SCOOBY-DOO 2: MONSTERS UNLEASHED [2004]

Raja Gosnell returns to direct Monsters Unleasehd, the sequel to the disastrous 2002 Scooby-Doo film.
It's the usual Scooby-Doo story with those meddling kids yet again, only this time around the film wisely brings back a whole slew of ghoulies fans will remember from the cartoon series.  
James Gunn returns as scriptwriter only now he's aware of what the studio wanted and delivers something that doesn't need to be..ahem...meddled with.  It's silly but humorous, dumb but fun and brainless but caring. Once again it's Matt Lillard's Shaggy that steals the whole show (I'd prefer a movie with just him, Scooby and Velma) but thankfully we're blessed with something a little better than the original.  Still, it's strictly kiddie fare that'll pummel an adult's brain into a pulp for 90 minutes.

2½ Chickensteins out of 5

SCOOBY-DOO [2002]

Director Raja Gosnell directs a live-action big screen adaptation of the popular 1960's animated Hanna Barbara series Scooby-Doo.
Sticking true to the series' plots, the Scooby Gang investigate bizarre occurrences and do a lot of running around.  Scripted by James Gunn the film originally winked at the audience with plenty of adult-oriented jokes poking fun at the original series, Velma's questionable sexuality and marijuana jokes galore.  However Warner Bros. quickly turned it into a family-oriented film in the laziest of fashion.  While it does stick fairly true to the series in conventions, it simply isn't very good at all...but let's face it, kids, the series wasn't all that great to begin with.  Matthew Lillard is left to carry the weight of the entire film as Shaggy and he does an absolutely wonderful job channelling the character's lovableness, expressions and heart.

1½  meddling kids out of 5