TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL (a review)

TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL (a review)

A horror/comedy that flips the horror genre on its head. Stars Alan Tudyk (Serenity/Firefly), Tyler Labine and Katrina Bowden (30 Rocks). Written by Eli Craig and Morgan Jurgenson and directed by Eli Craig.

The story: A group of college students are going up to some remote location where they run into local hillbillies -- the kind who are always serial killers in movies. However, the movie then switches to be about the hillbillies who are just a couple nice guys going up to a cabin to fix it up as a summer home. However, the kids are convinced that they are serial killers. When one of the girls falls in the water in her attmept to get away from them, they save her from drowning and now the other kids will try to rescue her by any means necessary. Unfortunately their plans backfire and they end up killing off themselves...which only convinces the survivors that the hillbillies really are killers.

Was it good?

YES. It was good -- very good. It just fell a smidgeon short of being great. I mean this movie is THAT CLOSE to being a classic. I would have thought that the concept would be too one-note and it would get boring and repetative, but the writers did a nice job of mixing it up. Specifically, there is a love story between the captured girl (Bowden) and the hillbillie. So why doesn't it get the classic rating? Hmmm. It's hard to say. While the movie didn't feel too one-note, it never reached that second level of awesomeness either. It has the reversal of cliche in the concept, but then everything really does play out as expected. The girl realizes the hillbillies are actually nice, the college guys end up being violent jerks, etc. It all works fine, but for greatness it needs that next smart spin to make the second half be not simply good, but great. Still, the is one of the best horror-comedies I've seen in a long time. I've seen ads saying it's the best since SHAUN OF THE DEAD. I actually liked T&DvE more!

*** STRONGLY RECOMMEND ***

THE TOWN (a review)

THE TOWN (a review)

The crime movie directed and co-starring and co-written by BEN AFFLECK. Also stars: Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, Pete Postlethwaite and Chris Cooper

The story: Four lifelong friend from a bad neighborhood of Boston, MA, rob a bank and terrorize the female manager. One of the group meets her later and begins to fall in love with her. Meanwhile, the cops are after the friends and while the robber-in-love wants to quit the others want to pull off one last big score -- to rob Fenway Park.

Was it good?

Yes. Although with all the buzz about it being an Oscar winner I thought it was going to be something different and really there's nothing here we haven't seen before. The friends who won't turn on each other. The guy who falls for the girl he wronged and will she betray him when she finds out or will she stand by him. It's basically an American crime version of MANON OF THE SPRING. It's good, but I wish they had taken a few unusual or unexpected turns. It's very by-the-numbers. As such, while I liked this it wasn't nearly as powerful as JEAN DE FLORETTE/MANON OF THE SPRING.

*** RECOMMEND ***

But also recommend JEAN DE FLORETTE and MANON OF THE SPRING

DESPICABLE ME (a review)

DESPICABLE ME (a review)

An animated superhero movie about a villain and some kids. Stars Steve Carrell as the kind-of super villain.

The story: a super villain is getting shown up by a better super villain who has just stolen an Egyptian pyramid. Worse, the bank now nolonger believes in the villain and has pulled their funding for his latest scheme -- a plot to steal the moon. Now he has to use three innocent girls to try to steal a shrink ray from his villian-nemesis to pull off his plan to steal the moon, but of course being with these girls will change his villain ways.

Was it good?

Yeah, it was good. Not amazing, but it was solid. Carrell was great for the vioce work and it had a nice twist on the super-hero/super-villain roles. Unfortunately, it becomes a little too obvious and pits villian against villain in a very light way -- these guys aren't even really villainous enough to be on CHUCK much less mess with Dr Doom or any real big bads. All this makes the movie drag as the movie moves through the second half with no real stakes -- we don't want the guy to steal the moon (and don't think he'll really do it in a significant way) and if he fails, well so what?

For young kids that won't be a problem as the movie moves along, but for older kids and adults will amuse but won't be at the same level as the best animated films.

*** RECOMMEND (especialyl for young kids) ***

Still, there's a lot to

THE OTHER GUYS (a review)

THE OTHER GUYS (a review)

A comedy starring Will Farrell and Mark Wahlberg about two cops who try to take over for a pair of daring hero cops who get killed. Also stars Dwayne Johnson (the Rock), Samuel Jackson, Eva Mendes and Michael Keaton.

The story: two hero cops get killed chasing bad guys and two other cops (Farrell and Wahlberg), one of whom wants to be a hero cop and the other who is happy doing paperwork, try to step up and stop a major crime. Sort of.

Was it good?

YES.

I know I'm not explaining it well, but this movie is a little more odd, then a similar movie COP OUT(Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan, directed by Kevin Smith) and between the two this is a much better movie -- it's bigger and weirder and funnier. At the same time it's harder to explain because because the crime they are foiling is a little weird and they come at it in a very strange way. You see there's this guy who lost a lot of money -- like a couple hundred Billion -- and so he's going to pull this scam to try to get it back. Except the cops don't know anything about it. In fact, Farrell's character arrests him for some permit violations, except then these guys steal him back right out of police custody which leads them to think something is up, but they don't figure it out until the end.

So it's a police movie where it isn't clear who the bad guy is or what's going on or even if there is really a crime for most of the movie. But it still works. And the reason it works is because it's funny. It's funny the way COP OUT wanted to be, with all the weird antics of the cops and all the strange and funny dialog. Plus this movie has this nice twist that it starts out with two other hero cops who pull the kind of ridiculous over the top stunts you only see in movies, and then when they are killed our two protagonists struggle to become the next hero cops. It's better because one of them wants to be a hero and the other doesn't, but then of course learns to embrace his crazy hero side too.

I liked COP OUT. But I liked THE OTHER GUYS a lot more. A LOT MORE.

**** RECOMMEND ****

LARVA (a review)

LARVA (a review)

This is another made-for-tv (ScyFy?) horror/sci-fi movie.

The story: a company uses a new experimental feed on cattle to increase their meat/money but it changes the larva in the cattle to become monsters that then start taking over the town.

Was it good?

Almost. First, I like these kinds of bug movies (see my ARACHNOPHOBIA review), so I'm a good audience. Then they don't rush too much. They start with problems with the cattle, then introduce the new vet into the area and he begins to suspect something is wrong as the larva begin to infest more and more. Of course, no one believes him until it is too late. All good stuff. The problem? Well, first the cattle company who causes this and then is trying to cover it up by kidnapping the doctor and the two people that believe him. Really? This feels like something that could be covered up? Then the problem is with the larva themselves. At first they are smallish creepy, crawly things (which looked pretty good, FX-wise), but later they become these giant things that fly around like bats attacking people. So is this a movie about larva or about mutant bats? By then everything had just spiral out of the suspension of disbelief zone. It's the idea that the audience will buy any one thing you ask them to -- time travel? fine. Androids? Fine. Monsters? Fine -- but you only get that one thing an the rest of the time you have to play within the rules. Here, there are no rules. They just keep changing. Add that to the fact that everything in the second half feels disjointed, becoming just a series of random attacks instead of a clear, building threat...it lost me.

Which is a shame. If the second half had been solid I would have given it a slight recommend. But the way the second half goes...

*** DON'T RECOMMEND ***