Caffeinated Clint
By Anthony J.Lucas
A nagging question kept popping into my head as I watched this DVD: “Why haven’t I heard of this movie before?!?!” It is easily the funniest movie I have seen in years. Sure there are not huge marquee names in the cast, but doesn’t a wonderfully refreshing story and talented cast count for anything anymore? OK, so even if the distributor spent more on this morning’s latte run than the marketing campaign for this film, that’s no reason why you shouldn’t run out and buy it immediately.
Ok horror fans, what have we learned so far?
A.) If’n a feller wears flannel and didn’t get around to shavin’ for a while, he’s probably a hillbilly. And…
B.) Hillbillies kill all college kids who choose camping over Ft. Lauderdale as a vacation option.
(For more details on the horror movie rule book, watch the ”Scream” franchise.) Horror lesson is over. Now for the story:
Tucker and Dale are two of the sweetest guys you have ever met, despite the fact that they wear flannel and have missed a couple of shaves lately. They are excited to finally own a fixer-upper vacation property in the woods and embark on a vacation to fix’er up. Enter a demographically balanced group of college kids with a deep seated fear of things that go “Yee Haw” in the night. They sit around the campfire telling each other scary stories till they finally have to relieve the tension with a good skinny dip in the dark murky pond.
Meanwhile, Tucker and Dale decide to do a little night fishing in a dark murky pond when what should they come upon, but the hot girl disrobing on a rock to enjoy a refreshing night swim. When she is startled and falls into the water, she is knocked unconscious and Dale leaps to her rescue. From this point on the college kids are convinced that their hot friend has been kidnapped by the hillbillies and they decide to stage a counter-attack to re-capture their friend. The rest of the movie is a hilarious series of misunderstandings and most unlikely unfortunate events that will have you dying with laughter.
Alan Tudyk (Tucker) and Tyler Labine (Dale) are amazing together as the good hearted backwoods Samaritans just trying to enjoy their vacation and keep these crazy college kids from dying. Kudos to director Eli Craig for his brilliant casting of them, because in a movie like this, good casting IS good directing. This brilliant duo carry the Hillbilarity to epic proportions. Katrina Bowden is lovely as Allison the hot college girl with a good heart and an open mind to different walks of life.
The rest of the college kids are the only reason I didn’t give this movie all five stars. They weren’t written to be overly funny and they weren’t played overly straight. Perhaps if Craig had told that half of the cast that this was actually a straight horror movie it would have worked better. None the less, it’s a really fun romp through the back forty of “What if” land. I’m looking forward to the sequel. Yee Haw!
Extras ”
The DVD extras include The Making of Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil, Tucker & Dale ARE Evil ( the College Kids point of view), Outtakes (Which are very funny!), Storyboards, Commentary with Dir. Craig, Tudyk, and Labine, and HDNet: A look at Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil.
