I'm feeling really generous today. Ordinarily I'd rate this movie at 2/10 or less. Ordinarily I may not have even finished watching this movie, but today I'm feeling magnanimous.
The tritely named "Ragdoll" is about... well, it's about a ragdoll, but there's more to it than that. Kwame (Russell Richardson) is the lead vocalist of a New Orleans rap group called KT Bounce and they are hot. So hot in fact that a local Suge Knight-type joker named Pere (pronounced pear) wants to sign them and he won't take no for an answer. When Kwame et al do say no in a rather public and disrespectful fashion, Pere has his two nephews attack Kwame's grandmother whom he affectionately calls Gran (Freda Payne).
After Gran is hospitalized, Kwame goes home to do some "conjuring" and makes a deal with the Shadow Man (Fredrick D. Tucker) to have Pere and co. dealt with. This Faustian bargain has an unstated price, but you know that whatever the price, it's going to be hefty. The price ended up being a life for a life: whatever adversarial life the Shadow Man took via the vicious ragdoll, he took the life of one of Kwame's friends.
The movie's biggest issue was the ragdoll. It was terribly unbelievable. Not that I'd believe in an animated ragdoll anyway, but it would help if the ragdoll actually moved. The ragdoll would suddenly appear places and through the magic of cinematography (cutting from scene to scene) it would have a weapon or it would be "attacking" someone. It was a joke. But, I'm sure if they had a bigger budget they could've solved that problem. In fact, a bigger budget would've solved a lot of problems: the lighting, the sound, the set, and the ragdoll. The plot and the acting were decent. In fact, they kept me tuned in. Everything else, however, was a turn off.
The tritely named "Ragdoll" is about... well, it's about a ragdoll, but there's more to it than that. Kwame (Russell Richardson) is the lead vocalist of a New Orleans rap group called KT Bounce and they are hot. So hot in fact that a local Suge Knight-type joker named Pere (pronounced pear) wants to sign them and he won't take no for an answer. When Kwame et al do say no in a rather public and disrespectful fashion, Pere has his two nephews attack Kwame's grandmother whom he affectionately calls Gran (Freda Payne).
After Gran is hospitalized, Kwame goes home to do some "conjuring" and makes a deal with the Shadow Man (Fredrick D. Tucker) to have Pere and co. dealt with. This Faustian bargain has an unstated price, but you know that whatever the price, it's going to be hefty. The price ended up being a life for a life: whatever adversarial life the Shadow Man took via the vicious ragdoll, he took the life of one of Kwame's friends.
The movie's biggest issue was the ragdoll. It was terribly unbelievable. Not that I'd believe in an animated ragdoll anyway, but it would help if the ragdoll actually moved. The ragdoll would suddenly appear places and through the magic of cinematography (cutting from scene to scene) it would have a weapon or it would be "attacking" someone. It was a joke. But, I'm sure if they had a bigger budget they could've solved that problem. In fact, a bigger budget would've solved a lot of problems: the lighting, the sound, the set, and the ragdoll. The plot and the acting were decent. In fact, they kept me tuned in. Everything else, however, was a turn off.