EarDelightBase Waste of Money.

Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

TheOneManBoxOffice Hey kids! I've got a question for you? What if, and stop me if it gets too ridiculous, what if Merlin, the magical mentor of King Arthur himself, were able to time travel to present day and open up a shop of many different trinkets for everyone to behold? Wouldn't that be amazing!? Well, if you've seen this movie, you know that the answer to that is a complete, resounding, no, and you'd be correct in that regard, because this is one of the lowest ranked movies ever on IMDb. I have officially reached the bottom of the barrel.Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders is a 1996 pitiful excuse of a made- for-TV or direct-to-video movie for kids that is basically an edited version of the director's 1984 horror film The Devil's Gift, which is only known for completely plagiarizing Stephen King's short story The Monkey. For me, the movie is what happens when you take two rejected episodes of HBO's Tales from the Crypt and combine them into one. Unfortunately the director, Kenneth J. Berton, managed to drag the late Ernest Borgnine down with him. In fact, Borgnine plays the grandfather of a young boy who tells both tales as part a bedtime story, claiming that he wrote the stories while he worked in television. The first half of the film focuses on an egocentric columnist who hassles Merlin and his wife in their newly built shop of trinkets and souvenirs. So Merlin decides to let him borrow his book of magic spells to convince him that he is the real Merlin. The other half of the film is about Merlin trying to find his magic cymbal-playing monkey that was stolen from his shop and sold to a family unaware that it kills whenever it crashes its cymbals and its eyes glow. Let's just say that both scenarios result in some rather dark shenanigans, even for what is supposed to be a kids movie.This is a great example of how not to make a children's movie, even if it's not theatrically released. Not only is the acting in this rather hammy and half-assed, even from Borgnine, who probably had no idea what was going through his mind as he did this, but I think it's a proved fact that editing a horror movie into a whimsical children's film is one of the dumbest ideas ever conceived. It makes as much sense as turning 1986's Child's Play into a live-action Raggedy Ann flick. However, there are three positives to this whole experience. One, this was the last movie Berton ever made, so you can thank your lucky stars you don't have to see anything else made by him, and two, it made for a great episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in its tenth and final season, and three, Mr. Borgnine was able to recover from starring in this tripe by voicing one of the most memorable characters in Nickelodeon's Spongebob Squarepants a few years after this was made, and we can all agree that the rest of his filmography is quite legendary.The movie is a poor excuse of family entertainment, but as what MST3K has proved, it makes for great riffing material, so if you and your friends decide to have a night of making fun of awful movies (considering that you have alcohol and pretzels on standby), this is perfect fodder. But on its own, let's just say that I was more entertained watching patronizing children's videos that I saw back in my elementary school days.

geminiredblue Years back, this movie appeared on MST3K. And, like usual, it was comedic gold. Truth be told, on it's own, the film is atrocious! On a typical dark and stormy night, a grandfather (Ernest Borgnine, the only real talent) and his grandson are stuck at home with the power off. So dear old gramps chooses to tell the kid a story he worked on years ago for television. Merlin, the mythical wizard, has come to our times to set up a shop of enchanted stuff. It's at this point that things get really, REALLY weird! Story 1: Madeline has a problem. She's wants to have a baby, but can't. Her husband, Jonathan, is a self-centered jerk who reviews stores for the newspaper. They happen upon Merlin's Shop. And finally after Jonathan torments Merlin and his wife long enough, they give him an ancient book of spells to take home. Back at home, Jonathan decides to try out the some of the incantations. Know what happens? Yup, he comes to believe in magic. Oh, and he breathes fire. And he transforms his cat into a bloodthirsty monster. And even Satan show up in a cameo. The ending is just wrong in so many ways, I won't even bother mentioning it.Story 2: A thief breaks into Merlin's shop one night and escapes with an evil toy monkey. The freaky-looking one with the cymbals. Merlin sets out, trying to find the toy before it falls into the wrong hands. Meanwhile, young Michael is having a birthday party. Guess what he's getting for a present! Yup, the toy monkey. But before you can say possessed toy, household plants and pets are turning up dead. Suspiciously, right after the monkey chimes its cymbals. David, Michael's father, tries to get rid of the toy. But it keeps coming back. Again. And again... And again! The main problem with this film is that it's marketed as a family-oriented kids movie. But it's not. It's dark, and it's scary, and filled with pets dying horribly, demons and evil things. Without any redeeming qualities to it. It's an oddity, I'll give it that. But only watch it if the MST3K guys are riffing on it.

o_g_04 I was writing this correct an earlier user comment. The part with the toy monkey and symbols is actually a rip off of a Steven King short story. I think it was Four Past Midnight or Skeleton Crew. Since this has to be ten lines, the guy who steals Merlin's spell book comes off as a huge jack off. Every time things go bad for him it's actually hilarious. Earnest Borgnine ends up looking like a crazy old man. Whats he trying to do give his grandson mental problems. The kid is like six and he sits still quietly for two hours while his out there grandfather tells him some cockamamie wild story. Worst movie premise ever. The only times I've ever actually was the Mystery Science Theater Three Thousand version which is very funny. As a side note if your actually going to watch this movie do not do it sober. You will turn it off after five minutes.

Dextrousleftie Was this steaming pile of crap intended to be shown to children? And if so, why? To give them irreparable brain damage and nightmares? This so-called fantasy film(which is actually a horror film more frightening than some of the intentionally made horror films I've seen)is supposedly about Merlin coming into the twentieth century to open a kitchy little shop in California. With him is his annoying, shrill voiced wife Zarella(and where the hell did she come from, anyway?). The movie is supposed to be a Grandpa(meatily played by Ernest Borgnine)telling his grandchild about a script he wrote for t.v. about this shop. I think this was supposed to be something like the Princess Bride, with the exception of the fact that the Princess Bride is a good movie and this is a cut together mess full of bad acting, horrible costumes, and another early 80's piece of trash movie jammed into the middle because they apparently ran out of money. The first story is about a loud mouthed jerk who writes for a newspaper and his barren, nearly equally shrill voiced wife. He insults Merlin, and so receives a book of magic spells. The whole thing is so that the cretinous idiot can turn himself into a baby that the woman can raise. Huh? Why the hell would she want to raise this guy, knowing what a bastard he'd turn out to be? And since the guy had been her husband, that means, technically, that she'd slept with her own son! Eewww! Of major proportions! After destroying all of his grandson's joy and hope in the world with that first awful tale, Borgnine descends even deeper into the blackness at the heart of the world by telling the kid about an evil little monkey toy that was stolen from Meriln's shop. Here's where the cut together part begins, because the tale of the monkey toy is from another, much earlier movie. And a really bad one, at that, because who in hell would buy an eight year old a birthday present that consisted of a creepy used toy? Every time that the psychotic looking monkey clashes its symbols, something dies. Me, I vote that it should have been Borgnine for telling an impressionable child this story in the first place, but whatever. There are some stupid in between scenes of Merlin wandering around looking like a Renn fest reject while he searches for the monkey. He eventually 'finds' it after the pasted in section comes to an end. I mean, its blatant right there because the 80's family don't notice the guy in the dress with the wool taped to his face in their living room! Then Merlin goes back to his shop with the toy, and that's it. No more tales of 'mystical wonder'. One wonders what would have been next - a tale of a little kid being shoved into a Cuisinart by a cutesy little magical bunny that he'd gotten at Merlin's shop? gah!