part of all is, we're supposed to accept Snoop — with his delicate bone structure, soft, flowing hair and even softer voice — in the role of an intimidating, powerful figure.

It IS fun, though, to watch him prowl the neighborhood in his chauffeured custom Lincoln Continental, dressed in a chalk-stripe suit and matching fedora. And Grier's presence adds to the laugh-out-loud blaxploitation flick vibe.