When Dennis Hopper says something is weird, you know you are in for a treat.
With that said, it is odd they would take so long to do a sequel to Cast a Deadly Spell (and with missing almost all the cast), but I think the end result was a worthy follow up.
The time is now the 1950's. Magic is still all the rage. If anything, magic usage is on the rise. Studios, for example, now rely on resurrecting William Shakespeare for a quick hit rather than hire some two bit hack.
Everyone uses magic, everyone that is except for private dick H. Phillip Lovecraft (Hopper). He still refuses to use it, preferring to stick to his own wits and fists to get himself out of jams. Which is fine, as he gets himself drawn into sizable jam when movie starlet Kim Hudson (Penelope Ann Miller) hires him to spy on her husband, movie mogul NJ Gottlieb (Alan Rosenberg). Gottlieb is a swine through and through which is tragic for him when he shrinks to bacon size in front of his two hungry guard dogs. Poor slob is carried out in a lunch pail...
With his client in the hot seat and power hungry senator Larson Crockett (Eric Bogosian) already holding hearings on the evils of magic, Lovecraft has his work cut out for him. When he turns to his landlord/resident witch Hypolyta (Sheryl Lee Ralph) for a clue she ends up in the hot seat; literally as Senator Crockett plans on reintroducing the all American pastime of witch burning at the Hollywood Bowl.
Can Lovecraft crack the case?
Pretty good, and I'm cutting the review short as to not spoil. Enforcer Finn Macha (Julien Sands) is a rare treat, and anymore on him would spoil the film. With all the sequels popping up lately one would think HBO would have made another one. A pity, but it the film does a perfect riff on the Red Scare.
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