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John Allman

If you’ve ever wandered the aisles at the video store or surfed the DVR pay-per-view options and seen a bunch of movies that you’ve never heard of, chances are John has watched them. Why? He loves movies. All kinds of movies. Good, bad, so-bad-they’re good, even the truly unwatchable ones. He mostly loves horror and science-fiction and drive-in exploitation movies that most upstanding model citizens wouldn’t dare watch. Then he writes up his thoughts so you can decide - watch, don’t watch or avoid at all costs. Sometimes he even gets to talk to the cool folks who make some of your favorite films.

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John Allman

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New Releases for Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011

Posted Dec 4, 2011 by John Allman

Updated Dec 4, 2011 at 10:52 AM

What’s new in stores and on video shelves this week:

Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil
Genre: Horror/Comedy
Directed by: Eli Craig
Run time: 89 minutes
Rating: R
Format: Blu-Ray

The Lowdown: Easily one of the funniest, and best, releases this year, “Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil” is about as good as a horror-comedy genre mash-up gets.

It has gratuitous gore that’s as startling as it is funny. It has exceptional performances, particularly from Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk as Dale and Tucker, respectively. And it’s actually a very sweet love story about social acceptance and why not to judge a book by its cover.

But you’re here for the gore, and the laughs, and “Tucker & Dale” has both in spades.

Eli Craig’s first feature deftly flips the conventional backwoods redneck rampage tale, playing against type, by not telling the story from the POV of the group of unsuspecting college kids who find themselves deep in the forest and facing an uneducated, unrefined, possibly inbred menace.

Instead, Craig makes the protagonists the rednecks, creating two likeable hillbillies who are best friends who just want to fix up their vacation cabin in the woods. But, to the group of college kids who initially encounter them on a rural highway, they’re scary and menacing simply because of their appearance and the big, beat-up truck they’re driving.

Craig has fun playing with first appearances. After the college kids and T&D converge on a rural gas station, Tucker convinces Dale to go talk to Allison, a hot blonde. Dale walks over holding a scythe and makes uneasy conversation – not because he’s illiterate, but because he’s nervous talking to someone so pretty.

All the college kids see is the scythe and a big redneck in overalls laughing like a lunatic.

Throughout the film, this theme of miscommunication, of simply judging someone based solely on appearance, recurs in hilarious and unexpected ways.

Tudyk and Labine have amazing chemistry. They play off each other like they’ve been best friends for years. The jokes work because they’re funny, but also because of each actor’s impeccable timing.

It’s also nice to see Labine, who has been saddled with the sidekick role for too long, get the breakout opportunity, and in a love story, no less. He carries the film when Tudyk is incapacitated, exhibiting a leading man presence that previously might not have been apparent.

“Tucker & Dale” is a film that you will want to share with others. It’s best being played for a big group of like-minded movie fans, ones who appreciate how difficult it can be to merge horror and comedy and those who will love and champion that rare movie that gets the balance just right.

The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Yes, the smoking hot Chelan Simmons, who makes running through the woods in stripper heels look easy.
Nudity – No.
Gore – Amazing gore.
Drug use – Yes.
Bad Guys/Killers – The demon spawn preppy child of a backwoods maniac.
Buy/Rent – Buy it.
Blu-Ray Bonus Features – Audio commentary, a short Making-Of documentary, outtakes, storyboards and the best feature, “Tucker and Dale ARE Evil: The College Kids’ Point of View,” a 17-minute shortened version of the film that shows how the movie might have been if it were a straight backwoods redneck rampage genre flick.
On the Web – http://www.magnetreleasing.com/tuckeranddalevsevil/

Kidnapped (IFC Midnight, 85 minutes, Unrated, DVD): Brazen, brutal, breathtaking. It’s rare that a genre film, especially one for a genre as played out as the Home Invasion thriller, not only captures the imagination but consistently surprises the viewer with unexpected twists, a depth of character development rarely seen and a seriously shocking ending that hits home like a double axe-handle punch to an unsuspecting gut.

“Kidnapped” is all of that, and more.

Writer/director Miguel Ángel Vivas and co-writer Javier García take every established/expected plot device and turn it into something truly memorable.

The setup is simple: A businessman, his wife and daughter are moving into a new home. The family dynamic is nothing surprising, mom and daughter bicker over the young girl attending a party, she runs to her Dad, he gives in and says OK.

Just as dinner is about to be spoiled by a family fight, someone crashes through the plate glass window in the hallway. Two more men wait outside the front door.

“Kidnapped” is like a well-trained distance runner. It moves with such fluid economy, maintaining a ridiculously high level of tension, that you literally feel tired from sitting so coiled on the couch, anticipating each dreadful development. Vivas and Garcia trick you at every turn with unexpected moments that allow you to contemplate how you would react, how you would respond. More often than not, you find yourself frustrated with the father, his wife and their daughter. You fight the urge to sympathize with the thieves who seem sincere in their desire not to hurt anyone as long as everyone listens and follows a basic set of rules.

The film’s third act is one of the best sleight of hand performance you’ve ever seen. You may believe you know how it will end. But you will be wrong. So wrong.

This is a major statement from a director who previously was best known for a series of short films in his home country of Spain. You will want to keep up with Vivas. There’s no telling what he might do to us next.

Chillerama (Image, 120 minutes, Unrated, Blu-Ray): I was so excited to see “Chillerama,” the ode to drive-in creature features, exploitation Nazi films and 1950s-era teen dramas and musicals.

But the truth is, while their love for movies is super evident, the final print that up-and-coming directors Adam Green, Joe Lynch, Tim Sullivan and Adam Rifkin deliver is half-baked, at best.

And that’s not a fun thing to write because I had such high hopes.

The idea is a wonderful one – make an anthology film about the last night in the life of a once popular drive-in theater where the theater owner decides to subject his patrons to a series of cult classic films without knowing that a zombie outbreak is happening down below the projection room.

Each of the films represents a satirical and often campy take on an old classic. There’s “Wadzilla,” based on the atomic creature features of the 1950s and 60s like “Them!” only this time the monster is a giant sperm. “I Was a Teenage Werebear” is the Douglas Sirk/Beach Blanket Bingo entry that somehow manages to splice together the bold visual style of Sirk with the fun musical numbers of an Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello film with the 1960s camp of horror films like “I Was A Teenage Frankenstein,” only it’s really a gay coming of age tale. “The Diary of Anne Frankenstein” combines the exploitative nature of films like “Ilsa, She-Wolf of the S.S.” with the classic cautionary tale of “Frankenstein,” only Adolf Hitler is the mad scientist trying to create a monster, Meshugannah, to destroy all Jews.

The three films all play within the context of a fourth film, “Zom-B-Movie,” which chronicles the undead outbreak at the drive-in.

The problem with “Chillerama” is that two of the four directors, Rifkin and Sullivan, while offering strong ideas, fall flat on execution. Rifkin’s “Wadzilla” is not unlike his cult favorite “The Dark Backward.” It’s interesting and kind of edgy, but it’s not nearly as good as you want it to be.

Sullivan’s “Werebear” has funny moments, kitschy songs and campy special effects. It’s better than his last film, “2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams,” but it too just doesn’t rise to the level of greatness that you keep hoping it will.

Green and Lynch are the two stalwarts here, and they very nearly elevate “Chillerama” to cult status.

It’s no surprise. They have shown the best chops to date in their careers. Green is capable of making really good thrillers like “Frozen” and really good slashers like “Hatchet,” but nothing he’s tried yet has shown as much promise as his first feature, the incredibly claustrophobic and open to interpretation “Spiral.” Green teams up again with Joel David Moore as Hitler for “Anne Frankenstein,” and it’s pretty much a riot. Of all the films, “Anne Frankenstein” most resembles a long-lost drive-in classic. Kristina Klebe plays Eva Braun as a sexpot nympho with a heaving bosom, and Kane Hodder is hysterical as Meshugannah with his Orthodox payot and traditional black hat.

Lynch only has one feature to his credit, but it’s a good one, the exceptional sequel “Wrong Turn 2: Dead End,” and he’s got “Knights of Badassdom” on tap for 2012. His “Zom-B-Movie” is a fun, gory take on classic walking dead films with a pervert’s eye for the sexed-up nature of drive-in theaters. And that’s a compliment. There’s necrophilia, gobs of blue goop that infects and animates the undead and a very sweet story of two young lovers hoping to lose their virginity to each other amid the zombie insurrection.

“Chillerama” is a fun movie, one that is definitely worth your time. It’s got gags galore, boobs, unsafe sex, monsters and a host of cameo appearances by some of your favorite B-movie stars. The only reason this isn’t a more glowing critique is because I personally was hoping it would be even more, a new standard for anthology films, a cult classic the likes of “The Evil Dead” or “Re-Animator,” and it’s not. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s just a case of what could have been.

30 Minutes or Less (Sony, 83 minutes, R, Blu-Ray): “Zombieland” helmer Ruben Fleischer returns with his second feature, “30 Minutes or Less,” reteaming with Jesse Eisenberg for an action comedy about a slacker stoner pizza delivery driver who gets forced into robbing a bank by a pair of would-be criminal masterminds who strap a bomb to his chest. That Danny McBride plays the criminal ringleader, you know you’re in for a raunchy, irreverent ride, and “30 Minutes” does not disappoint. Also along for the ride is Aziz Ansari, as Eisenberg’s best friend, and he’s hysterical, stealing almost every scene he’s in, and Nick Swardson, the “Reno 911” veteran, and longtime Adam Sandler collaborator.

Friends with Benefits (Sony, 109 minutes, R, Blu-Ray): Here’s the problem with “Friends with Benefits”: It’s got no edge. Zip. Zero. It turns out to be dull as an old razor blade after promising to be something sharp and fresh. Some of the jokes are funny, but few connect above a chuckle. It tries too hard to be cute. There’s a whole lot of skin to be shown, but the very noticeable edits make you wonder, did I just see Mila Kunis’ butt or a body double? Justin Timberlake isn’t shy about showing off his bare butt. That’s good because his acting here is four steps back from the progress he showed in “The Social Network.” To say I was disappointed throughout is an understatement.

Also Available:

Vampires

The Wave

The Smurfs

One Day

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Mission Impossible: The ’88 TV Season

The Future

5 Days of War

Needle

Look: Season One

Another Earth

The Art of Getting By

Smallville: The Complete Series (See 2011 Holiday Gift Guide)

The Girls Next Door: The Complete Series (See 2011 Holiday Gift Guide)

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