Tucker & Dale vs Evil: A Hoot and a Holler!

After watching this movie and laughing along the way, I fell in love with it. Tucker & Dale vs Evil takes everything you know about Deliverance and Cabin Fever, Evil Dead and every slasher film you’ve ever seen, and turns it on its head. When I see a cabin, I think “Somebody’s gonna die in there.” When people see hillbillies, the first thought is, “Who’s gonna squeal like a pig?” But this movie says, “No, no, no. You’ve got it all wrong.”

The movie starts off with what you would typically expect. A whole group of college students on a road trip for some spring break madness in some backwoods cabin. All the weed, beer, and sex they could want (but somebody always gets left out of that situation. I’m talkin’ to you, kid with glasses in the back of the truck who just supplies the intelligent quips). From this interaction, we learn that Chad (Jesse Moss) is the

Just some good ole bloody fun.

headstrong and toolish leader of the crew, attempting and airheadedly failing at acquiring Allison (Katrina Bowden).

After a pit stop at a old timey convenience store, the college kids start to suspect something is up with the people around town. Most notably, their run in with Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine). These two Southern hillbillies seem to have devious intentions, and just happen to be heading up to a cabin of their own that Tucker recently bought to fix up for beerin’ and fishin’.

Pretty sexy, right?

But then things go horribly wrong. Allison, while on a late night skinny dipping session, slips and bangs her head on a rock. Being the only ones near to save them while moonlight fishing, Tucker and Dale rescue her. What does this look like to the other college kids? Abduction, sexual assault, and a fish fry later on. Chad rallies the rest of the crew together to attack while Tucker and Dale recuperate Allison and show her just how kind they are. With their roles switched, Tucker and Dale must fight the evil that is a batch of city dwelling college kids who have seen waaaaayyyy too many horror films.

And it is simply that that made me love this movie. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an original idea come across in a slasher style horror movie, but this is it. With its crossover genre of horror and comedy, it’s hard not to laugh when somebody willingly and accidentally jumps headfirst into a woodchipper. And not only that, but so many senseless deaths! It has to be a suicide pact, and it couldn’t be funnier.

I hadn’t seen Tyler Labine in many things at all, and it was refreshing to see a heavier set actor in a commanding role in a film. And someone with a beard no less! (He’s actually Canadian if anybody cares…) Alan Tudyk lends a hand with

This looks cliched, but it’s all good!

another spot on voice impersonations as he always does with his English accents. Rarely does he get to use his own voice… His comedy was lighthearted and just at the right times, coming from someone who thinks Alan Tudyk is just so so so under appreciated. I didn’t mind Katrina Bowden, but I’ve never watched 30 Rock so I can’t really say she was “spectacular”. She was attractive and played a good girl in peril. I rather did like Jesse Moss as the hero becomes the villain character, with his memorable voice from a few kids shows I used to watch and Final Destination 3. I actually remember him from that! And this movie must feel like more of the same to him.

Some of that hootin’ and hollerin’ I was referring to.

The gore was good, not too little and not too much. Just right. The cliched situations were perfect, and being a huge gigantic horror fan, I got all the references and scenes. Even the ten pin bowling at the end reminded me of Cabin Fever. Perfection in a can. To see a movie like this go under my radar for as long as it did was disappointing, but I always gotta hand it to Netflix for picking up the slack. So if you wanna see something truly original from a director (Eli Craig) out to prove himself, give your support and watch this film. It’s a true hoot with some great hooligans and shenanigans. A well deserved 9 out of 10 romp in the hay.

Rolling Kansas

This stoner film classic (a title I wouldn’t normally give this film, but apparently is its category/genre) is a movie I’ve been aware of for a while and have watched at least a dozen times on Comedy Central. Sitting down to watch it, uncensored for a baker’s dozen made it all the more satisfying. This outlandishly dull/dark comedy film with its underlying marijuana jokes (by that, I guess I mean jokes that would be found funnier if high) and hilarious insults, this movie kicks a lot of ass. And takes no names. Well, it takes some. But this film incorporates the great tribute to the comedic road-trip (i.e. Dumb & Dumber) and ridiculous occurrences (i.e. Meet the Spartans/any spoof movie with random appearances of randomness) and molds these two concepts into one great head trip of druggie proportions. But at the same time, it works for non-stoners like myself, with its hilarious actors.

So Dick Murphy (James Roday, star of Psych) is a down on his luck T-shirt decal shop. He’s been recently broken up with, repossessed, and poor. With nothing else to ride on, him, his brothers, and a few college friends take on the enormous

The Murphys and some strippers. Rolling hard.

task of stealing a bunch of weed from a U.S. growing site that their hippie parents used to frequent. With obstacles and hardships aplenty, its a wonder they get anywhere at all. I mean, come on, geese that attack at the provocation of a car horn. Damn, dirty goats? It all adds up to a failed trip in the making.

But no, these 5 determined men won’t give up at all in their quest for the nugs. Despite police, border patrol, and an unkind Southern hermaphroditic waitress, these men will stop at nothing to make bank with bud. After every scene, every line, I find something new and funnier to laugh at. Despite seeing it so many times, the movie just gets better with age, like a fine wine. I tip my hat Thomas Haden Church (Sideways and Spider-Man 3 actor, but more importantly Brendan Frasier’s antagonist

A couple of great scenes. Who knew?

in George of the Jungle) the director and writer and 2-part actor in this film for the ages.

There are some hilarious not well known actors in this film. Sam Huntington plays the crippled and angry Dinkadoo Murphy, better known as “Dinkus”. Although he has been getting more work since this and his other smaller bit roles in a few comedies, I find Sam Huntington to be far funnier than he is given credit for. Dinkus’s character is no different with his hilarious outbursts and insult thrown at anyone who pisses off the boy in the wheelchair. Charlie Finn plays Kevin Haub, confused and slightly retarded friend of the Murphys who battles the entire movie with the idea that he might be gay (inset horn sound here). This clueless character is unlike any I’ve seen before, and I could only liken it to Dumb & Dumber. Ryan McDow plays (as a one time role) Hunter Bullette, the anti-social narcoleptic with a kind soul but hulking whale body. Filling out the cast in Rip Torn, known simply as Oldman, the messiah who leads the boys to the promised land of Mary Jane. Rip must be a natural comedic actor, because ever since Dodgeball, I’ve seen him in EVERYTHING.

With such a great cast and such a simple idea, this movie is definitely worth a few views. High or sober, it doesn’t matter, I’m sure it can be appreciated by everyone. With the pursuit of a dream and some major bones, this film brings the American West into perspective painted on a faux-highway of gold bricks. With nothing safe, why wouldn’t you risk your entire livelihood for weed?