Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders (1996)

Purely Joyful Movie!

Disturbing yet enthralling

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

This movie starts with a random scene from somewhere, which turns out to be a movie that a little boy is watching, suddenly the power goes out so the boys grandpa decides to entertain the kid by telling a story (which is based on one of grandpa's old screen plays). The story is about Merlin opening up a shop of "mystical wonders" in a modern city, and how items from that shop affect the lives of people buying them. So we have something like a triple layer framing device (four layers if you see the MST3K version). Which just goes to show how much of this movie is unnecessary filler, and how much is actual story.The story's themselves are supposed to be somewhat scary, in a child friendly way, but they lack suspense and are far too slow paced to be either scary or funny. The acting is not horrible, but not good either, the dialog is likewise pretty bland but not worse than that of any other mediocre children's movie. Special effects are pretty plastic-y, but not laughably so. To put it shortly, the general look and feel of the whole film is just that little it sub par. Combined with the less than exciting story's and the rather pointless framing device, this movie ends up being thoroughly "meh".

Like with Monster a-Go Go and Manos: The Hands of Fate, Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders wouldn't have been known to me if I hadn't seen the MST3K episode. That episode was brilliant in how it tore the movie to shreds and in such a funny way, while the movie was a weird mess. Its one saving grace is Ernest Borgnine, he makes for a great storyteller and deserves a lot of credit for restraining the urge to strangle the boy playing his grandson. The rest of the acting is just terrible though, especially Mark Hurtado as the grandson, throughout he mumbles his way through his lines and even looks spaced out. It isn't just the acting that is terrible about Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders. It looks bad too, too much of it looks like a badly rendered 80s movie, it's choppily edited, the sets lack any colour and wonder and the special effects at best are substandard. If I was honest, my jaw actually dropped when I saw that it was a late 90s movie when it could have easily passed for at least 15 years earlier. There is nothing memorable or original about the music either, it distracted from the atmosphere when it should have enhanced or complimented it and some of it sounded like a really pale imitation of the music of James Horner.You don't care at all for the characters and you never learn enough about them, while the dialogue is atrocious on the whole. Admittedly some of it made me laugh(have you seen my monkey? is a classic), but rather for their ridiculousness and how they were delivered above anything else. Worst of all was the story, it had one sweet moment with the grandson singing to the monkey though even that felt shoehorned in, but overall it was dull and jumped around so much that much of the time it was difficult to decipher what it was about.(it even had a beginning that was so vulgar that it is difficult to put into words) It also had no idea at who it was aiming for, it was too creepy and nightmarish for children(The Devil's Gift segment was derivative of Stephen King but without the suspense, mystery or any effective scares) and adults would find it tame and obviously amateurish(they will also cringe at how maudlin and substance-less the couple segment was). In conclusion, a truly terrible movie that deserved all the bashing MST3K gave it. It is not as bad as Monster a-Go Go or Manos- they had no redeeming merits, Mystical Wonders at least had Borgnine- but that is saying little in its favour. 1/10 Bethany Cox

I give this rating to the Mystery Science Theater 3000, forthwith known as the MST3K version. MST3K can make almost any horrible movie a laughing riot, and "Merlin's Hop" is no exception. If you do not know of MST3K, now you do, and I highly recommend you go check it out, especially if your the kind of person who likes to sit around with your friends and make fun of horrible movies. Basically, a guy and his two friends watch horrible movies like Merlin's Shop and critique it in every comedic way a horrible B-movie deserves to be critiqued. By itself, this movie is not worth watching, unless you wanna sit around with your friends and make fun of it yourself. But in the MST3K format, the "making-fun" is already done for you, and all you have to do is sit back and enjoy. Enjoy!

Kenneth J. Berton has outdone himself once again. Taking his previous story about the killer monkey and seamlessly adding merlin into the mix was an inspired touch. The first half of the film seemed to be there to fill up the extra time but once the monkey story got going there was no stopping it. superb character development and good alround acting, especially from the bearded neighbour. The grandfather telling the story to the child detracted from the suspense of both stories i thought although those scenes were generally well done. all in all i think the mystical potential merlin could have brung to a great story was not fulfilled but it was a decent attempt. well done Berton!